If you own a business, it only makes sense for you to constantly seek the advice and services of certified public accountants. Regardless of the industry you’re in, every business has one fundamental thing in common – they need money to survive and as much of it as possible to thrive.
As experts in all financial matters, professional accountants provide your business with crucial insights at every stage of its growth and development to optimize its financial health. From collaborating with you on a financial plan for your business to tax planning to setting up your payroll, you will always need a professional accountant’s advice when making business decisions.
While every business that partners with a professional accountant benefits in numerous ways, the businesses listed below are just a few for whom not having a certified accountant on retainer is not an option.
Businesses that Currently Benefit from Professional Accountants
Aside from the profound value the following businesses enjoy from business accounting services, their success is greatly dependent on the accountants they employ.
Government Entities
When you consider the unimaginable sums of money that government agencies are responsible for, it only makes sense that they need to employ dozens or hundreds of accountants depending on the agency. From budgeting to planning to the reporting of public funds, it seems that each level of government is in constant need of professional accountants and candidates with accounting backgrounds, as you can see on this CRA page.
Restaurants, Bars and Hospitality Businesses
The restaurant and hospitality industry is known for being both chaotic with a lot of moving parts and one that infamously still deals with a lot of cash-based transactions. This makes them one of the prime businesses for hiring accountants and bookkeepers.
Even small business owners in this industry who might typically do their own bookkeeping and accounting soon realize the benefits of partnering with a professional accountant – especially on their bottom line.
Not only does keeping track of all the receipts, invoices, pay slips etc., require full-time attention to keep the owner out of hot water with the CRA, but, like many other business owners, that time is better used on tasks that make a restaurant owner more money, like spending time with customers and maintaining the perfect ambience in their establishment.
Also, because restaurants, hotels, and bars conduct hundreds or thousands of transactions every business day, overnight audits and reports are needed and reported daily to managers/owners to confirm that suppliers have been paid and that there is enough income to sustain the business on a daily/nightly basis.
Retailers
Retail stores also conduct high volumes of daily transactions, and as such, they require a professional accountant to perform nightly audits after the close of business.
Because of the high volume of transactions that occur behind the scenes and the necessity to constantly have a full complement of new inventory, retailers’ books must be kept balanced all year long. Bookkeeping professionals are also required to efficiently manage the store’s inventory because, in retail operations, late payments and not taking advantage of early payment discounts have a considerable impact on the profitability (or lack of it) of retail businesses.
It’s also crucial for retail businesses to have accurate daily knowledge of the value of the product in their inventory. The value of clothing can fluctuate, which requires retailers to know the optimal price to sell it at and when, as this can severely impact a store’s value. Professional accountants and bookkeepers take charge of the money as that’s their expertise, which allows retailers to do what they’re good at, selling their products to run a successful business.
Universities & Colleges
Universities and colleges are notorious in accounting circles for having complex financial systems that are only accessible to professionals. That is due to the fact that they are massive institutions that conduct numerous types of business transactions as they are:
- Service providers that charge tuition to thousands of students.
- Landlords that rent out space to students, food service companies and other vendors.
- Retailers that sell books and merch.
- Employers that pay large numbers of staff.
- Investors in several markets.
On top of that, they are also public institutions that require funding from governments and industry innovators. That all adds up to a lot of constant accounting and bookkeeping.
Manufacturers
Companies that take raw materials or partially finished goods and turn them into something else have many varying, and sometimes competing, financial interests.
Manufacturers have to monitor every expense that increases the cost of the goods they sell – from materials to labour to machinery, shipping, etc. They also have intensive accounting, and bookkeeping needs to keep track of revenues, expenses, receivables, etc., as they not only rely on the precision of this information for their operations, but they are heavily scrutinized financially and must constantly produce financial statements.
And if all that isn’t enough, tax reporting for manufacturing businesses is so involved, and the consequences of non-compliance are so great that they must absolutely ensure they have a team of talented accountants on board.
Law Firms
Lawyers have a lot on their plates to deal with every single business day. The ones that go to court are often there for most of the day. When they return to the office, they must return client phone calls, meet with clients, manage their case files, and when they get done with that, usually well into the evening, they must prepare for their upcoming cases.
The lawyers who don’t go to court are nonetheless busy every minute of the day as they have multiple tasks to complete for a large number of files – all of them time-sensitive.
While not all lawyers deal with large sums of money (many do, however, especially real estate and trust lawyers), given their workloads, maintaining their books can be a lot of thankless work that makes them no money.
Lawyers, however, like accountants, have a fiduciary duty to their clients and are required to maintain trust accounts for retainers with accurate, detailed records, they’re closely regulated, and big law firms with several lawyers charging by the hour have heavy accounting and bookkeeping workloads.
