Why You Must Find Your Business a Forward Looking Accountant
Last years numbers are so last year. They are great if you need some finance and yes, you a business that relies on budgets, you need to put your actuals up against them but if your Accountant is focused just on telling you what has happened, you may be missing opportunities. Working with a forward focused Accountant can help your business when times get tough and guide you through uncertain times and during periods of increased costs and growing interest rates.
So, what does a proactive partnership with an Accountant look like?
In times of inflationary pressure or rising interest rates, most business will react by purely focusing on surviving. Needing to find short term solutions for rising costs in your business is a common cycle that many business owners face and is usually a symptom of not planning correctly. If your only interaction with you Accountant is to sign a set of Financials Statements that reflect what happened 12 months ago, you are missing the opportunity to create a buffer in your business for when the economy turns against you. A proactive partnership with your Accountant should look beyond what is happening right now, create targets, benchmarks and plans for your cashflow. A proactive Accountant also understand how your business works so they can give accurate advice. Something that is not possible if you are working with a reactive Accountant. All business owners seek growth and stability which can’t be achieved if you are constantly having to react to short term pressures.
What can your Accountant to help you achieve this stability?
Cashflow and Budgeting
This is essential for any business. You can’t create a buffer with a plan or a budget. With your head done working in your business it can sometimes be difficult to keep track of your spending or managing your debtors. Collaborating with your Accountant to create a budget will more often than not highlight patterns of spending, identify cost savings and also improve your debtor days. A proactive Accountant can improve your cashflow and help build a buffer to combat rising costs.
Tax Planning
Who wants to pay more tax than they must. Once you get together you information to send off to your Accountant after the end of the financial year you tax outcome is already settled. It is too late for any kind of tax planning. What better way to improve your cashflow than to be minimising how much tax you must pay. Sit down with your Accountant with enough time before the end of the financial year to develop and implement a solid tax planning strategy.
Business Structure Review
All businesses evolve over time. As they grow, the business structure that was appropriate at the start might not be now or in the future. Consistently assessing if you are using the right structures is essential. You can collaborate with your Accountant to not only review your current structure but to also get an understanding of what events might impact the suitability of your structure in the future.
Virtual CFO
Engaging your Accountant as a Virtual CFO is engaging them as member of your team. Who better to be looking at your numbers than your Accountant. This allows your Accountant to give the most accurate and timely advice. In this role, your Accountant can get an in depth understanding of your business, develop and adapt strategic plans on the go. All with the future and growth of your business in mind. A Virtual CFO can:
Ensure accurate management reporting for decision making
Quickly identify problems and opportunities
Free you to focus on growing your business
be a wealth of knowledge to help run your business
Are you getting the most out of your Accountant? If your business is consistently reacting and looking at past results, you may not be. A forward-looking accounting partner can help you build your business towards stability, growth, and freedom from an increased cost of running your business.
Simply saying your great accountants is nothing more than a bold claim. At Fox Group, we walk the talk. And while we're committed to keeping up with the latest tax and superannuation laws and legislation, to be a truly valuable partner for our clients, we believe it takes much more than that. It requires an investment in time to understand your business and your industry. It requires being available and accountable. It means measuring our success against yours.
If you're looking for an accounting partner who's more than just a bold claim, then call the team at Fox Group today.
