Business leaders need advice from time to time. If you’re looking to grow your company, improve profits or rely on someone to answer your questions, accounting advisory services are a good option for you.
If you’ve never worked with an accountant outside of tax planning and filing, you may miss out on an opportunity to reach your business goals with the help of a CPA.
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What are Financial Accounting Advisory Services?
Your business needs are unique, and there are times when you’ll need accounting advice that goes beyond tax season. Advisory involves securing additional help from a professional, which may include:
- Helping you read financial statements
- Uncover where money is being spent
- Learn how to improve profitability
- Full financial advisory, including setting budgets, running forecasts and more
- Operations advisory to help clients identify existing operational issues and incorporate best practices
- Risk assessment services
- Tax compliance and planning services
- So much more
Advisory services are not a one-size-fits-all solution. When you work with a firm like ours, we believe in developing a customized plan to help you reach your business goals.
Working with a CPA who knows the ins and outs of your business will empower you to make smarter business decisions in the future. These professionals can help you make up for skill gaps, so you know how to read financial statements or uncover areas in the business that can be improved to increase profit margins.
In fact, companies find advisory services so beneficial that it has led to a 20% growth rate for firms offering them. However, the real benefits are experienced by businesses that seek accounting advice from these firms.
Benefits of Accounting and Advisory Services
Businesses rely on many moving parts to succeed, yet 65% will fail within the first ten years. Reducing risks, improving profitability and finding success is a long-term battle that requires your business to adapt to an ever-changing economic landscape.
A few of the reasons that businesses rely on accounting advisors include:
- Advice: Business owners and leaders need advice from time to time. One area of business where you need to be confident is navigating finances. Advisors will provide expert advice so that you can gain clarity and confidence in your business.
- Coaching: Your business is unique. It has different needs than your competitors, and it’s important to rely on coaches to help you find success. As a coach, the advisor will recommend new and exciting ways to purchase assets, invest money or grow the business.
- Objective Party: Finally, an advisor isn’t there to tell you “yes.” Instead, their main goal is to be an objective party and help you make the best business decisions possible. These individuals can bring a new perspective to your business and help you uncover new ways to increase revenue or just be there to shed light on why certain decisions may or may not be good for your operations.
Owners are often so used to being in charge and making decisions that they often need someone to tell them to pause, or “have you thought about it this way?“ Employees may be intimidated and won’t voice their concerns. However, it’s the advisor’s job to ensure that all of your decisions consider risks and opportunities, while helping you reach your business goals. If an advisor doesn’t tell you “no,” on occasion, this may be a sign that it’s time to work with someone else.
Putting all of this into perspective, it’s easy to see that accounting advisory services offer many benefits, such as:
Minimize Errors
Whether you need help with determining the best next step for you and your business or something like choosing your accounting software, your advisor will be there to assist you and reduce the risk of errors along the way. These professionals will offer their advice, provide financial oversight and check in with you consistently to minimize errors in decision-making, accounting and more.
Make Data-driven Decisions
Data-driven decisions are profitable decisions. One study found that insight-driven businesses grow 30% per year because data provides them with insights necessary to:
- Gain a competitive advantage
- Make smarter decisions
- Lower risks
Advisors can help you make sense of the data that your business collects. Additionally, they can run cash flow forecasts to learn how hiring a new employee or investing in new equipment will impact operations in the short and long term.
Scale Operations With Expert Insights
Scaling a business requires a lot of insight that goes beyond merely opening a new office. An advisor can help you understand the actual cost of scaling operations and explain the risk that you’re taking on by expanding operations.
Experts can help you develop short- and long-term strategies to reach business objectives.
The insights of an expert are an invaluable asset that can unlock your company’s true potential.
Ensure Business Compliance
One of the risks of scaling a business is ensuring that you maintain business compliance. Expert advice is needed during expansion to maintain compliance across states or even international markets.
If you enter a market and do not remain compliant, it can lead to massive fines and penalties. In the worst-case scenario, not being compliant may mean shuttering operations at the location.
Focus on Your Core Business Tasks
As a business owner, you can’t do it all forever. Once you reach a point where you can hire others and begin offloading tasks, it’s important to make the transition.
Why?
If you’re focusing on sales, accounting, growth, product creation and more, you cannot fully dedicate your time to each. Core business tasks will help your business reach its goals, and these are the tasks where your time is best spent.
Working with an advisor can help you free up time so that you can focus your energy on business growth rather than trying to do everything at once.
What You Get With Our Services
At Levy Lauter LLP, we offer consulting advisory services to our clients, which include:
- Expert consultants who are eager to learn about your business and help it grow
- Accounting technology management
- Top-tier support and communication
- Flexible pricing options
If you have burning questions about your company’s profit margins, sales, growth and more, you can benefit from talking to a professional.
Click here to discuss our accounting advisory services in a meeting with our team.
