Are your business finances keeping you awake at night? There may be help at hand.

Are your business finances keeping you awake at night? There may be help at hand.

The daily news reminders of soaring inflation, rising fuel costs and scarcity of raw materials can make for grim reading and add to business owners’ woes and worries, as they grapple to get their businesses back on track post-pandemic. Talking to business leaders, it would seem the managing of business resources and spiralling costs is taking its toll, especially if the internal finance team is under-resourced or under-skilled for this challenging, ever-evolving task.

Graeme Jack, Manager of Haines Watts’ new Stirling Office, recommends that business owners turn to their accountant for support during these tricky times. Sounds obvious perhaps but many owner-managed businesses only use their accountant once a year, for their end of year company compliance and personal tax returns. Graeme suggests this is often “too little, too late”, particularly in the current climate. He recommends having high levels of visibility and transparency of ALL key financial data and holding regular discussions with an experienced accountant, so that business critical decisions can be made in a timely fashion.

Up-to-date information to assist forecasting, planning and managing cash-flow is imperative for safeguarding any business during turbulent times and minimising or averting the potential detrimental consequences of running out of cash. Equally for those businesses prospering financially right now, it’s vital to know how best to manage surplus profits and minimise tax liabilities. Graeme again recommends early conversations with your accountant to mitigate against inflated tax bills and ensure effective tax planning.

At Haines Watts, the focus of the entire team is on the client relationship and making sure regular conversations take place with clients using up-to-date financial information. Ryan White, based in the Edinburgh office, is leading the drive towards ensuring clients are adopting the latest technology to manage their finance function and feels this is greatly enhancing the level of proactive conversations that can be held with clients.

Ryan says: “recent investment in our team and technology has allowed us to expand our traditional bookkeeping and VAT compliance services, to create a quasi-external finance director role for our customers. This means that clients who might not necessarily have the resources to employ a finance director can access Haines Watts’ years of expertise in a tailored way to suit their needs and budget.” Ryan suggests it’s vital for business owners to prioritise real time data to ensure timely and evidence-based business decisions, helping navigate the business through current choppy waters.

Both Ryan and Graeme are happy to chat to business owners who would like to find out more about using the services of their highly effective outsourced finance team. There are a range of options to suit every business and budget, depending on the specific nature of each unique client’s requirement.

To find out more or get in touch, e-mail Ryan at rwhite@hwca.com or Graeme at gjack@hwca.com or call us on 01786 649474 (Stirling); 0131 625 5151 (Edinburgh).