Why It Makes (Dollars and) Sense to Hire an Accountant to Do More Than Just Prepare Your Tax Return (continued from yesterday)

by Gary Krupa, CPA


Yet except for engaging an accountant to prepare their income tax return, or helping to minimize their tax liability, many owners of small businesses and directors of non-profit organizations don’t perceive any tangible benefit to hiring an accountant. An accountant doesn’t generate revenue the way a salesperson or the owner can. An accountant doesn’t produce the products or services sold by the organization. Nor does an accountant provide the business with office space or the ability to make telephone calls, the way a property owner and the telephone company can, respectively.

As for financial management, in rural areas business owners and organization directors think that hiring a trained professional to help improve the bottom line is an expensive luxury they can't afford. The owner or director believes they can do the bookkeeping themselves when funds are limited, or that they can hire a friend or relative whom they don’t have to pay much money to. Or they’ll hire an accountant to do mostly bookkeeping work.

Put briefly, the owner or director reasons that hiring an accountant to do accounting work, outside of tax season, would only be a waste of money that the organization can spend productively elsewhere.

To be sure, accountants are usually the best qualified to prepare tax returns and reduce a client’s tax liability. Nonetheless, there are some other important ways that an accountant can help increase profits or net revenues, generate positive cash flow, and reduce operating costs.

Tomorrow's entry: How the accountant can help an organization establish a solid financial foundation.


Gary Krupa is a CPA in New York and Arizona, with more than twenty-five years experience providing accounting, tax, audit and computer services to small and medium-size organizations. He’s especially attentive to the needs of his clients. He moved to Rimrock, Arizona in late May 2008. He has offices in Rimrock and Peoria, AZ. His e-mail address is gkcpa@q.com.
Read more about Gary Krupa's accounting service by following this link:

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