4 Ways Accountant Can Help Your Small Start-Up
If you’re at the early stages of your entrepreneurial journey, you are probably thinking whether it’s worth engaging a professional accountant for your start-up now. Given that your annual accounts or tax returns may not need to be prepared for many months yet, it’s very tempting to leave it till later. This should save you some money, shouldn’t it?
But even if you don’t have any fast-approaching statutory reporting deadlines, there are other benefits of working with an accountant in your early stages. It can bring both financial and business benefits and help you do the things right and grow your business.
Here’s some ways a professional accountant can help your small start-up:
An accountant can help you choose and set-up accounting software
Your tax return deadline may still be far away but not doing bookkeeping throughout the year and leaving this just before the year-end is always a time-consuming and stressful job. And it will be more expensive if you engage an accountant at the very last minute. Talking to a professional accountant for a start-up now will save you money, hassle and help get all the processes correct and smooth straight from the beginning. As accountants work with accounting software on a regular basis, they will be able to advice on the best package as well and flag any features your business may need and these that will be unnecessary saving you money at the same time.
An accountant for a start-Up can help you save time
If you engage a professional accountant for your start-up now, they can help you set up efficient processes for your bookkeeping. This is very beneficial if you want to do the bookkeeping yourself and save on hiring a professional bookkeeper at this stage. Here at Joanna Bookkeeping we’ve seen business owners drowning in paperwork, jumping between various systems and not having time for actually acquiring new clients and growing their businesses. Chatting to a professional accountant about your processes and improvements can have invaluable benefits.
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An accountant can make you aware of the most important aspects of running a business
You may not need regular support from an accountant if you’ve just started your business. And this is absolutely fine. But you should at least know the most important things about running a business including how and when to pay taxes, your legal responsibilities as a business owner, how to take money out of the business, what is tax deductible and what isn’t and many more. Not being aware of certain thing can have tax implications and incur penalties. You can read about some things on the internet but without experience, it can be sometimes really difficult to assess what is relevant to you meaning you could be wasting lots of time and potentially risking not getting the right advice. A professional accountant for a start-up can offer a one-off advice which overall will be cheaper than regular monthly support but will give you good basis for doing the things correctly.
An accountant can train you in using accounting software
We’ve said this many times in our other articles, but we feel it’s important to stress this again. Accounting software can be only as good as a person that uses it. If accounting software is managed by a person who isn’t an accountant or bookkeeper and has no accounting knowledge or experience, the information in it will be incorrect and unreliable. This will affect your decision-making and potentially your tax situation as well. Although being trained in using accounting software is a paid service, overall, it’s cheaper to do this than trying to figure out things yourself and then ending up with lots of messy entries. We’ve had clients coming to us after many months and unfortunately, clean-up work can be quite costly. If you want to avoid this, hire a professional accountant for a start-up now to provide you with accounting software training.
Accountant can help you make the right decisions
They can do it by providing bespoke reports, suggesting reporting solutions or building bespoke templates that you could use in your business. When you are limited in terms of cash and don’t have many clients yet, it’s very important you monitor your finances very closely. A professional accountant can help with this on a regular basis or as a one-off service.
These are just a few ways a professional accountant can help your small start-up. If you think you require more support, whether it’s a regular or a one-off support, it’s best to schedule an initial consultation with an accountant and let them know about your plans. They will be able to suggest the best services. If you want to talk to us, book the initial chat with our Oxford accountant via our booking calendar.
Frequently Asked Questions
Prices for accounting services usually depend on a comlexity of a service required and a complexity of your business. That's why lots of accountants don't provide their prices on their website. It's not an indication of an expensive service but the fact that each business is different and the same tax return for one business can be easier and for another much more complex. Depending on what accounting services you require, most accountants will give you a personalised quote tailored to your individual needs. So they will take into account things like volume of transactions, your turnover, stage of your business etc. We would recommend you book an initial meeting with an accountant you'd like to work with, so you can let them know about your business and plans. They'll be able to provide you with a personalised quote. These meetings are very valuable as they not only help an accountant assess your situation but it's also a great opportunity to meet someone you could be working with for many years. Please also remember that a cost is not only a financial cost. When assessing whether to appoint a professional accountant for your start-up, take into account the benefits of doing it, the consequences of not doing it and savings that you can see in the future.
Your Accountant in Oxford
Oxford Office
Joanna Bookkeeping
The Wheelhouse Angel Court
First Floor, Angel Court
81 St Clements St
Oxford
OX4 1AW
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joanna@joannabookkeeping.co.uk
01865 591952
