The Cost Effective Benefits of Hiring an Accountant

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Hiring an accountant can be costly. But it can be worth the cost if you hire an accountant with a (CPA) that can efficiently do the work you need to be done, or the work you lag behind and need to be caught up with.

Let’s say you own a business in New York, and you decide to use an accounting software such as Quickbooks, or Xero, to help you develop your own bookkeeping. This might seem like a smart cost effective move to help your financial situation. To be honest, it’s not a bad move to be acquainted with these accounting software’s, but you really are doing yourself a disservice by not hiring a professional accountant to help you maintain your financial records. There are plenty of professional bookkeepers in New York.

The accounting services provide a wide range of services, including:

  • Creating a financial Plan
  • Tax planning advice
  • Preparing and filing your business taxes
  • Providing business advice to help you operate in a more cost effective manner
  • Maintain financial records
  • Setting up bookkeeping and accounting systems
  • Generate auditing financial statements or auditing your business’s books

Still, to have these services provided to you from a certified public accountant (CPA), it will be a substantial financial investment. When hiring a certified public accountant, you should partake in a cost-benefit analysis to see which accountant makes financial sense for your business.

In a cost benefit analysis, you should list and estimate all the costs of an action as well as all the benefits of that action. Assign a dollar value to each, add up the two columns, and subtract one from the other to determine the financial feasibility. Its good practice to include a time frame to the costs and benefits – in this case, a three – year period would be reasonable.

Some information you should gather before doing a cost-benefit analysis, include:

  1. Determine what services you need.
  2. Receive a price quote from accountants. Most accountant will bill you by the hour. Some work on monthly retainers. Ask if the accountants use lower-cost help to perform some of their duties; if they do, ask for those lower rates if applicable.
  3. Get an estimate of the costs for all the services you need.

Some costs for a monthly service by an accountant include:

  • Cost of new software required by the accountant
  • Cost of time interacting with the accountant

Some benefits for a monthly service of an accountant:

  • The time saved from you to actually organize and keep track your financial data
  • The advice your professional account may give you, could perhaps make you an even better business man
  • Not making those costly tax filing mistakes, or curating fines for making a mistake, such as misreading the IRS information sheets

Being able to assess the real value of a certified personal accountant for your endeavors is a great way to make sure you financially investment in a CPA worth the time and effort.