5 Issues Every Business Owners Should Discuss With An Accountant

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Hiring a business accounting services provider to assist you should be about more than making sure all your numbers line up. Business accounting skills extend into a lot of domains, and you can benefit from talking about these 5 topics with a professional.

The Financial Health of Your Company

Analyzing what all the numbers mean is arguably more important than just having them recorded. Is your company growing? What are the headwinds in your industry? How will you approach these concerns? An accountant can help you chart things out, giving you a sense of how things project to go over the coming years. They can even help you game out different scenarios, such as what would happen in a bad macroeconomic situation like a recession.

Managing Risk

Business accountants can also assist their clients in assessing risk. For example, they help businesses figure out how much insurance they require and whether their policies ought to be updated accordingly. Similarly, a company's exposure to potentially damaging events, such as being sued or accused of fraud, needs to be assessed. Business accounting can help you quantify the risks and judge how to confront them.

Compliance

Staying on the right side of the law is often about making sure you're handling specific issues in specific ways. If your company issues securities, for example, there will be a set of reporting requirements that accompany that. It's essential to get the details of the reports right and to inform stakeholders of what they're dealing with in terms of opportunities and risks.

You'll also have to comply with tax laws. This includes filings that are required by local, state, and federal agencies. If you have certain types of employees or contractors, for example, you'll want to make sure they're accurately classified and that you're handling payroll withholding the right way. Many businesses also have to collect sales tax and submit it on a quarterly basis.

Technology

Modern business accounting is heavy with software like QuickBooks and Xero. Similarly, many of these systems are tied to inventory control and sales systems. It's wise to consult with an accountant before committing to an entire tech ecosystem.

Practices

The how of business accounting is also extremely important. Companies need to make a variety of decisions, such as picking between cash accounting and accrual. This can make a major difference when you take charges on losses and report profits. Likewise, your audit risk often tracks the practices you use.

For more information, reach out to local business accounting services

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