How are we going to add value to our services as accountants?

Business owners tend to approach accountants when they are aware of the perks they add when recruited to the team. However, not everyone is the same, and some are skeptical or outright averse to the idea of approaching one. Hiring the services of a professional accountant not only adds value but keeps your business steady and in check.

With the advent of technology and its subsequent marvels, accountants have expanded and honed their skills to generate maximum output in their respective fields. What exactly defines value might be subjective but it is universally accepted that a valuable person is the driving force behind the success of an entrepreneur or firm.

Value distinguishes individuals in their expertise, the benefits they offer, and the overall contribution of their skills to their employer. An accountant can be a valuable asset for an employer if they successfully improve an organization’s financial standings and contribute to its overall well-being.

Energetic, enthusiastic, passionate, competitive, and agile are some of the attributes that define valuable individuals. Their engagement and participation in the regular affairs of their employer’s venture invigorate and rejuvenate the business and enable it to thrive against its competitors.

The benchmarks for this value are directly affected by the ethos and ethical values upheld by businessmen and firms but the core concept of value is universal and general for everyone. I have recounted several ways to add value as an individual and these concepts can be expanded upon by individuals when implementing in their services.

Think creatively, and you’ll carve yourself a path full of opportunities; confine yourself to conventional thinking, and you bound yourself to a cage limiting your capabilities and opportunities. Accountants possess sharp analytical and critical thinking skills that enable them to uncover and interpret intricate financial patterns, often invisible to the untrained eye.

Make yourself comfortable with ERP software and understand the perks that comes with it and the financial data obtained to identify potential vulnerabilities which can create potential problems. Allocate resources in growing and successful ventures and stop funding fruitless and unprofitable projects. BCG matrix will help you understand the current position of your business in the market.

An ERP software consolidates financial, operational, and client information in a database accessible to employees. The real-time data collected from the software will help you forecast financial earnings, potential investments, profit predictions, and future planning.

Accountants will be responsible for laying out a financial plan detailing the allocation of funds to old and prospective new ventures. You will need to analyze market conditions promptly and for that, you should have prior experience in collecting information for market research. Analyzing preceding financial data of business and market conditions will help you gauge and anticipate future standings to make informed decisions about potential investments and expansions into new ventures in the subsequent future.

Accountants should perform a cost analysis to understand which sectors generate profits and which sectors are stale or underperforming to allocate resources into productive and rewarding sectors. Here ERP software plays its part and outlines useful information pertinent to financial assets, budget, and forecasting.

Accountants often create different scenarios to analyze them from different angles to gain perspective on the potential strengths and weaknesses of implementing business models and strategies. This helps them to mitigate vulnerabilities by finding an effective and potent solution. You should follow this cause-and-effect method to gain perspective on various scenarios you are going to face in the future.

• Setting up an intended objective and determining the content in which it will be achieved
• Working out a limited series of possible outcomes and assumptions detailing the achievement of those outcomes
• Detailed study of events that may or may not happen, ranging from highly likely to highly unlikely or impossible, and interfere with the achievement of those outcomes
• Evaluating strengths and weaknesses of a business or organization, its procedures, and resources to deal with adverse situations should they arise in the future
• Determining supplementary actions required to address unwanted risks

Professional accountants are adept at identifying loopholes that could undermine their employer’s financial integrity, carefully scrutinizing every detail to safeguard the business from potential threats. Their expertise and experience speak volumes in their work ethics and decisions precisely pinpointing fallacies and shortcomings.

Scrutinizing financial transactions with a check-and-balance mechanism ensures your monetary activities are safe from fraud, error, and inefficiencies. Keep an eye out on financial reports as they may allude to monetary discrepancies which if not handled properly will likely turn into disasters. You should look for unstable patterns in investments, liabilities, and incomes which will likely serve as initial whistleblowers.

Market assessment is essential to quantify financial risks including market volatility or changes in regulations. The assessor needs to keep in mind the changing nature of market as it usually changes most often and needs to be addressed when making financial decisions. Diversifying investments without limiting to a single sector ensures that you don’t keep all eggs in a single basket which poses great risk and undermines financial stability in more than one way. Either that or limiting your financial plans without excessive expenditures mitigates and balance the risk.

The domino effect adversely impacts a business’ trajectory, breaking its delicate balance based on factors such as business processes, customer interactions, market trends, financial management, and executive decisions. Accountants use their knowledge in financial affairs to fortify a business’ financial integrity.

To counter the domino effect, analyze from the foundation all the way to the top and focus on ensuring that the business has enough liquidity to meet its short-term objectives.

Review liabilities and debts to assess their impact on the financial health of the business which includes: debt covenants, interest rates, repayment schedules, and loan agreement breaches imposed by creditors.

Analyze irregularities or weaknesses in financial transactions and internal controls that might have contributed to the domino effect which includes hacking, malfunctioning devices, and tempering with physical assets.

Problem-solving is one of the rare and prized traits and implementing it can reduce mammoth problems without breaking a sweat.

Mentally sharp and keen-eyed individuals are able to intercept susceptibilities immediately after they are discovered and create an optimal solution to prevent them from turning into a problem.

Accountants need to handle unexpected market turndowns and their employer’s unexpected financial expenses avoiding potential disasters such as losing stock shares and trade deficits.

Soft-spoken individuals are preferred and valued over crude and offensive people because of the demeanor former exhibit. Refining communication and connections help you in the long run and assist you in propelling your career and your connections will come in handy when dealing with creditors and debtors.

Translating complex financial data into clear, concise, and actionable insights easily understood by non-financial stakeholders is required to create a communication channel for mutual understanding and ensures that everyone is on the same page.

A professional and innovative accountant will readily embrace new and improved technology to expand on their skills. The Internet has empowered various fields with powerful tools and means of communication unheard in the history of mankind. Computers and their software have enabled us to work from home eliminating the need for commuting and traveling long distances.

A couple of handy tools you will most likely use during your professional career are QuickBooks, Xero, SAP Concur, FreshBooks, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and NetSuite ERP. You are either going to use one of these or custom-made software catering to your particular business and its needs. This is for beginners who are unfamiliar with accounting software and need to know some of the best software in the market at this moment.

Blockchain has become an industry standard for adding an extra layer of security to financial transactions, streamlining payment and remittance processes by reducing settlement times, and significantly cutting costs. This technology needs to be adopted and implemented in software utilized by the business for securing its financial transactions and monetary activities to prevent hacking and fraud.

Analyzing potential risk and approaching the peril with comprehensive and effective solutions by implementing a robust internal audit program regularly hunting for financial irregularities greatly reduces the chances of jeopardizing your monetary activities.

You can find new and familiar concepts laid out to help you understand the meaning of value and traverse initial hurdles of your career as well as understand traits that set professionals from amateurs. Now, the ball is in your court and only you can shape your career however you choose it for yourself.

Explore new horizons, discuss what you have learned with your seniors and mentors, and grasp and experiment with new software to learn new and exciting ways you can practice accountancy. Accounting skills are based on critical and analytical thinking to scrutinize, interpret, and classify financial data.

The actual values that distinguish professional and highly qualified accountants from amateurs and beginners are based on their depth of knowledge, experience, ethical integrity, technological expertise, and ability to act swiftly in adverse and complicated circumstances.