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When you’re in business for yourself, or running a small company, you are always busy.

There’s always another meeting, or another customer presentation, or some operational problem that needs your immediate and undivided attention.

Even the most well-organized and forward-thinking business leader can sometimes find it hard to “keep a lid” on everything.

Accounting chores are some of the most difficult to keep consistently buttoned-up.

Entrepreneurs often have to operate in “triage” mode, spending their time on the urgent things that always seem to command their attention.  Things only they, as the top boss, can handle.

And that means some duties – the important but not urgent stuff – can be neglected.  It’s easy to fall a little behind on data entry, accounts receivable, tax planning, and other tasks every business owner needs to get done in order to keep the operation running.

Sometimes, it’s all the boss can do to keep the basic filings and critical things (like payroll) under control.  And in extreme cases, even those things can get short shrift.

The answer for many of your fellow business leaders is to outsource as much of these duties as possible. Get a bookkeeper to handle payroll and receivables… get a CPA to square things with the tax man.

But what do you do when things become so far behind you find yourself (and your business) in a real mess?

What do you do when you can’t keep your head above water with your accounting chores, let alone think and plan, because you don’t have the key numbers you need to drive the right “next move” decisions?

Find an accounting firm to help you get caught up… and do it now, before the holidays arrive and you find yourself even more frantically busy!

Maybe this is your story: You fall behind on your accounting duties, and you call your accountant for advice on how to right the ship.  But instead, you get a lecture (a lecture you don’t have time for!) about how bad you are for letting things get so out-of-control.

That’s like hiring a personal trainer, only to get berated for letting yourself get old and overweight!  Or a doctor, who wants to scold you for getting sick!

If you’re behind with your business’s books, find the right accounting firm to help you get caught up.

Look for three things:

  • Bookkeeping Chops.  The best CPA to help you with this mess is someone who also does bookkeeping, or who can refer you to a top-flight bookkeeper with skill in “back work” – precisely the kind of catch-up bookkeeping you need.  That person will not only get things squared away, they’ll have great advice on setting up systems to keep things straight going forward.  They may even be able to set those systems up for you.
  • A Solution Mindset.  What you don’t need at this point is another lecture.  You already know you’re behind!  Look for an accounting firm that understands the situation – a CPA who gets the notion that this is the sort of thing that happens to busy entrepreneurs, and who works with you to solve the problem (without judging you).
  • Responsiveness.  Some accountants will take forever to call you back.  By the time they do, you’re in deeper trouble than you were when you reached out to them!  A great CPA – one who understands the problem and brings a solution mindset to the situation – will also understand the importance of getting back to you (and getting on it) right away.

Hey, it happens.  Any business can fall behind on their accounting chores.  But you can find an accounting firm that is ready, willing, and able to help you… and who behaves as an ally and supporter of your business.  Not a disapproving math teacher!