what's inside and what can you use?
Have you ever left your accountant's office thinking to yourself, What the hell did he just say? or Did he even get what I was trying to say? Business owners and accountants seem to speak two entirely different languages.
In the following series, I'm going to address several issues that business owners have with their accountants - mainly communication and the various tools that you can use for your business, that you didn't know were in your accountant's tool bag.
A carpenter standing before an empty lot can build a beautiful home. However, that home is not built over night, nor is it built by just a hammer. Many things can be built with just a hammer, but the truly amazing homes, the ones that catch the eye of any pedestrian as they walk by, were built utilizing many specialized tools. So it is with a business owner building and running their enterprise, day in and day out.
In the following series, I'm going to address several issues that business owners have with their accountants - mainly communication and the various tools that you can use for your business, that you didn't know were in your accountant's tool bag.
A carpenter standing before an empty lot can build a beautiful home. However, that home is not built over night, nor is it built by just a hammer. Many things can be built with just a hammer, but the truly amazing homes, the ones that catch the eye of any pedestrian as they walk by, were built utilizing many specialized tools. So it is with a business owner building and running their enterprise, day in and day out.
A carpenter automatically knows they need a hammer to build a house, just like an entrepreneur knows they need a tax return. Like a hammer, a tax return is the most basic tool that the CPA can offer to their clients, however, the accountant's tool bag offers many other specialized tools that business owners can pick from to build their masterpiece business. Unfortunately, due to communication breakdown, either business owners say there is no way they are going to let that egg head into their business but once a year for that tax return or CPAs don't tell their clients about the other tools.
In this series of posts, I will cover some of the different tools:
- Financial Statements
- Explain the four different levels of financial statements, advantages and disadvantages, and ideas of when it is best to get a CPA drafted financial statement.
- How does a CPA read a financial statement and what those ratios mean that the accountant keeps spitting out.
- Advisory Services
- What are advisory services verse compliance services that your accountant talks about.
- Pain Points
- How an accountant can help analyze business processes and create better efficiency.
- Business Valuations
- What business valuations are and when you might need one.
- Estate and Transition Planning
- Why it is so important to have an idea on how you are going to transition your business to the next generation and start planning for it.
- Industry Averages and Trends
- How to use averages and trends to benchmark how your business is doing.
- Budgeting
- Why is budgeting and forecasting important and how to use them.
- New Accounting Services Costing
- There is a new trend for accounting firms to sell services like a product, I will describe this new idea and how you can talk to your accountant to move to this model.
- A List of Accounting Terms
- Does your accountant keep using terms you don't understand such as GAAP or Generally Accepted Accounting Principles? I will further explain what this term and more, as well as what they actually mean.
- Why accountants push different software
- Ever wonder why your accountant pushes you to use QuickBooks, Sage, or another software? Do they get a kickback? I will talk about the different versions and why your accountants pushes you to use one or another.
Keep reading as more topics will be added to this series. To be continued...
