Why it should be easy to change accounting firms
Change is intimidating! Let's just get that out of the way. The grass might look greener on the other side, but actually moving onto that grass can be overwhelming. As a production company owner, you may want to avoid making big structural modifications, such as changing your staff or consultants, especially if they’re responsible for sensitive information like financials.
But your current accounting team isn’t quite cutting it.
Want to know a secret? Finding an optimal financial solution, trusting your accounting team, and implementing a process shouldn’t be that hard. Though the onus may fall on you to facilitate the transition, you should be able to expect your accounting team to expertly lead the way in obtaining the information they need to properly do their job. If you were hiring an architect, would they wait for you to recommend surveys or permits? No, you’d expect them to lead on the project you hired them for. The same rules apply for your accounting team.
Ready to switch accountants?
At Syzygy, we’ve both on- and off-boarded our fair share of clients, so we know that other accounting firms often incite (and invite) chaos. We’ve seen our accounting peers dive in on new clients without understanding their complexities, gathering key information and documents haphazardly and thoughtlessly. Ultimately, the business owner and executive producers bear the consequences—enduring mistakes made by an accounting team who doesn't really understand the production business or dealing with extra work from disorganized onboarding. As an EP, this can be stressful enough that you regret having ever made a change.
We’ve honed our process over myriad onboardings, using it to successfully get to know new clients, establish trust and rapport with them, and obtain all of the information we need. We know what questions to ask and when to ask them, which conversations will be challenging, how to get what we need from a prior firm or staffer (no matter how engaged or disengaged they are), and probably most importantly, when it should start to feel easy for everyone.
When clients sign on with us, we take full responsibility for the onboarding process and just ask that our clients join us for the ride. We’ll of course ask questions and request information, but our experience guides the process—designed to set structure and earn trust—from end to end.
Feel more at ease with Syzygy
Making a big change to such a critical business function can feel uncomfortable and scary, no matter the circumstances or the team you choose. That's why it's so important that the advisors guiding you through the transition should have the competence and experience to assure you that you’re just experiencing the pains of change—not the pains of a bad decision.