Alright! New year! New posts! Seeing as how click-baity listicles are all the rage these days, I thought I’d give it a try and see how much traction I get! Right-O. Many of you may have dealt with accountants, as a small business owner, landlord or independent contractor. Believe me when I say, many people dread hearing from their accountant – because whenever the accountant calls, it means that $$ is going out. But it doesn’t have to be that way! Your accountant can and should be your best friend. This is the one person who has your back and is taking care of your numbers so that you can make better financial decisions.
So without further ado, let’s begin the listicle on how to make your accountant love you! (In a totally professional, platonic, non-romantic way – because, seriously, this ain’t a dating website!!!):
1. Organise your documents, receipts and invoices.
Ok, so this one is pretty obvious. If you have a bunch of documents you want to give to your accountant, please make sure they are in order. By in order, this typically means arranged neatly in chronological (which means in order of time, from oldest to newest) order or, you can sort them according to type (sales invoices in one file, fixed asset purchases in another and expenses in another file – but again, in chronological order). Nothing will make your accountant make silent prayers to the dark gods for squirrels to nest in your head more than sending them a ‘variety mix’ package of documents, receipts and family recipes from your grandma.
2. Don’t call for too long.
Ok, I get it, you pay your accountant for their time. This is generally reflected in the hourly rate you get charged in meetings with your accountant or it could already be paid for in whatever monthly package you are on. However, when it comes to phone calls, the general accepted rule is to always keep your phone calls to 10 minutes or less. If you have a burning issue which can’t be resolved in under 10 minutes then you should use that phone call to arrange for a face to face meeting where you can talk through the issue and we can decide how much it’s going to cost you for us to fix it. Better yet, outline your problem for us carefully in an email which we can read properly and have the time to craft a well-written, reasonable response to. Also if you feel angry about a particular issue – best not to express it over the phone, most of us don’t speak angry very well.
3. Pay your taxes on time.
More often than not, your accountant will prepare your tax return well on time for you to make the payment, unless you have not supplied them the necessary documents (see ‘1’ above) on time. If you don’t make the payment within the required time period then well, how do I put this nicely… it really isn’t our fudge-loving (mmm, fudge) problem. Please don’t come whining to us when you get slapped with penalties that could have totally been avoided. Our job is to help you do taxes, not pay them for you. You are still responsible for your own taxes. If you have a problem paying your taxes, come and talk to us well before the due date for your taxes. Please.
4. Don’t complain about having taxes to pay.
Ok, this one is important. Your accountant is there to help keep your finances in order and make sure that every bit of claimable income and expenses is recorded correctly. They aren’t there to help you avoid paying taxes. Tax evasion is a crime. Your accountant is not a criminal. If you have taxes to pay, it means that you are making money, which is usually a good thing. If you don’t have taxes to pay, it means that your business is running at a loss and you need to start thinking about how to fix that. If at any time, you are surprised by your tax bill, don’t pick up the phone (see ‘2’ above) and yell at your accountant about your high tax bill, instead, please craft a polite email enquiring about why the tax bill seems higher than it was in the previous year/period. More often than not your accountant will reply to your concerns professionally and if they are a millenial, they might even throw in a few emojis in there : P.
5. Tell them you love them.
The best clients are often the ones who appreciate us the most. They’re the ones who tell us what a great job we are doing and the ones who recognise that we’ve helped them a great deal. So yes, if you think your accountant has done a great job in sorting out your finances, show your appreciation by writing them a simple thank you letter. If you are feeling generous, we won’t say no to chocolates, wine or even flowers. The smallest gestures are often the biggest and we will collectively pray to the accounting gods to bless your finances and forever keep them in a neat, tidy and chronological order.
There you go, now you know 5 simple ways to make your accountant love you! Do these 5 things and every call you receive from your accountant will be super pleasant for both you and them!