Budgeting Essentials

Helping you master the practical essentials of Budgeting, Cash Flow, Accounting and Debt Relief.
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Why does my accountant seem so formal?

Last week I talked about “Is your small business is on track?  Check your budget”.   If you missed that post, you can review it HERE.  This week’s post is “Why does my accountant seem so formal?”  When it comes to knowing whether or not you make money, there are rules that you have to follow. Good Accountants follow those rules.  The structure that comes with those rules becomes a habit.  Learn more in this week’s blog.

 

Many people think that accountants are stuffy and formal.  While they may appear that way, it is more a reflection of the things that they do and the position that they hold rather than the people themselves.  Accountants have to deal with rules and procedures.  You want them to be good at that, because they help keep you out of trouble.  If you go to your tax accountant and ask a question, you expect an answer that you can rely on rather than a practical joke.  You wouldn’t want to get an IRS audit notice because you followed your tax accountant’s “joking advice” and find out they were “only kidding” about the answer that they gave you.  People don’t have a sense of humor about things like that (and shouldn’t)!

You also want your accountant to be good at following procedures.  When it is time for your employees to get paid, you don’t want to hear “I didn’t get a chance to finish payroll.  Can’t it wait until next week?”  You also would not want to hear “I know we are supposed to transmit payroll electronically, but I mailed it instead.  When the payroll processor gets the information I sent them, I am sure that they will issue the paychecks.”  Here is another example.  “I was supposed to pay the electric bill?  I thought they could wait.  I thought they were kidding when they sent that disconnect notice.  I didn’t think they would turn the electricity off.”  I could give you example after example, but I think you get the point.

As far as being stuffy goes, your accountant needs to be very careful about what they say.  If an employee overhears the accountant making a joke about going out of business and thinks that the accountant is serious, you could have a very serious problem to deal with.  If the employee tells your customers what they heard, you could have a serious sales problem in addition to convincing the employees you are not going out of business.

These examples also apply when you work with an outside accounting service. 

So are accountants formal?  Yes.  Do they seem stuffy?  Yes, but out of necessity.  You want them that way.  They deal with your money.  They pay your bills.  They deal with reporting on how your business is doing.  They advise you on tax matters.  You don’t want to have to guess if they are making a joke or being serious when they tell you something.  You also don’t want to deal with employee problems because they heard the accountant making a joke about the company going out of business, but the employee thought they were serious.  Accept the formalness and stuffiness as qualities that benefit you.  They do.

If you know someone this post will help, please share it with them!  Then scroll down to the comments section and leave me a comment on this post.  If you aren’t already a subscriber, sign up to receive notification emails and information on other promotions!

God Bless your week!

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© 2018 Dan Heiland 2018 Kat Heil, LLC

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