The era has arrived to close the gap between accountants and entrepreneurs regarding perceptions about finance. Business owners who are powerless against overwhelming fear of numbers need accounting experts for treatment of their phobia. Equally important, accountants need to conquer their addiction of blindly recording numbers without usefully evaluating financial data.
Step one is for entrepreneurs to realize that numbers on a page have meaning. They diagram beneficial trends to maintain as well as mistakes to avoid. Step two requires accountants to stop talking about debits and credits like they’re describing the intricacies of brain surgery. Business owners need a dialog they can understand and concepts they can put into action.
Entrepreneurs are focused on growing their operations. A primary concern is stopping little problems before they become big impediments to success. For example, out of whack inventory demands a new process of accurately recording cost of sales. The business owner needs to understand his markup… and realize that this information is revealed in financial statements.
Are accounting records missing some charges on the company credit card? Payroll expense doesn’t equal gross wages on quarterly IRS reports? Accountants anticipate such difficulties because entrepreneurs hate reconciling. But, business owners do want a tax deduction for all their expenditures and wish to avoid conflicting information that triggers IRS trouble.
Wise entrepreneurs ask their accountants how to find vital business information in their financial records. At the same time, accountants should deliver tips that improve record keeping procedures, which maximizes usefulness of financial statements.
The Finance Writer 