Choosing an accountant plus software

MoneyWorks chief executive Dr Grant Cowie said.......

"The real value of an accountant is not in the mundane annual tax return and dumping off a file or a shoebox of information but in giving insights into how you can improve your financials, your business processes and things like that. Compliance is important but it shouldn't be the driving factor."

He said the most important reason for getting accounting software was "for the information you get out of it to actually run your business."  People think it is all about compliance but it is not - it's about having good workflows and getting management information as well as financial information so you can run your business and see which bits are making money and which bits are not.

He said they [accountants] would still be needed for their advice - and payroll work.  "The thing about ACC and payroll is that it is a hugely complicated area.  Accounting itself hasn't changed since Luca Paceoli invented it in 1494.  But on the payroll side you have all these allowances and KiwiSaver and they are the high maintenance and expensive part.  It's a huge burden for businesses."

Extract from the National Business Review (NBR) special report July 6, 2012