My primary observation with accountants is that most of them graduate from college, spend time at an accounting firm, obtain their CPA certification, and aim to become a partner at a firm. I would guess that 75% of practicing CPAs have spent little to no time working for non-accounting companies, giving them very little practical experience in things other than numbers.

Secondly, by nature, most accounts have a very reclusive, heady approach to business. Entrepreneurs and accountants have about as opposite approach on most things as anything. This can be good, on the one hand, and bad on the other. Accountants can help entrepreneurs to think practically and deal with the “brass tack” issues of running a business, if the accountant is able to communicate well and not territorial when it comes to knowledge (unfortunately, this is often not the case.

Finally, and most importantly, accountant almost always get paid based on “billable hours” (hours worked on a client’s account and not for “administrative activities”), rather than on a “project completion” basis. This almost always lends toward inefficiency and territorialism. The more efficient I am, the quicker I work, the less I get paid, the more administrative overhead I have, the lower my billable hours to total hours. The answer for GOOD accountants? Jack your hourly rate up to compensate. Unfortunately, most business owners don’t want to pay these rates, so the accountant keeps the lower price and dilly dallies around to smooth the earnings process (an unethical approach in my estimation).

That’s my observation.

Thanks for the platform!

Excellent point, worthy of a post in it’s own right.

Thanks for that very candid comment.

I would agree that for most businesses they are better off spending their time selling/doing the work/improving the business than doing their accounts.

I suspect your approach will actually lead to more of the “good” clients staying, sure they might take the basic work in house but they’ll still regard you as an expert they can call on for specialist advice.

Second a lot of accountants adopt a “black box” or “don’t worry your pretty little head” attitude to their clients’ work. In other words they attempt to keep what they are doing a “black art”. Now I can understand that as a sales approach as it keeps clients tied to you. But I tend to go a different way: namely this is the situation, this is what I recommend and this is why and if you don’t understand I am happy to keep explaining it. This means the client MAY one day decide they can do without me (fine they’re probably not paying me very much anyway at that point) but more often than not I hope they realise that we are more efficient than they are at doing the work, and efficiency is important in business.

The right accountant adds lots of value and almost every business should have one they can at least talk to. Indeed I subscribe to the old saying that everyone should know a lawyer, an accountant and a doctor! But like doctors and lawyers choose an accountant you get on with and trust.

Sadly accountants have a long way to go in running their own businesses well.