Hiring an Accountant: What Small Businesses Need to Know

Allow them to prepare your financial documents while you focus on more pressing responsibilities. Accountants can go beyond taxes and assist with bookkeeping for your business as often as you need. Talk to your team, see what their needs are too and draft up a list of responsibilities. Ever heard of a “Cash Flow Statement” or a “Profit and Loss Report”?

• But if it does happen to you it can be expensive, stressful and time-consuming.
• Now that you have an overview of some of the pre-employment skills tests TestGorilla provides, you can determine how to use them when hiring an accountant.
• Accounting software can continue to help your small business well after tax season by helping with daily bookkeeping tasks, tracking expenses and inputting payroll data.
• Look for someone who can easily list industry publications, websites, or other means for learning about changes to tax code and financial legislation.
• An accountant will put your company’s financial records in order and produce statements of accounts that you can show to prospective buyers.
• Finally, consider whether the applicant has experience in your specific industry or with similar accounting tasks.
• They can significantly add to your bottom line by setting up and structuring financial plans and operations efficiently.
• Say you need a bookkeeper today, but you know that tax season is coming up.

Signs that it’s time to hire an accountant include increasing revenue, expanding operations, dealing with complicated tax issues or simply feeling overwhelmed by financial tasks. The next step when finding a small business accountant is to research accountants in your area. Keep in mind that hiring a virtual or remote accountant is always a possibility.

Define the five most important skills

When reviewing applications, pay close attention to candidates’ educational backgrounds, certifications and relevant work experience. Additionally, look for things such as attention to detail, analytical thinking and strong communication skills. Finally, consider whether the applicant has experience in your specific industry or with similar accounting tasks. The knowledge that accountants have about a company’s financial picture also allows them to identify potential cost savings and revenue growth opportunities.

Knowing how to hire an accountant includes thinking about your business needs, determining if a full-time hire is necessary, and asking the right questions when interviewing a candidate. But in the end, you’ll hire an accountant you can truly count on. Entry level accountants with 2-3 years of bookkeeping or general accounting experience. In addition to doing bookkeeping duties they can prepare financial reports and fill out tax forms under the supervision of the controller. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a freelancer or a small business owner, there will come a time when DIY accounting services are no longer adequate to serve the needs of your growing business. Many ethical small business owners who are operating on shoestring budgets go much longer than is necessary before making the decision to bring in a professional.

Post a job or look for an accounting firm.

Since we mentioned bookkeeping, it is important to say that an accountant and a bookkeeper are not the same person, even if their roles overlap. This way, your accountant can write reports based on the information they have and give you insights into financial forecasts, setting up new prices, and how you’re doing in terms of budgeting. Hiring an accountant will also provide you with the service of tracking and keeping a record of all your business’s transactions.

In a period such as this, hiring an accountant will save you time and plenty of headaches. During the early stages of starting your own business, you won’t need an accountant, https://www.bookstime.com/ especially if your business is still small. Most business owners can get away with paying bills and salaries and keeping everything afloat at the start.

What Is The Difference Between Bookkeeping Vs Accounting?

You want to be as specific as possible, so you can attract professionals who have the skills and experience your business needs. But you don’t want to be so exacting that you alienate promising candidates who, with some training and development, could master the position’s core responsibilities in relatively short order. It’s essential to have a well-thought-out strategy for hiring a senior accountant, as you will likely face vigorous competition for these professionals.

And if you know how a candidate will perform on the job based on their test results, you can offer them even better working conditions, increasing retainability. Here you can find a list of  5 great professional organizations for accountants in the U.S. This way, candidates how to hire an accountant will better understand what your business is about. And if your branding has been done well, more people will want to join your organization. This way, you can match your job posting with candidates who already possess the right skills and technical expertise.

They can look through the franchise contract to find out the fees and percentages charged, then help you estimate your likely income after those costs have been deducted. It’s statistically unlikely that your company will be audited, because there are so many small businesses and relatively few government auditors. But if it does happen to you it can be expensive, stressful and time-consuming. As a small business owner, no doubt one of the things you like best is that you have control. You can set your own working hours, craft your business strategy, regulate your workload (at least to some extent) and determine your own finances.