#HRConsultants & #Recruitment Professionals? Are you getting the best from your investment in an accountant?

Are you getting the best from your investment in an accountant?

A lot of HR & Recruitment business owners I meet already have accountants. Which makes sense unless you are a new business right?

But does your accountant generate you a return on the money that you invest with them?

Does your accountant really help you with meaningful and valuable support throughout the year with a focus on your objectives and goals, generating you a tangible return with the advice they give?

Compliance vs Advisory

Most accountants provide compliance services. These are the services which keep your business compliant with legislation.

For example, they prepare your year-end accounts and ensure they are accurate. They submit them to HMRC and Companies House on time and tell you how much corporation tax you will need to pay.

They may also do other compliance tasks like vat returns and payroll and even possibly your bookkeeping. That is what most accountants do as a bare minimum.

What does a Management Accountant do?

A management accountant is one who does all the compliance work but doesn't really spend much time talking about it.

You see compliance accounts are not really very meaningful to you as the business owner, after all the data in them could be up to 21 months old. 

Instead, a management accountant will focus on the future of your business, building a meaningful partnership with you to really get to understand how your business works. By understanding your goals and objectives on a deep and meaningful level they can really provide something that can change your life!

How can that happen?

By being a virtual partner and spending time talking about what keeps you awake at night and exploring the challenges you face. Most importantly, coming up with some solutions that suit you and your business, most importantly - helping you implement them.

As an industry we call this advisory services as we are advising you on the best route to solve your challenges.

Common challenges

If your accountant specialises in your sector, then they really understand how to help you because they see the same challenges over and over again. Everyone's objectives are slightly different, but they tend to boil down to three categories:

1.    The need to increase profits and cashflow.

2.    The desire to spend more time outside of work.

3.    Having someone who really gets their challenges and helps them to solve them.

Getting the 3rd one right is the start to solving the 1st and 2nd.

Ongoing Relationship

Do you only meet with your accountant once a year and talk about your accounts that are up to 21 months old?

Yes, it's great to know how your business performed last year but what about right now?

Especially right now in 2021!

You need an ongoing relationship that is a partnership, helping plan and implement your objectives on a regular basis.

You need an expert on your side who is there for you - and not charging you by the hour for every single inter-action you may have!

Especially when the business climate is as uncertain as it is now!

Sound expensive?

So you would really value that proactive relationship going forward to help build your business, increasing your profits and giving you back more time?

But you are already paying your accountant a small fortune to do nothing much?

I have great news for you!

A truly proactive service is the way the job SHOULD be done.

By working with the client and helping them to implement solutions the business is more profitable, and the HR or Recruitment business owner is less stressed.

In addition, they can pay themselves properly and spend more time away from the business. There shouldn't be a huge extra expense for doing the job properly.

Getting the financial systems right in your business also helps your accountant, as the numbers are always current and accurate. Your accountant can more easily use those numbers to help you meet your objectives. And spend more time discussing proactive planning for you and less time counting the beans.

What next?

Why not book in a complimentary 15 minute discovery call with us, where you can talk us through where you are now, where you want to be, and what's stopping you getting there?

This is where we always start with a client – we call it a discovery call as it helps us both to discover quickly if we are a good fit for each other.

If we decide we are, then a complimentary strategy session can follow going deep into the issues you have.

Why not find out more? Book a discovery call with us