When you’re opening your own business in the Portland area, hiring an accountant can help you in so many ways. It’s more than just tax returns and crunching numbers. Your accountant can be an invaluable part of your team that helps drive your business forward.
Here are a few more tasks you didn’t know your accountant can do for you.
Write and pitch loan applications. There’s more to securing a loan than just pulling together the necessary numbers. True, a lender needs to see solid financial and credible forecasts, but you also have to capture their attention. A good accountant will not only have solid numbers to deliver to a lender but will be able to help you create a compelling story to sell the wider vision of your business. An accountant knows just want a lender wants to see and will help you use forecasting tools that loan officers trust.
Budget smartly. In depth, detailed budgeting takes a lot of time and energy – time and energy you may not have to spend. It may be tempting to simply not dig deep into the details to save time, to work with vague numbers, assumptions, and estimates. This isn’t good for your business! An accountant can help give you an accurate budget that gives you confidence and shows you the real cost of doing business. You’ll know how much money you can reinvest, what you can pay yourself, and you’ll be able to keep your business operating smoothly.
Get you staffed up. If you need hired help but aren’t sure where to start, an accountant can help here as well. They can figure out what sort of hire will benefit your business the most. Next, they’ll be able to work out the cost of hiring, training, and paying that employee to make sure your business can afford it. Finally, your accountant will be able to make sure your payroll is on track with all the proper government paperwork, tax, and insurance requirements.
Help you manage inventory. If you find yourself spending too much on storage, losing money to writing off obsolete or damaged goods, or losing revenue because you run out of stock, then you need an accountant’s help. An accountant can help you manage inventory smartly. After looking at current costs of holding inventory, they’ll come up with strategies to save money. They’ll also be able to review your sales data to help predict stock needs, so you can place accurate orders. They can even set up software that tracks stock levels and auto-orders items as they run low.
Make your business more efficient. There are many things that contribute to the cost of a business – physical and IT storage, energy consumption, staff, and so on. Your accountant will be able to manage all these costs strategically. He’ll identify each cost and determine a strategy for efficient use of the company's resources.
LISTEN AND SUPPORT YOU. Running a business is tough. When things get hard and you begin to have doubts, your accountant can help keep you grounded. They know what your business means to you and can help keep you on the journey you’ve started. A good accountant can offer moral support to keep you moving forward and help you navigate the ups and downs of running a small business by breaking big problems down into manageable parts.
BUSINESS & ACCOUNTING SOLUTIONS OFFERS QUALITY ACCOUNTING SERVICES TO PORTLAND BUSINESSES. Ready to hire a professional accountant for your Portland business? Business & Accounting Solutions offers a wide range of outsourced CFO services in the Portland area. We bring knowledge and capability to Portland businesses with expertise in services such as bookkeeping, cash flow, finance consulting, and more. Contact us or call at (503) 710-6213. Know someone in need of CFO services? Consider our referral program.