Five signs you should hire an accounting firm

When is the right time to hire an accounting firm? The answer is, when you have sufficient funds to pay accountants to help you out. However, you need to choose the right accountants you can trust with your financial information. The right accountants should at least have these two qualities:

• The right accountants should be qualified and experienced. In most cases, they have completed their articles with one of these big 4’s firms – KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst & Young or PwC.
• They are registered with recognised accounting bodies such as SAICA RA, SAIPA, Sait, etc.

Every business owner has a responsibility to keep healthy financials. This doesn’t happen without recording all financial transactions properly, paying creditors and payroll on time, and meeting all your tax obligations. Outsourcing your accounting duties makes the aforementioned possible. Also, accountants will help you gather the necessary data that will allow you to build a roadmap to your business success.

Let’s examine five signs you should a hire an accounting firm.

1. Your business is growing faster

Seeing the business you started growing with leaps and bounds could be exciting to any entrepreneur. However, if your business is growing faster than you expected it may require you to reconsider how you are operating it; which includes introducing new tools or hiring more skills.

If your business is growing at this unexpected speed, it may also mean money is flowing in and out faster than before. For instance, you are getting more sales but not every customer is paying cash. At this point you can no longer handle bookkeeping, it has become too much for you.  So, it’s time to hire an accounting firm that can:

• Record all your accounts receivables properly.
• Record all your accounts payables properly.
• Balance all your accounts.
• Do your bank reconciliation monthly.
• Prepare financial statements for you.

2. Your bookkeeping is getting too complex

 In the early days of running your business, it was fairly easy to do everything on your own.  From operations to doing basic bookkeeping; and all your creditors were paid on time. For quite some time everything seemed to run smoothly; and all your creditors were happy. You kept files and captured all your transactions on the Excel spreadsheet.

However, lately things have come to a head. You have many unpaid invoices, there are payments coming through that you are not sure where they come from. Things get insanely hectic for you on month ends, and you find yourself paying your employees three days later. Furthermore, there is an increasing number of unpaid bills sitting on your table. The only time you remember about those bills is when your creditors call you to demand payment. There may also be an increase in your sales while your profitability stays the same.

All the above are signs that it’s about time you start looking for an accounting firm. A company that can help you remedy this by looking at how your debts are structured and make recommendations accordingly.

3. You struggle to balance work and family

You know that you need to delegate your accounting duties when you spend less and less time with your family.  Since you don’t trust anyone, you thought doing all the bookkeeping yourself was a great idea? Or are you one of those people who believes that they don’t need an accountant? What you don’t realise is that hiring a qualified accountant can save you time and money.

Family must come first, or nothing else matters. By putting the happiness of your family first, you will be assured your own happiness too. Tackling bookkeeping duties just after everyone one has left the office won’t guarantee that happiness.

Let accounting experts free up your time to be with your family.  

4. You are overpaying SARS

Do you have a strong suspicion that you are overpaying SARS? Well, you are not alone suspecting this.  Almost every entrepreneur feels that way sometimes. The only way to confirm if you are indeed overpaying SARS is by hiring an accounting firm. Accountants will also shed some light on how much you should be paying to SARS. In a situation where you are owing a huge tax bill, an accountant can advise on the best ways of settling that bill.

5. You have hired admin clerk to do bookkeeping

Have you made a mistake of hiring an Admin Clerk who doubles up as a bookkeeper?  You must have hired this person because you trust him/her or you thought she/he can handle all the bookkeeping and payroll.

Before it dawns on you what a blunder you have made, everything will seem fine. Only after a few months will you notice that your unqualified bookkeeper is buckling under pressure. Either the accounts won’t balance, or there will be something terribly wrong with the way the transactions are recorded.

The only way to rectify or avoid this is by hiring only registered accountants to do your accounting work. Never compromise on that.

 The sooner you do that, the better. Reach out to one of our qualified accountants today.

Drop us an email here: info@mgt-accounting.co.za