Do I Even Need An Accountant?

Do I Even Need An Accountant?

I remember about 15 years ago there were rumblings in the profession that the way technology was moving forward, within 10 years everyone would be preparing their own accounts and tax returns and the accountant would become a thing of the past. The idea was that your bank would become a one stop shop and that they would provide the software to take all of your worries away. 

Here we are some 15 years later and it is very true that to a large extent technology has started to take over however a large number of business still rely on their accountant to assist with their bookkeeping, VAT, accounting and tax. Why is that? 

I believe there are a number of reasons why you still need an accountant:

1. Peace of mind - many business owners are nervous to deal with the day-to-day accounting themselves and would rather have a trusted professional by their side ensuring that their affairs are taken care of. As many clients say to me, they want to sleep at night and the cost of taking away the stress is worth every penny.
2. Work/life balance – small business owners especially find managing their time a challenge as it is and therefore spending their weekends doing bookkeeping and VAT returns rather than spending time with their family is not what they want to be doing. They would much rather hand over that job to us to take care of.
3. Time management – we often use the saying "working on the business rather than in the business". For most business owners, having time to plan forward and work on growing and improving the business is far more beneficial than getting into the nitty-gritty of bookkeeping and VAT returns.
4. Having an advisor to talk to – one of the most important roles of the accountant is to assist and advise in helping business owners make decisions. Whether that is a complicated VAT issue on property development, assisting in buying or selling a business, or a recruitment need, having an accountant to advise is vitally important to ensure that the right decisions are made.  
5. Tax is complicated – for most, taxes are complicated and therefore having an accountant/tax specialist to ask questions to and make sure that you are claiming the right expenses or taking advantage of tax allowances, etc requires a qualified specialist. That is the exact reason why we use a tax checklist for all of our clients to ensure that we are giving the best advice we can.
6. Keeping up to date with legislation changes/market conditions – accountants are required to carry out at least 21 hours of structured training every year to ensure that they remain up to date with changes in legislation and the accountancy market as a whole, with issues such as changes to computerised accountancy packages. Most business owners don’t have the time or inclination to take on that commitment.

The answer to the question ‘Do I Even Need an Accountant?’ in my opinion is a resounding yes. It is hard to disagree that the world is changing and technology has moved faster than any of us had imagined it would. Technology cannot however replace business relationships, understanding your business, and assisting in improving your life and your business and for those reasons, the accountancy profession is still as strong as ever.  

If you are still hesitant about whether you need an accountant, feel free to email me at adam.moody@raffingers.co.uk or click to get in touch.