Working efficiently with your accountant

Once you have decided on outsourcing your accounting services and have appointed an accountant, the next phase is finding an efficient way to work together. The objective of getting a professional service provider is so that they can assist your business with its financial administration, reporting and compliance. In order for this objective to be met, you as the entrepreneur needs to play your role as well in assisting the professionals that you have engaged. The role that you play will determine the quality and timing of your reports from the accountants.
To get the most out of your working relationship with your accountant, there are certain disciplines that you need to adopt. Most SMEs will have a junior administrator who can assist with certain tasks and works directly with the accountants in ensuring that they have the information that they require to perform their tasks.

1. Supporting Documentation

You need to have all your purchasing invoices, sales invoices, receipts, assets purchase documents, etc all kept safely for submission to your accountant. Make sure that all documents are in electrical format and saved on your secure drive. With cloud-based technology in place these days it is even easier to share files with third parties. Shared folders can be created (using for example Google Drive, Dropbox, One Drive, etc) and a link can be sent to invite your accountant to a folder where all documents are stored. This saves time on both ends and eliminates back and forth on emails.

2. Petty Cash Management

Some businesses tend to be very relaxed around petty cash as it does not involve large amounts of cash, however, this is one area where financial abuse can be prevalent. You need to have a proper petty cash process where all payments and receipts are well documented. Petty cash transactions must be reconcilable to supporting documentation.

3. Changes in Payroll

Make sure that any changes on your payroll such as new employees, changes in salaries, changes in employee details, etc are communicated with your accountants timeously so that the accountant has time to update your payroll records and any other necessary compliance regulations e.g. Dept of Labour.

4. Changes in the Business

When making operational decisions that will likely affect the finances of the business, it’s best to consult your accountants before implementation as they may have valuable inputs in your decision making. This will also assist them in assessing how best they can service you given the changes in your business.
When in doubt on what to share with or provide to your accountant, the answer is to give them as much as you can and they will decide whether it is relevant or not. It is important to speak the same language as your accountant and the points above will sure create a much better working relationship.
At The Accounting Village, we use the latest cloud-based technology to work as efficiently as we can with our clients. Please contact us here and we would gladly show you how you can take your accounting to the cloud.