Running your landscaping business comes with many challenges – staffing, serving your clients well, working on design and upkeep, repairing machinery, and more. Your business reaches a point where you cannot be the person doing all of these tasks.
The people you depend on to keep your business running smoothly are invaluable, and it’s crucial to know that they’re doing their jobs and doing them well.
As nice as it is to be on autopilot and know that there are people cleaning your office spaces, doing your bookkeeping, or mowing lawns, you do need to take a good look at how well they’re doing those jobs periodically and make sure working with them is still a good fit.
The accounting firm your business uses is a great example and one that business owners need to have confidence in. When an accounting firm does their job well, the business owner has peace of mind and can focus their energy on other priorities. But what about when you realize things could be better with your bookkeeping and accounting services?
Today, we’re breaking down what you should look for in an accountant and the biggest red flags.
If you’ve ever asked, “What should I actually look for in an accountant? How do I know it’s time to find a new one?”
Keep reading ⤵
The core qualities of a good accountant are:
- Responsiveness
This is possibly the most foundational aspect of working with anyone who is serving your business. In this case, you need to be able to truly rely on the person who is literally managing your company’s finances!
It’s astounding the number of business owners we speak to who don’t hear from their accountants for weeks on end after reaching out with an important question or concern.
The standard for responsiveness should be identified up-front before the engagement begins.
- Keeping books up to date
At AccountSolve our standard is to update QuickBooks weekly.
We know that other firms manage QuickBooks monthly, but we are adamant about our weekly approach. Updating the books weekly allows the most accurate picture of the business’s financial reality to be seen at any time – not a month after the fact. We want the financial data to empower business owners to make informed, intelligent decisions based on closer to real-time data, not month-old information.
We have had clients come to us with books that haven’t been updated in months and are stuck in a backlog – which is a big deal because it means the business owner doesn’t have a realistic idea of what’s actually happening with their money.
If they need to make a significant business decision, like purchasing equipment or hiring a new team member, they won’t have the information they need to make an informed decision.
If your bookkeeper has continual excuses for why your books are backlogged, and it’s hurting your ability to make wise decisions for your company, it’s time to move on.
3. Providing reports regularly
In tandem with the last point, it’s extremely important for your books to be kept up to date and for financial reports to be provided to you every month. This will keep you engaged and informed about your finances without getting deep in the weeds in your bookkeeping platform.
4. General education
This may seem like an odd requirement, but it’s incredibly useful for your accounting provider to incorporate some accounting and bookkeeping education into your working relationship.
That knowledge is their area of expertise, but it’s your business, and you have a right to know what’s going on with your money, to be informed if there’s something you don’t understand, and so on.
This dynamic can be tricky to find because a lot of providers serve simply as data entry clerks who push transactions into certain boxes and don’t think a lot about the implications of how they’re categorizing everything for you.
It’s invaluable to have an accountant who is thoughtful and communicative.
Being informed on what’s happening with your finances is crucial for business owners, but often neglected by accountants.
For example, it’s important that your bookkeeper helps you when something doesn’t seem right with your finances.
You may be keeping tabs on your cash position frequently, but we can provide an unbiased, unemotional look that will help spot patterns, inconsistencies and even unusual transactions that will help improve your decision-making.
The other catch is that while accountants may assume that their clients don’t want their input, clients may assume that if there were problems with their books, their accountant would inform them. But once again, a lack of strong communication can break everything else down over time.
When your accountant establishes a strong flow of communication from the outset, breathe a sigh of relief. They’re more likely to tell you what’s important when it’s happening.
Hiring an accounting firm should not be a “set it and forget it” hire. We encourage you to be curious, ask questions and treat it like an interview. The way they respond to this curiosity will indicate how they’ll respond to your future questions.
Our aim at AccountSolve is to work with our clients in an informative, helpful, and transparent way. We’d love to have a conversation if you’re interested in interviewing our team to start managing your company’s finances.
