Choosing the right startup accounting services is an essential decision entrepreneurs often underestimate when setting up a business. Many firms in the early stages strive to provide rapid development and break the rules to reduce their costs. While such a strategy can ensure your growth, lacking accounting support can lead to serious economical mistakes. Let’s talk about the benefits that startup CPA services can bring to a business.
The importance of collaborating with CPA for startups
The prosperity of startups depends on sound money management, control of ledgers, and flexible economic tactics that can be changed at any time. Consider the main advantages of attracting qualified CPA for startup:
- Having precise financial records allows entrepreneurs to evaluate current affairs and develop a future strategy.
- Financial accounting allows startup enterprises to control debts to suppliers for purchased commodities and accounts payable to customers.
- Entrepreneurs also utilize accounting to educate staff about an organization’s strengths and challenges.
Startup owners often use accounting to provide data to external sides. Most often, the economic data of a company is of interest to banks, tax authorities, suppliers, debtors, and potential investors.
CPA vs. regular accountant
Some people think that CPA is the same as a standard accountant. An accountant, as a rule, is proficient with a bachelor’s degree in bookkeeping. A CPA is an economic expert who has obtained a license through education, knowledge, and passing exams. Consider the main distinctions between the CPA and a standard bookkeeper:
- CPA is licensed by an authorized institution.
- CPAs must provide a continuing educational process to keep the document.
- CPAs adhere to high professional norms and ethical rules in their job.
As you comprehend, all CPAs are accountants; not all accounting consultants are CPAs. Only licensed professionals can perform some tasks, e.g., representing clients during tax inspections. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 50% of financial professionals in the US have obtained a CPA license.
CPA responsibilities checklist
A CPA is a financial proficient who a government accounting agency licenses. To obtain such a document, bookkeepers must match strict educational requirements, pass exams and undergo regular training. СPAs can successfully cope with any task, trying on the roles of auditors, accounting consultants, and tax specialists:
- The formation, updating, and control of accounting policy.
- Budget calculation and tracking.
- Ensure the accuracy of financial statements via regular audits.
- Preparation and verification of financial documents for tax organizations or during government inspections.
- Provide economic papers to the company’s management or the board of directors.
- Work with accounts receivable and accounts payable.
- Regular advice to startup owners on benefits, compensation, and cost optimization.
Monitor legislation changes, update firms’ policies, and consider such adjustments. Startup CPA is a specialist who fully understands the financial situation of a business. Organizations that rely solely on automated accounting systems or use limited financial services may not notice potential difficulties, including incorrect billing, double payments, and late tax payments.
When should a startup consider collaborating with a CPA?
People who want to start their own company should talk to such an expert during the business concept phase. They are ready to assist in writing a business plan (including providing economic forecasts), suggest how to raise capital, and explain legal aspects, e.g., which you should inform about running a business.
Once you have decided to start a business, an economic professional will help you determine which type of enterprise is optimal: self-employed, partnership, limited company, etc. It is important because the form of activity depends on which reports you need to fill out and how to submit documents to the tax institutions properly.
Tips for choosing a startup CPA
CPAs are skilled, but if they don’t have startup experience, they may miss some critical legal issues or misallocate capital. To avoid such difficulties, a business owner should consider several critical criteria when choosing a bookkeeper with whom he will interact:
- Industry experience: ensure the person understands SaaS (or your industry) and has experience launching projects. In addition, the proficient must be well-versed in economic modeling, generate ideas and know the key valuation metrics in the area.
- Willingness to work in a startup: technology startup CPA should be as involved as possible in the business at the stage of its launch and actively support entrepreneurs. There are a large number of legislative subtleties, documents, and tax nuances that are typical only for the sphere of a startup business. Besides, startup teams are often limited, so it’s vital to ensure a proficient is prepared to interact with a small firm. Another additional condition is an understanding of the process of raising capital. All papers must follow precise guidelines if you plan to raise funds. A CPA who understands managing money will be an excellent addition to your finance department.
- Anytime availability: ask when it is convenient for the CPA to consult you on financial matters and his standard response time to understand how quickly they can respond to urgent requests.
- Knowledge of the features of your online platforms: most likely, you have already chosen the software for work and a set of financial instruments, so before starting cooperation with a CPA, it is vital to check he comprehends how to employ them. It is especially true for all vertically oriented programs, e.g., ecommerce platforms are very different from digital products used in the SaaS industry. If a bookkeeper has practiced with such software, he can immediately use it and develop advice to increase accounting efficiency.
- Convenient rates: startup owners often delay recruiting a CPA to reduce costs, but interacting with the proper specialist pays off. To deal with a professional that suits your spending, find a finance firm that charges a stable monthly reward so you can compute expenditures in advance.
Starting a startup means constantly making compromises to keep your company growing on a volatile budget. The startup CPA has the experience to know where it’s fashionable to make sacrifices and what costs it’s better not to cut. If you form the proper financial group, you can overcome all the limitations of the startup phase and scale your firm.
Final words
As an entrepreneur, you will have a lot of responsibilities during your startup’s launch, most likely not having time to sort out the ledgers. Suppose your financial needs are limited to monitoring performance indicators at this activity stage. In that case, you should not spend a significant sum on paying for in-house CPA services.
Delegating accounting authority to the outsourcing company BooksTime means that you will always have exact and reliable financial papers necessary to compute the tax base and the number of mandatory payments, obtain a bank loan, and strategic planning.
