Is your year end coming up?

Your accounts should be a useful opportunity to explore areas of your business that perhaps need addressing.

With your year end approaching you are probably asking yourself some familiar questions......

Will my accountant call?

If you are asking yourself this question then either you wish your accountant would call more or that they would call less. Either way the relationship you have is not as you would wish.

Your accountant should be part of your team and, like other members of staff; you cannot afford to not have a good working relationship. If you feel that your relationship is not as good as it could be then you may wish to think about changing accountants.

Why don’t I hear from my accountant more often?

Good question!

Even with the most simple client-accountant relationship there are usually plenty of opportunities for your accountant to inform you of how your affairs are progressing.

This may only be to inform you that the Revenue has processed your tax return but the contact should be regular.

I wonder what tax I have to pay?

Even if you have your accounting under control, it can still be baffling when you receive your tax bill.

Having your accounts or tax return prepared as soon as possible after the year-end will give you the maximum possible planning time for your tax bill.

Understanding how you tax bill is calculated will inform you where the tax has come from and perhaps highlight areas where savings can be made. These can then be discussed further with your accountant.

Can the Company pay a dividend?

This will depend on the results of the Company to date and, to some extent, expectations of the results in the future. Being in a position to have accounts prepared shortly after the year end can enable you to set dividend levels which will be based on real performance figures.

Oh no, not the same questions from the auditors again!!

Although audits are a legal requirement for certain businesses, some business owners decide to have an audit, even though they are not required by law to have one.

It is probable that the experience of these people is that audit can actually be useful and not just an expensive necessity. Audit is a service that can provide valuable insight into how a business is run and where improvements perhaps can be made.

It can be disheartening to be asked the same question from year to year by a seemingly junior member of the audit team. Understanding why these questions are asked and having explained to you why this might be useful will hopefully help you to understand what the auditors are doing for their money.

Reasons for voluntarily deciding to have an audit, or some other form of assurance work, can range from owners being divorced from the day-to-day control of the business to merely seeking the comfort that someone else is reviewing your systems and procedures. This may particularly be important if the accounts function is new or has changed in some way.

Will I receive more feed back this year?

Your accounts (annual or otherwise) should be a useful opportunity to explore areas of your business that perhaps need addressing. This input should add value to your accounts.

When will I get the draft accounts?

Unless there are particular issues that need time to be addressed, your accounts information shouldn’t be stuck at your accountants for any great length of time.

All businesses need to plan and this includes accountants! Workloads need to be booked and therefore you should be able to obtain an estimated date that your draft accounts should be available. If this is unobtainable for some reason this should be communicated to you with the reasons.