Industry Discussion

Managing the Accounting Side of Your Business

If you are a freelancer, contractor, consultant or small business owner, you may find that managing the accounting aspects of your business is no easy task!

There is the paperwork, the legislation to understand, the laws to follow, and the timeframes to manage. However, managing your businesses accounting issues is a major contributor to your business success. Getting the right help is critical, as being able to analyse whether you are making progress, improving, or going backwards, is key to your business decisions. Put this in the market context and every business should be concerned. With the introduction of Carbon Tax and tax reforms in Australia, we are likely to see an increase in accounting complexity and compliance, which translates into increased demand for qualified accounting professionals.

However, finding the right sort of help is difficult. If you are an accounting professional, this will place pressure on your profession and your business to deliver to the increasing demand for personal and business accounting services!

Accounting is More Than Just Bookkeeping

Accounting needs are more than general accounting services or bookkeeping services. For the small business sector, it is about getting the right type of support when the business needs it and making sure the business stays up to date with legislation requirements as well as being profitable.

Business accounting services should cover much more than simply transactional accounting advice. This also covers the strategic aspects of running a business and can include assisting with business planning, finance, business sales, disputes and general business advice.

Accountants Getting Trapped in the In-Tray

If you run your own accounting service business, don’t fall into the trap of managing the in-tray or handling the next phone call. You will need to manage your business future as well. Advertising your services and manning up for future demand on your business is important. Advertising is a large contributor to what makes your company a success, next to managing the cash and accounting side of things. Obviously, this goes hand in hand with being able to deliver your services, so make sure you have the right staff / resources or contractors working with you.

People will spend money on your services if they believe it benefits them, or is something they need urgently. Without advertising, people will only know about you and your services from word of mouth. And without the right level of support staff, your ability to provide services is limited to the total billing hours available to the professional.

Get Good Market Intelligence From Your Current and Past Client Base

If you look at your historical data, you probably have all sorts of information available to you. You can look at the strength and weaknesses of your business and understand something about your existing or past customer base and skill base.

Accounting and Audit Staff Will Be In Demand

Looking at the big picture, there is likely to be a significant growth in the need for accounting services and this is likely to continue as the Australian job market remains robust and shows signs of growing. Coupled with this demand is the likely increase in small business, particularly in the mining boom states of WA, QLD and the NT. More and more companies are going to need analytical, business and strategic advisors.

Coupled with this, there is likely to be an increased demand for broad accounting professionals. Recruitment figures indicate a considerable upsurge in this area. For example, in QLD and WA there has been a 25% increase in demand for accountants, and this has been linked to the number of mining projects underway. This means that small accounting firms will have to compete for competent staff.

The on-going reporting requirements and move towards Global Accounting Standards will see an increasing demand for accountants in Australia, so a key to this small business sector is to be prepared for the future by taking steps today to plan for tomorrow. Analysis, business planning, manning up and / or retaining staff, and advertising, are all key to this strategy.