Is your business
accountant the best one for you? It really depends on what you want
from your accounting relationship. But as a starting point it helps to
understand whether you want an accountant that:
1. Helps
you record history; or
2. Helps
you make history
The best
accountants help you make history. They don’t just stand by and wonder what
happened in your business in the past year, they actually work with you to
understand your goals, set plans to get you and your business from A to B and
help you make things happen. They are not looking in the rear view mirror they
are focused on the road ahead. More specifically, your road ahead.
It’s not just
about the Tax Office! Rather than only keeping the ATO happy by lodging
your Tax Return each year, the best Accountants are helping business owners with
tax minimisation, asset protection, improved profits & cash flow, building
a valuable asset that is 'sale ready', implementing accounting systems that make
life easy, having a business that provides the time and finances to support their
personal goals etc.
The best
accountants are proactive. They offer great service and a great range of
services. These accountants help you to create wealth and keep wealth. They do
it by speaking with you regularly, listening to gain a true understanding of
your goals and challenges, offering transparent solutions, speaking with you
(again), listening (again), speaking & listening, speaking & listening,
speaking & listening ……………… They treat you as a client and care about you.
In my view the best accountants have 4 main purposes:
1. Helping
clients to set and monitor business and personal goals;
2. Helping
clients to create wealth;
3. Helping
clients to keep as much of that wealth as possible;
4. Helping
clients to comply with their reporting obligations.
I have interviewed many prospective clients over the
years (usually when they are looking to change accountants) and the most common
answer that I hear when I ask the question “Why are you changing accountants?”
is that “They were not proactive enough”.
So what does
proactive actually mean? Is it all of the things I have outlined above? Do
business owners actually know what they mean when they say their accountant was
not proactive enough? What is it that they were expecting from their
accountant? Did the accountant know that he or she was supposed to be anything
more than a recorder of history? How did they know? Was it discussed? Were they
listening? Did the old accountant even offer the services that help you make
history? Some do, some don’t.
To find out what we believe proactive means please click
here to see the 20 things that proactive
accountants do differently from reactive accountants. ThePrimeAdvisoryGroup - Reactive vs Proactive
Want a proactive
accountant? If you would like to come in for a complimentary meeting to
discuss what it is like to partner with a firm of proactive accountants then
please call me on (02) 9415 1511 or email me. I guarantee you
will be glad you did!
