How to find the right accountant for your business

An accountant with relevant work experience and knowledge is crucial. It must be ensured that rather than just going with the number of years of experience the quality and scope of experience be prioritized. Thus, always get a full picture of the field of experience as ideally, you should be looking for someone with accounting experience and not for someone who has simply had more years of experience or better designations in an unrelated field. Understanding the kind of clients and accounts handled would also help you pick accountants that would better suit your industry and organization.

In current times, a lot of mundane tasks can be automated using suitable tools and softwares. This requires a knowledgeable person to use and monitor these tools to ensure it is error-free and produces the desired results with minimum additional resources. Enquire about the accountant’s experience with such technology and software’s. A person who is well versed in these could also make recommendations for use of tailor-made tech and tools in the future at your organization. Some of the key tasks that are carried out by general accountants using such tools include financial documentation, database entry, financial information, conformity, project management and so on. Regardless of the size of your business or just a freelancer, when you get an accountant on board you have to ensure they have an upper hand over these software’s and tools because a major part of their job involves the usage of key spreadsheets and accounts payable software’s.

Go for an accountant that has the understanding and previous experience of working in a business setting similar to yours. This means that they understand the industry and area of business you work in because regardless of the experience they possess, they might not be able to cater to your particular requirements if that experience is not along the lines of what you are looking for. Sometimes when you look deeper into your requirements, you might even realize a physical full-time hire is not the suitable solution. For example, if you want mundane bookkeeping tasks to be done alone or followed by an accountant, you might consider collaborating with an external company that specializes in carrying out such responsibilities. Cloud computing that enables to transmit of financial information and records from anywhere and carries out various accounting tasks also can aid accountants.

When dealing with accounting, communication is a 2-way thing. You need to be willing to listen and understand apart from effectively putting out your expectations. The cost of miscommunication is heavy in accounting and thus calls for concise and clear communication.

Common barriers to communication that results in disastrous outcomes must be nipped in the bud. The lack of proper coordination, control and mismanagement can lead to poor communications. The use of unfamiliar jargons in an organization or phrases can be confusing and cause havoc if it gets misinterpreted or goes without being understood.

Several external factors can affect the work style and efficiency of accountants. Having clear and realistic goals communicated and reviewed regularly helps you and your team be focused and achieve goals that align with the company operations and in the long run contribute to the growth objectives of the organization. Having defined objectives help streamline processes and build a consistent system of doing work. Initially, the objectives can be more general, but as things progress they can take a more defined shape and get narrowed down adding to the effectiveness of the team working for you.

An accountant would play a very crucial role in not just running your everyday business but in helping you grow into new horizons. They would be in charge of handling various sensitive and confidential information and documentation. Hence, it is essential that you spend a good amount of time in evaluating the candidate pool and making a well-informed final decision. The accountant you onboard should be trustworthy, reliable, highly skilled, and knowledgeable in the area of accounting thus carrying out various tasks such as invoicing, client management, financial administration and other tasks seamlessly.