How Can Accountants Help Businesses Grow?

Accountants are not merely able to monitor and analyse your business’ finances. Their wealth of expertise allows them to provide a range of growth advice which can be used to help businesses expand to the next level and be one step closer to their goals. Here are just some of the ways accountants can help businesses grow.

Identify tax savings 

Accountants are on top of the constant changing world of economics and taxes and are therefore the best people to identify the areas where your business could be saving money. In some cases, it could be a substantial amount, enabling you to re-invest these savings into the growth plans for your business.

Cash flow forecasting  

Cash flow forecasting is a vital part of any business strategy and accountants are professionals at this. Not only can accountants work with you to create the cash flow forecast, they can use the data in the forecast to identify any potential opportunities for growth. They can also identify any issues. Knowing this in advance means you are able to take action quickly.

Free up your time  

A common thing that holds people back from expanding and growing their business is failing to find enough time to put their growth plans into action. This is where accountants are worth their weight in gold. With the accountants concentrating on the figures and dealing with the financials for you, it frees up a large amount of your time to focus on growing your business.

Help advice on obtaining funding  

Another barrier to growth for many businesses is lack of funding. The idea and potential may be there, but if there is not enough capital within the business to bank roll it, the business will have to go to banks or other investors for additional funding. To improve the chances of success in investment, your accountant will be able to steer you in the right direction and explain which options are available to you. Having your accounts all up to date also allows you to address these investors with the most accurate and up to date information which is what they want to see.

Identify potential issues or ill-performing products or services 

Your accountant can pinpoint which areas of your business or specific product lines are not profitable for your business. Knowing this as soon as possible gives you a chance to make amends or decide its better for the bigger picture to remove this product line all together.

Support with mergers 

Merging with another company is one way to expand a business but comes with a lot of potential challenges and obstacles to carry it out well.  A good accountant will be able to assess whether the merger is viable from a financial point of view and can even help manage the whole process to make it as smooth a transition as possible. Having this support is critical, especially for smaller businesses that want to merge or expand in order to grow the company but do not have someone internal in the role of CFO (chief finance officer) or a financial director.

Succession planning or management changes  

For companies that still want to grow in the future but management needs to change due to succession or other reasons, accountants are here to help. Accountants will be able to advise you on what options are available, which make the most financial sense and explore any potential benefits or pitfalls for each option.

Use break even analysis to assess growth plans  

Your account will be able to use your 12 month plans and use budget and forecast reporting to see how viable these goals are and how they are most likely going to be achieved. Their previous experience with other businesses is extremely beneficial for companies that need this help. The reports can show how costs (both fixed and variable) compare with sales during different periods, input any seasonality changes, the current market conditions and much more to provide you with a clear picture of what is necessary to achieve the growth you want.

Use industry benchmarks  

A key advantage to using accountants is that they often have previous experience working with businesses within your industry or in similar fields of work. They have access to a range of tools which will allow them to pull together industry data to use as a benchmark for your business’ current financial performance as well as future growth plans. They can help provide industry benchmarks for each of your KPIs (key performance indicators) which will help reporting on performance be much more meaningful and useful. Knowing this information gives you an understanding of where your company sits compared to your competition as well as indicate whether your growth plans are feasible.

Accountants are not only here to help with your taxes and current financials. Whilst these are vital services that help state how the company are currently performing, their potential is so much more. When used effectively, accountants are able to play an important part in establishing the future direction of the company as well. This article has highlighted the myriad of ways accountants can help businesses grow. The fact that they are not only there to look through the numbers, they can help provide invaluable strategic advice, it is imperative that you choose an accountant that you trust. Accountants have a range of experience across industries and will more than likely have experience within your industry which will benefit you immensely. To speak to a member of our team about how Wright Vigar can help your business grow then please get in touch.