How can Accountants help businesses?

All great businesses have a great Accountant behind them. The accountant’s main job is to help the business and the business owner manage their finances as well any financial compliance tasks and taxes. As well as this, the Accountant will also help the business reduce costs, and grow.

The compliance tasks an Accountant can help with

When businesses reach a certain size, it makes sense for them to have a good Accounting practice behind them. Most business owners do not have the experience or the skills to run the compliance Accounting side of their business, to ensure that they are compliant with HMRC and Companies House. The Accountant will also help the business owner choose the right legal entity, such as sole trader, limited company, partnership.  The accountant will also ensure that the business owner’s individual tax returns and the company tax returns are prepared, calculated, and submitted on time in accordance with the regulations of HMRC and Companies House. They will ensure the company is registered for VAT when required to by HMRC. The Accountant will also deal with any HMRC investigations. Other compliance tasks an accountant can help with are things like bookkeeping and dealing with HMRC penalties.  Archimedia accountants based in  Nottingham England can help you with any problems with tax returns or accounting matters.

The tax tasks and tax planning an Accountant can help with

However, an Accountant will also ensure that expert tax planning has been put in place so that the company is capturing or understands its potential tax saving opportunities and is structured in a way to save the most tax going forwards. The accountant will manage the accounting software behind the business and the invoicing software. An Accountant will help the business owner understand their reporting requirements to HMRC, their taxation requirements i.e., taxes such as PAYE and VAT.

Business tasks an Accountant can help with

As well as this, Accountants do a great deal of other tasks. They can help mitigate risk and manage future growth. Every business decision that an owner will make has a financial implication to it, and it is the Accountants job to help the business owner understand the financial implications of these decisions. Accountants will manage stock, the loans of the business, the businesses assets, they will take care of the bookkeeping and the payroll, and ensure the debtors and creditors (i.e., the customers and suppliers that the business owes money to or from) are managed. An Accountant will also help the business raise finance, such as through loans. The accountant will also help the business owner present financial information to financials such as banks or investors. 

How the Accountant can help the business make better business decisions

The accountant can also be an expert in drawing up business plans, i.e., in helping the business owner understand what they want to achieve and how they will achieve it. One important thing an accountant can help with is scenario planning, or financial forecasts as they are called sometimes. Financial forecasts can help the business owner understand the financial implications of their decisions in different scenarios, for example if the business owner wants to set up a new factory, sell to the US, buy new machinery etc, an Accountant will help them understand the cash implications of these decisions, the profit implications of these decisions, and will help them decide where to reduce costs, where to increase costs and where to invest in the business.

How an Accountant helps the business understand its financial performance and performs financial data analysis

An Accountant will also help the business owner understand where they are making the most profit in their business, i.e., which products, customers, locations are making the most profit. With this information the business owner can then decide which products or customers to target the most and which perhaps focus on less. A true business accountant will help businesses grow. 

The different types of Accountant and how they help in different ways

Accountants come in all shapes and sizes. An “internal” accountant or financial controller (as they are sometimes called), is usually employed in house and is used by the business to help report the financial information to all the different departments in the business. An external accountant is used for the compliance tasks and outsourcing any financial needs of the business. Many accountants are Chartered but this is not totally necessary, all that is required is that they are qualified accountants. Examples of professional accounting bodies are AAT (the Association of Accounting Technicians), ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is and ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales).

Harper Harrison

Harper Harrison is a reporter for The Hear UP. Harper got an internship at the NPR and worked as a reporter and producer. harper has also worked as a reporter for the Medium. Harper covers health and science for The Hear UP.