Having an accountant is one of the best choices you can make for your business, whether you’re a start-up enterprise or have been in the industry for a while. The thing is, whilst you may want to do everything yourself, there comes a point when you simply cannot handle everything on your own – and this includes your accounting and bookkeeping tasks. Accounting and bookkeeping are time-consuming, not to mention effortful, and do you want to pore over your financial records for hours on end when you can just as easily do other things that can help your business grow? Whilst you may still be deciding on whether or not you should seek help from an accountant, here are the top services you can expect from an accountant or accounting firm and how they can help you.
- Financial reporting and bookkeeping
Accountants will be able to take charge of your financial records and keep everything in proper order – and this includes financial reporting and bookkeeping, of course. Bookkeeping is an essential task that helps you manage your finances, and you also have to deal with financial reporting, particularly to HMRC, as it’s a requirement under the law. If you work with an accountant or accountancy firm, they can tackle all of this for you as part of their package.
- Tax assistance
First of all, are you familiar with filling in forms and filing your tax returns? This is a job that’s best relegated to the experts because it’s easy to make mistakes that can cost you in the end. You wouldn’t want to pay fines or fees just because of missed deadlines as well. An accountant can handle all of this and they will, additionally, make sure that you are paying the correct amount in your taxes. If you overpay, this isn’t good for your business, but if you underpay, this could give you problems with HMRC as well. A good accountant should be able to compute your taxes with ease and confidence and they may even help you find ways to save and become more tax efficient.
Those who are skilled and experienced, such as the accountants in central London from www.gsmaccountants.co.uk, can identify, for instance, legitimate strategies for you to become more tax-efficient, such as using government schemes and incentives, expenses, and allowances, and offsetting your losses.
- Enhance your cash flow
Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business, and having cash available at any time for any emergency is vital. Managing your cash flow can be tricky, however, so it’s another thing that your accountant or accounting firm can do for you. Having cash on hand can be a challenge, especially for a startup business, and you can experience major issues if you don’t have ready money available for your business. But with your accountant, you can have a stronger and better cash flow that will enable you to protect yourself against any risk as well as increase the confidence of your stakeholders and investors.
Accountants and accounting firms can do several other tasks as well – including helping you come up with business plans and forecasts, advising you on the most appropriate and profitable legal structure for your business, and making sure you are in line with governmental regulation.