If you’re a small business owner or looking to start one, you may be wondering if you should hire a certified public accountant to oversee your day-to-day accounting tasks. While you can undoubtedly perform these tasks yourself with the help of good accounting software, there are some instances when you really need the expertise of a CPA. This legal and tax expert can help you in making sound business decisions, save you time, and avoid costly financial mistakes. In this article, we shall look at the benefits of hiring a CPA but first, let’s learn how they differ from accountants.
How Does A CPA Differ From an Accountant?
Before hiring a CPA, it’s important to understand how CPAs differ from accountants. While both have accounting degrees, a CPA has done and passed the CPA licensing exam – a strict exam that tests your understanding of standard accounting practices and tax law. CPAs must take other professional education courses so as to maintain their license, and their license may be revoked if they are convicted of negligence, fraud or ethics violations.
CPAs are usually expensive to hire but the good thing is you don’t have to hire them as full or even part-time employees – most of them offer their services as consultants which is much affordable.
Benefits of Hiring a CPA?
So, why should you hire a CPA? Here are some of their benefits:
1. Knowledge of Tax Laws
Certified public accountants are highly knowledgeable of tax laws and tax code. Actually, it’s one of the requirements for passing the CPA licensing exam. While an accountant or bookkeeper can help you prepare and sign your tax return, they don’t have the legal expertise to represent you before the IRS should a problem arise. A CPA can help you run your small business in a tax-efficient manner and keep you updated on changes in the tax code.
2. Financial Analysis and Advice
A bookkeeper can perform data entry tasks such as entering your business expenses and income and into financial programs like QuickBooks. An accountant, on the other hand, can help you review the data and prepare financial reports such as profit and loss statements and balance sheets. However, CPAs have the knowledge and expertise to do a more detailed analysis of your monthly and annual reports and can advise accordingly to keep your business financially healthy.
3. Best Practices
A CPA can help you determine the best practices for accounting and bookkeeping for your business. These tax and financial professionals can create for you reports that will help you see where your finances stand at a glance.
Understanding the best practices can save you from doing rookie mistakes and even save you money.
These are some of the benefits of hiring a public accountant. If you’re looking for an experienced CPA Loss Angeles, look no further than Lavi CPA. They have a solid reputation in offering the best bookkeeping and accounting services in Los Angeles. Call them now to learn more about their services.
