Can I trust a third-party accountant?
As a business owner, you want to protect your production company from anyone who could jeopardize it financially. How can you develop trust with a third-party accountant you’ve just partnered with?
Fully trusting your accountant can take time, and you should be able to move at a pace that feels comfortable. Here are some pointers on how you can maintain oversight over your books while you build that trust.
Ask about their process
Most importantly, make sure you understand their process. Are the accounts payable (outgoing payments) and accounts receivable (incoming payments) processes divided between more than one person? Is somebody outside of accounts payable performing or reviewing reconciliations of your bank statements? Is data entry being reviewed for accuracy? Do they require your approval prior to paying bills?
If your firm hasn’t put these controls in place, they’re leaving your business exposed to potentially compromising activity. Ask them about their best practices to avoid both theft and fraud and about their control points to ensure that work is being reviewed. If they’ve thought through and established processes to mitigate concerns, you’re dealing with a firm that understands and takes seriously the weight of their responsibility.
Make your boundaries clear
Your new firm is responsible for understanding your boundaries on releasing payments and managing cash flow, and proactively developing a process that you’re comfortable with. However, if they aren’t asking questions about your boundaries during the early stages, make sure to communicate them. For example, if you’d like to approve all payments before they’re sent—or even if you want to be the final checkpoint to release all payments—make sure they know that before they begin any work.
Ask for the access you need
What information would you like visibility into on a day-to-day basis—your bank account, your accounts payable and accounts receivable balances? Once you’ve determined the information that would give you peace of mind, ask for it! The work that your accounting firm is performing belongs to you, entitling you to any level of visibility you want.
See how they respond when something goes wrong
No matter how great your accounting team is, something is bound to go wrong at some point. A check might be mailed to the wrong address, or an invoice might be paid twice. These errors can happen for myriad reasons—what’s important is how your firm responds when they do. Do they proactively correct the mistake? Do they enhance process to ensure it doesn’t happen again? If they do, you’ll know the firm highly values your trust and has your back.
Give it time
Trust takes time! Just keep in mind that you’ll likely encounter a few bumps with your new accounting firm at first, as they learn all of your business’ complexities, but give it a couple of months and the bumps should even out. If that’s not happening, bring your concerns to your firm—their responsiveness will tell you a lot about how engaged they are.
If you’ve been working with a firm or team for a while that you still don’t quite trust, they may not be the right team for you. To connect with a group that prides themselves on being immensely trustworthy accountants, contact Syzygy today.