News headlines are full of accounts of small and large businesses that find themselves in legal trouble because of accounting discrepancies. The vast majority of these accounting discrepancies have something to do with tax law. Any tax expert will attest to the fact that tax laws change every single year. Most small business owners have a hard enough time staying on top of their business and do not have the time to stay abreast of changes to tax law. For this reason, more and more small business owners in Hawaii are deciding that hiring a Hawaii CPA is worth the additional expense, especially if this guarantees that their business is operating within local, state, and federal finance regulations.
Not everyone is 100 percent clear on what an accountant really does. Accountants specialize in all things connected to finance, business operations, money management, taxation, and budgets. Accounting is a term that covers a very wide industry. There are a lot of ways that an accountant can be beneficial to a small or large business.
Accountants will specialize in areas in which they have expertise. So, for example, some accountants will specialize in estate planning. Others are specialists in bookkeeping. Then there are accountants who focus solely on tax issues. Because of their familiarity with finance, accountants are often able to provide business consulting in addition to the accounting related help they give. Regardless of how big or small a business is, regardless of what industry they are in, and regardless of the amount of employees they have, business owners can be confident that there is an accountant who can meet their needs.
Business owners who are debating on whether or not they should hire an accountant should ask themselves about how much time they have every single day to dedicate to all the things that an accountant could do for them. Additionally, they should ask themselves if they have the time necessary to learn all the things that an accountant already knows.
It is important to point out that there is a difference between hiring a degree accountant and a CPA. Only a CPA can prepare and certify financial statements. Not all accountants are CPA’s, and not all CPA’s are accountants.
Accountants are required to receive periodic continuing education. This helps them stay up-to-date with changes in the law that could have an effect on their clients. A successful business owner is going to be interested in finding the right accountant who understands what the needs of the business owner are.
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