Is your accountant a bean counter or a benefit to your business?

For small businesses, an accountant is not optional. But does your accountant provide real value, or are they just counting your beans each month? In reality, your accountant should be a strategic partner who adds value to your business, not just another cost.

So how can you tell if you’re dealing with a bean counter?

Does your accountant help with financial planning?

Despite having the skills to help with financial planning, a bean counter is unlikely to share their knowledge and experience to help you set financial goals and get the most out of your business.

More than simply ensuring that your books balance and your tax returns are completed on time, by using historical data analysis, experience and good forecasting techniques, your accountant should be able to help you understand your company cash flow and help you plan your finances into the future.

Does your accountant focus on your success?

Despite having mutual goals (i.e. your success is crucial to their success), some accountants prefer to keep their advice to themselves. By not sharing their experience, your accountant is indirectly helping steer your business into problems. Of course you will learn plenty from each failure, but you will also lose cash.

Ideally, your accountant will take the time to discuss your business plan and goals, and tell you how best to grow your finances to reach them.

Information sharing is a two-way street

Traditional accounting systems are great for keeping accurate financial records, but they are not so great when it comes to sharing information with your accountant – you may have to pay to arrange for remote access to the data, or for someone to carry out routine book balancing on-site. If your accountant encourages you to keep using such systems, there’s a good chance that they are a bean counter.

Modern, cloud-based accounting systems like Xero provide access to you and your accountant quickly and efficiently. Using these tools, you can both monitor the finances throughout the month and your accountant can provide advice in real-time, making operations more efficient.

Does your accountant look for new innovations?

Being stuck in the past, bean-counting accountants do not stay up-to-date with new accounting and business innovations, so they are generally unable to recommend new systems or ways of working. However, if your accountant is genuinely interested in helping your business grow, he/she will actively seek out new technologies or processes that will save you money or help streamline your operations.

The difference between a bean counter and a business-friendly accountant is their willingness to share their knowledge and experience with clients where they see a genuine business benefit.

A healthy relationship between a business and an accountant is built on a mutual interest in the business’ ongoing financial success.