One of our very favourite things about accounting is the clients. We love making it as easy as possible for you to keep on top of your business’s finances, and our accounting and bookkeeping partners often tell us that working with clients is their favourite part of the job too.
Of course, this doesn’t mean it’s always easy — while most people are great to work with, occasionally you’ll get a client who does something that makes it hard on the accountant. Want to avoid being that client? Then make sure that you don’t:
1. Demand something your accountant doesn’t do
Accountants can do a lot of things that most people don’t know about, from business planning to explaining financial policies to your staff, but they’ll still occasionally get a client asking them to do something that’s just not in their job description. The most common culprit is reviewing legal contracts — while your accountant can give you business advice, the legal stuff really needs to go to your solicitor.
2. Ignore advice that you asked for
It’s always frustrating when a client doesn’t follow good advice. While the way you run your business and finances is totally up to you, if you ask for advice, you can bet that it’s probably going to be in your best interests to follow it. Don’t just discount it if you don’t totally understand it. If you’re confused about why your accountant recommends that you do something, just ask them to explain their reasoning.
3. Dump big bags of paperwork on them
You hired the accountant to sort out your finances … but if they’re spending most of their time literally sorting through your paperwork, you won’t be getting the best from them. The more organised you can be when you bring in your financial paperwork, the better. Of course, it’s even better if you just use accounting software like Clear Books that keeps everything organised for you.
4. Do everything at the last minute
We get it, tax time can creep up on you. But leaving everything to the last minute just stresses everybody out, you included, so make it a point to start doing your tax prep before it gets down to the deadline. If you’re not sure what you need to do, just ask your accountant beforehand! They should be able to give you a checklist of exactly what they’ll need from you.
5. Play fast and loose with the truth
The truth is going to come out eventually, so there’s no point in not being honest with your accountant from the very beginning. Besides, your accountant can only work off of what you give them, so their work and advice can only be as good as the information that you provide.
Accountants, what things do you wish clients knew not to do when working with you? Tell us in the comments below!
