Do you ever wonder if hiring an accountant early is necessary? You’d expect us to be a little bit biased on this topic because, well, we’re accountants but we want to approach every subject objectively. If you’re a fresh business owner with a new start-up, you are probably weighing the pros and cons of taking on different business expenses like hiring an Accountant or bookkeeper.

Some business owners are not always equipped to handle finances. Especially when you have many other tasks fighting for your attention and your finances aren’t an area where you want to make a mistake. Here are some reasons we think it’s crucial to hire an accountant or bookkeeper early on in your business venture: 

·         Accountants are trained professionals who know what they’re doing

·         They will save you time and money

·         They are more than just number crunchers 

Accountants are a smart business expense 

A business has a lot of technical and financial details that go along with making sure it operates smoothly. Even the slightest data entry error, like a decimal in the wrong place, could come back and negatively impact you. This is especially important when filing your taxes, errors usually cause red flags that signal the IRS and could prompt an audit. A crucial part of an accountant’s job is to make sure all the recordkeeping is done accurately and error-free.

Accountants can save you time and money 

Accountants are trained to help businesses; they want to see your business succeed. One way that your accountant will help you accomplish this is by looking at your unrealized savings. For example, your accountant usually reviews your monthly expenses to see if there is room to cut expenses or create new ideas to streamline your recordkeeping so that it saves you time. 

When tax time approaches, it’ll be your accountant sifting through your company’s financials to find any possible tax credit or deduction, which will leave you free to focus on other areas of your company. This is one of the major advantages of hiring an accountant early so that they can dictate your company’s financials while you focus on the growth and operation of your business. 

Accountants are more than number crunchers 

That’s right – Accountants probably spent most of their college days crunching numbers but indeed, they are more than number crunchers! Accountants can help with a wide variety of daunting tasks from applying for business financing to liquidating assets and paying off liabilities should you decide to sell your company someday. 

As with every true Pro and Con list, we must share the downsides as well. Here are some reasons you shouldn’t hire an accountant early:

·         They can be expensive

·         There’s no 100% guarantee prohibiting mistakes

·         Losing Touch 

Accountants aren’t free 

As with most services offered by professionals these days, you must pay for an expert opinion or work. Depending on how much cash flow your business has, the expense of an accountant could be a real budget buster. The average cost to hire an accountant is about $65 per hour. Their base of pay varies depending on the services you need. 

Accountants are humans, too 

Like everyone else, Accountants are human. Humans are bound to make mistakes at some point. Financial mistakes, if small, can usually be fixed quickly and they are no big deal. But on a bigger scale, that mistake could be a disaster. For example, if your accountant is uploading all your data to your accounting software, and a massive expense doesn’t transfer. This could make you miss out on a valuable tax deduction, making your tax liability higher than it needs to be. 

It’s easy to lose touch 

Handing off your company’s accounting to someone else makes sense when you don’t have a lot of time, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to take a completely hands-off approach. If your accountant is doing all the heavy lifting, it’s still your responsibility as the owner to check in and make sure everything is going okay. The relationship between you and your accountant should be more of a partnership.

Our Thoughts 

Now that we’ve discussed the Pros and Cons of Hiring an Accountant Early, we’d like to stress how important this topic is. Even though an Accountant may be expensive, could make mistakes, or it could be easy to lose touch with your business…Hiring one early on in your business will save you a headache and loads of stress down the road. An accountant is going to know the ins and outs of business operations. Specifically, finances. 

If your finances are running smoothly, chances are, you are going to be equipped with the information you need to make any important business decisions at any time. Are you going to be applying for a PPP Loan during the Covid-19 pandemic? If you are or have you know the value of having an accountant on your team. Accountants will keep everything up to date on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis and this is crucial for running a successful business.