With the ability to change your small business for the better, when you find the right accounting and bookkeeping service, you won’t want to let them go! But, that doesn’t mean that all such services are created equally, and when looking for an experienced and qualified accountant in Surrey with plenty to bring to the table, there are certain services you should expect them to provide you with:
1. Preparation of financial statements
These can be an incredibly valuable tool for business owners, lenders, potential investors and company stakeholders. Used to help them track expenses and revenue, as well as giving them a clearer picture of the businesses financial health, your chosen accounting and bookkeeping service should be able to provide you with financial statements including a monthly income statement (P & L), monthly balance sheet, and cash flow report.
2. Preparation and planning of taxes
Unless you’re a tax expert – and most small business owners aren’t – preparing and planning taxes can be complex and time consuming. A good accounting service should fully understand all tax laws, be up-to-date with tax compliance, and know everything there is to know about tax planning.
While tax preparation happens once a year and can be carried out with a couple of meetings, either in-person or remotely, tax planning is a whole different kettle of fish. An ongoing process, the goal of tax planning is to ensure that your business is making the most of its tax savings, and reducing the number of penalties it incurs, and your accountant will need to work with you throughout the year in order to achieve this.
3. Financial reporting and analysis
By looking at the financial data of your business in the following 3 ways:
- Horizontally – when it’s compared to information from the previous 2 or 3 years that’s similar
- Vertically – when the effects of line items on a company’s different departments are compared
- Ratio – when the financial health of a company is compared over time to similar companies within the industry
an experienced CPA can provide you with invaluable insights into your businesses strengths and weaknesses, and help you plan more effectively for future opportunities in growth.
4. Business tax compliance
It should be a given that a responsible and skilled accounting service will keep themselves abreast of all changes to tax laws, at all times; anything less simply isn’t acceptable.
5. Payroll processing
It can be really helpful to have a team of accounting and bookkeeping professionals on board to help you run payroll successfully. Instead of relying on an online payroll service giving you access to their software, it’s always better to have people that you can access easily and talk to in person, should any issues arise with processing payroll.
6. Budgeting and forecasting
Showing you how a business can be expected to perform over a certain period, small business budgeting is essential for healthy growth, while forecasts make use of cost data and real-life sales to show where a business is actually heading. Both are of equal importance, and being able to look at historical data and create reliable financial forecasts from the information, is very important, and something a good accounting service should be able to do for you.
7. Cashflow management
Pertaining to how money from your business is moved in and out, cashflow can be incredibly difficult to do well, but it’s incredibly important. With experienced bookkeeping services in Surrey, you should be able to rely on them to help you put workable strategies in place to maintain a positive cashflow at all times.
If you’re investing money in a local accounting service, you ought to be able to expect a certain standard from them, and be able to reasonably assume that they will try and help you save money. And, if they offer you the services listed above, there’s every chance that they will.
