Who should be doing your small business accounting? Do you keep it in house or should you hire someone? How much will it cost me? These are all questions every small business owner encounters at some point. Here we’ll provide a few insights to help you decide what is right for you.
A few times an accountant may be useful include:
- During your business plan & company formation
- When you are filling out a loan application
- When you are being audited by the IRS
Sometimes you don’t need a full time accountant, you just need to consult one for a couple of hours. Sometimes you just need a particular task done. Other times it may be a good idea to hire a firm on a monthly retainer basis. These are all dependent on your needs.
How Do I Make The Decision That’s Best For Me?
The first thing to do is calculate the opportunity cost of doing something yourself. For instance, if your time is worth $50/hr and whatever you need done will take you 10 hours to do, that’s a $500 opportunity cost. That’s some expensive small business accounting.
If you can hire an accountant to do it for you for $250, it’s well worth the investment. Not to mention the hassle you’ll be saving yourself.
If your task is complex and has long lasting implications, it’s probably the time to hire an accountant. A good example is, like mentioned above, when you choose the legal structure of your business.
There are many tax implications & liability implications that go along with this decision if you choose the wrong one. If you want some resources on what entity is best, you can see this article here.
If you have a complex vendor structure, or many different customers, you’ll probably want an accountant’s help. They can help you keep track of who owes you what, what you owe whom, and when it all comes due.
This can be very important, as a lack of cash flow NOT a lack of revenues is much of the reason small businesses fail. Making mistakes in this regard can be absolutely fatal.
An accountant is probably not needed for your small business accounting if you only have a few customers with very loose payment terms (when the bill is due) and a simple tax structure. You should always consider hiring an accountant for a business plan or loan application though. These functions are vital to any business’s success and take experience to handle & present correctly.
What We Do To Help
We here at Cash Tax & Accounting specialize in helping small businesses in all areas that accountants have expertise in. We are a local, friendly business. More importantly, we know how to save you money & time when it comes to the tough stuff.
Feel free to give us a call or submit a contact form and we’ll get in touch with you about how we can save you money!