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By: Uchenna Ani-okoye

Make Your Accountant Work for Your Business

One complaint that is most heard from clients about accountants that specialise in small business is why they will not help with the running of the business or make suggestions which can be used to improve the running of the business? Unfortunately for these individuals, the industry is setup mainly to provide reports, like your tax returns, to external bodies, like your tax office, and making sure your company meets this statutory requirement is the main priority of accountants and should be for business owners also. While making sure your company meets these requirements is not something you can pick and choose, it will have a huge affect on your business if you decide to focus on creating reports on the activities of your business in such a way that you receive up-to-date business intelligence which you can use to make better management decisions. Here are a few tips that you can use to get your reports working for your business, instead of it being just another burden for you to worry about.

Determine which numbers in your business really matter, then establish whether or not your software package is able to report them.

Consider designing systems that are able to record the most important numbers in your business.

Any newly established system should be easy and quick for you to use.

Make sure all key numbers are reported on weekly basis, if possible.

Your bookkeeper or accountant will help you in setting up those key drivers for your business, however, here are just a few suggestions that you can use to get started with.

Number of new client sales
Number of client leads
Break even and gross profit
Sales of items that are high profit