Benjamin Dyer is the CEO of Powered Now. Powered Now aims to take the pain out of admin and paperwork for trade businesses like gas engineers, electricians, builders, and many more.
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Should you run your own accounts?
It's easy to dislike accounting. Those who can do it can make a fantastic living while seeming to revel in the rules and regulations that drive the rest of us crazy. Benjamin Dyer of Powered Now examines just how much we need an accountant when running a trade business.
MOST businesses don’t get to the size where they can justify employing dedicated accountancy staff . So, if you don’t, this article is for you. The decision is whether to continue with the way you do things now. You might already be doing the accounts yourself, or maybe not. The question is: should you try another approach?
The fi rst point to make is that personal preference really comes into the equation. If you like to be in complete control of your business, you may feel that you must do your own accounts. Alternatively, you may feel completely ill-equipped to do them. It’s for those that don’t quite fall into these two extreme categories that this article is trying to help.
The pros
The advantages of completing your own accounts are as follows:
• You are in complete control of your business. Cash fl ow is what determines whether a business will survive. Doing the accounts means you are on top of it all.
• There’s no dependency on others. You can make sure that things are done right.
• There is money to be saved. Accountants can be expensive. You don’t meet many poor accountants!
• You care the most about your business. Third parties always care less and if you’re unlucky, they are slapdash. But it will be you that carries the can for any mistakes. For instance, if there are problems with HMRC.
The cons
Although there are benefi ts, there are several potential disadvantages of doing the accounts yourself. Here are some of the points to consider:
• Accounts can be hard. Sure, some things are easy, but you don’t know what you don’t know.
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• In this area you are the amateur. Well- meaning amateurs can be the bane of tradespeople’s lives and fi xing bodges often takes longer than if you had done the entire job yourself. Talking about accounts, it’s the other way around. Just rehearse in your head what you would say to a well-meaning homeowner. And remember that accountants are the experts at legally minimising your tax.
• Tax rules change frequently and it’s hard to keep up. Even if you make a major eff ort one year to understand the chancellor’s budget, there is no knowing if something important has changed by the following year.
• You are an expert at your trade so you may make more money with the time you would have spent on the accounts than an accountant would cost. Focusing on the things that you are best at usually makes sense. That’s quoting, doing the work, managing the team or sweet-talking the customer. In the meantime, you can leave the accountant to do their job.
Ultimately, it’s your own judgement on whether you should do your own accounts. The majority of business owners of trade businesses don’t, but there are still some that do. You need to decide what will work best for you.
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