“Behind every successful man is a strong woman.”
And have you heard this saying?
“Behind every successful man is an astonished mother-in-law.”
As we ponder the meaning of proverbs, let us look at an undeniable truth.
Behind every successful company stands a competent accountant.
Almost always, the choice of an accountant in a business is key to its future… The business.
The correctness of the choice is proven in the long run when you find that your accountant has saved you time, money and energy. He has done this for you by guiding you to the most optimal legal option for paying taxes and insurance and helping you make the best decision as a manager and business owner.
With his skills, knowledge and practical experience, the competent accountant has made audits and inspections a painless and routine procedure for you, because your documentation and accounting have been properly maintained.
Or at least it should be.
And if it’s not…
We will introduce you to some of the most obvious signs and symptoms that should tell you that it is imperative that you take matters into your own hands and say goodbye to your previous accountant.
- Increases the prices for accounting services without reasons
Some accounting firms use unfair trade practices. Initially, they offer unrealistically low prices to service their customers. At some subsequent point, the prices of the service are raised seriously, and the customer is faced with a fait accompli. You should be aware that if the price goes up, it must be a result of:
- from increased document turnover;
- increase in staff;
- VAT registration, etc., not accounting improvisation.
If the responsibility and hours of work that the accounting firm puts in for your company have not increased, the price of the service should not increase either.
- You are bombarded with alerts and messages from the NRA about irregularities
That an accountant is incompetent always becomes clear the hard way. In other words, the business owner understands the level of competence of his accountant in difficult times. This is when you start getting:
- notifications from the tax administration about irregularities;
- fine warnings;
- follow-up inspections and revisions;
- refusal of credits due to incomplete or inappropriate accounting documentation, etc.
Take all of this as a warning “red light” that signals to you that this accountant is not competent enough and is not useful for your business.
- It doesn’t know, won’t or can’t optimize your taxes
There are also such accountants. They have limited, basic knowledge in the field of accounting and never make unnecessary moves, i.e. they don’t want to complicate their lives by looking for and finding new opportunities to optimize your tax burden and they don’t offer you options through which you can legally enjoy tax preferences. They do this mostly because it is time consuming, requires high levels of competence and risk taking for extensive tax audits. Such a pseudo-specialist runs away like a devil from incense from the opportunity to get you recognized for travel and accommodation expenses, accounting for fuel and overnight invoices, transport tickets, travel orders and so on. And of course, it will avoid the thankless work of reducing your corporation tax. For the experienced accountant, the tax audit is a chance to confirm his expertise, and for the incompetent accountant, it is proof that you should dispense with his services.
- It makes working with you a mess
If in working with you the accountant only creates chaos, makes mistakes, loses documents or allows you to lose documents, then the future of your company is bleak. You have two options:
- to sink ingloriously or
- to change that accountant who is like a millstone around your neck.
- Lack of good communication between you and the accountant
In fact, what exactly are you hiring an accountant for? To constantly monitor the financial and property status of the company and, if there is a problem in this area, to provide timely information to the owner of the company. But if such information is missing, if the accountant often goes into deep illegality, it can harm your company. If the accountant is untraceable for most of the month, if he is not able to explain to you in an accessible language some accounting, tax or legal case, if he does not offer you a clear solution to a given problem, you know … you do not need this one accountant.
- Ignores your problems
When you need help in solving a specific case of a tax-accounting nature, more and more often you hear the words: “No problem, we will fix things!”. In practice, however, the problem deepens and not only deepens, but also leads to serious sanctions.
- Reveals your company secrets
In a normal relationship with your accountant, he will certainly know in detail almost everything about your company. Even at some point it is possible to have a more complete picture than yourself:
- about the financial and property status of your business;
- who are your customers and suppliers;
- what sources of funding you have available;
- what technologies you use in your production;
- what is the organization of work;
- what are your shots;
- what contracts have you signed…
If the accountant does not protect this information, but abuses it, break up with him as quickly as possible. It’s not even bad to see each other in court.
- Violates deadlines
The world of accounting is unforgiving in one respect. Failure to comply with the deadlines set by law leads to sanctions and lost benefits. If you as a client deliver your documents on time to your accountant, but he is late in processing them and this causes you problems, solve the problem radically … break up with this accountant.
- Takes unreasonable risks without your authorization
Your accountant represents you and your company in front of serious institutions such as the NRA, NII, NSI, IT, Registration Agency, as well as in front of banks, clients, etc. Bona fide professionals strictly adhere to the rules, but in individual cases there are accountants who, driven by the intention to perform a service for third parties or companies, issue an invoice on behalf of the client. Or make payments to a supplier without the owner’s consent. Dismissal of such accountant or termination of contract with such accounting firm is the least. At such a time, consider whether you do not have to seek legal responsibility of the incorrect specialist.
- Makes serious mistakes to your detriment
We started with proverbs. Let’s end with the one that says “To err is human”. You know, a competent accountant is never guided in his work by this proverb. Yes, it is true that even the most authoritative accountant can be wrong, but this should be an isolated case. If the mistakes start to become a practice and almost a daily routine, then the time has come to end your relationship.
Even if you find just one of these symptoms in your accountant’s work, take it as a warning that a problem is brewing. How big this problem becomes is up to you.
