hiring an accountant for our small charitable organization

How Professional Accounting Helps Your Small Business

While there is software that can help you take care of your finances without a specialist, there are still many ways that an accountant's work can benefit your business. Here are some of the main reasons to hire an accountant, either full-time or on a consulting basis.

Their Expertise Matters

There is only so much that accounting software can do to keep your business on track. Actually, accounting software is best used as a tool to help a specialist do his or her work more efficiently. This is because it can't ensure that you're doing everything else correctly. For example, while the software keeps track of your spending and profits, it doesn't ensure that you've put together a feasible budget for the year. The software can help you prepare taxes, but only a trained accountant's eye can help you spot areas where additional tax deductions could be taken.

It Looks Professional

The work of an accountant is also valuable because of the added layer of professionalism that it provides. Many different people will come in contact with the financial side of your business in their own way. Your clients will do so when they receive proposals from you and when they go to pay their invoices.Vendors will be able to work with you most efficiently if they can speak with a financially savvy representative to take care of payments and negotiate prices. The government will even have their own impression of your business's financial status if they need to audit you; professionally kept records paint a nice picture of your business in many ways. And you might sometimes share financial data with employees; it provides faith in the business when these numbers are presented eloquently. 

It Can Save You Time

Finally, an accounting firm is helpful in that it gives you someone to look to when things get off track financially. It could be that the numbers don't match up how you thought they would at the end of the year. Or maybe some part of the business is in financial trouble. An accountant is there to crunch the numbers, find out where mistakes happened, or figure out ways to make improvements.

In short, although technology has come a long way, there is still no substitute for having a human contact on your team to field financial questions and challenges. And technology has actually made it easier to hire a consultant and seamlessly share your financial documents with them while maintaining a high level of confidentiality and security.


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