Use your accountant all year long, not just for tax filings

With the hectic pace of tax season now long past, it's just a matter of working through on all the tax returns still on extension. However, the Summer months are an especially ideal time to speak with your accountant about those special projects that have been pushed aside. This is the one time of the year when we as CPA's typically have more time to help and focus our attention on those client special projects.

As a business owner, you're trying to keep up with many different aspects of running the day to day operations of your business, doing the marketing, HR, etc. Often times I find the Summer months are an ideal time to review client's accounting systems to make improvements in efficiency, accuracy and one-source data entry, integration with apps, etc.

Improving your company bookkeeping procedures can certainly benefit your company with more useful reporting information, generated in much less time. These days more and more clients are using the cloud based QuickBooks Online. As such, much of my time is spent logged in to clients' online accounting working through these many improvements in their bookkeeping systems.

Working closely with your accountant throughout the year can improve your chances for business success simply because you have someone looking over your shoulder and alerting you to situations that you might not even have been aware of. Plus, by working with your accountant beyond just tax season, you can discover new growth opportunities, cost savings measures, budgeting analysis and cash flow improvements, plus many other benefits - all geared to help you prepare for the future and minimize inefficiencies.

Lester R. Bahr, CPA