Preface: What is the difference between the accountants your business has the opportunity to retain? Read further to gain familiarity with what a CPA firm can do for your business.
CPA Firms and Your Business
A respected CPA firm is more than a group of accountants and tax experts. CPA firms are trusted advisors who work with you to manage and protect your business assets and adhere to compliance regulations. CPA’s assist in corporate finance decisions such as financial accounting, financial analysis, budgeting, financial planning, forensic accounting, tax planning and filing, financial reporting, mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, share and debt issuance, corporate governance roles, i.e. a board of directors, and estate planning.
Managing
CPA’s guide your business through the mazes of key financial decision making. Whether you are refinancing debt, deciding on equipment purchase vs. equipment lease, maximizing cash flow, negotiating customer contracts, or acquiring a subsidiary, CPA’s have the knowledge to assist you in relevant financial decisions. Perplexing financial analysis can be simplified by having a trusted financial advisor, such as a CPA.
Protecting
A CPA can protect your business from financial risks by helping you to budget for avoidance or mitigation of cash flow shortages or more important, resolve issues with special asset department loans, and reduce tax. Often the greatest form of protection is in pre-planning and avoidance of risk prone decisions. You would be well advised to discuss financial plans with your CPA before decision making. Discuss how to structure business investment loans or equity investments to reduce risk of loss; have a consultation on capital expenditures or product pricing and cost methodologies to gain assurance your business is safeguarding resources and optimizing revenue.
Compliance
CPA firms can add value to your business by asserting observation of compliance concerns. A CPA will keep your business compliant with tax codes and regulations while maximizing tax attributes such as deductions and credits to reduce your tax liability. Income tax compliance, sales tax compliance, and audit representation are all reasons to have an experienced CPA firm work with your business.
Often an experienced CPA can reward you for invoices received on compliance work with preventive code calibration. For manufacturing entities this can include a 263A calculation to account for uniform capitalization allocation – the capitalization of direct and certain indirect costs to inventory, or retirement plan credits. Compliance advice can save you money too. Research and development credits or domestic production activity deductions can reduce your tax liability. For instance if a business can use the domestic production activities deduction, it most often will save thousands or more in tax on only a few million dollars of revenues.
Advice
A professional CPA firm will also have professional contacts that can assist your business in a trusted referral to other experienced professionals when the opportunity arises, i.e. bankers, attorneys, consultants, boutique advisors.
A professional CPA firm will keep you informed, collaborate with you, and persuade you to achieve good financial results. They will listen to you and understand your needs. Your CPA should be a trusted member of your business and provide solutions to financial problems. If you need a refinancing assistance or a legal opinion, a CPA can be a trusted liaison. A CPA works for you longer than the billable hour that you sit in a conference room or in your office in discussion.
Many retired entrepreneurs understand that good advice might seem initially expensive, but the advice return-on-investment contrasted to the income statement debit, is most often ultimately an astute business decision.