Your tax preparer (probably) shouldn't be your bookkeeper

When you have a specific problem you can't solve alone, you want help from an expert at solving that particular problem, don't you?

Your family doctor is there to help you with maintenance and to help you find specialists when you have bigger issues. Your handyman isn't likely equipped to re-plumb your entire house.

But a neurosurgeon and a PCP are both healthcare professionals, and a handyman and a plumber are both in the trades, so aren't they interchangeable?

Of course not!

So why would you think the same of the financial professionals supporting your business?

A CPA or EA are great people to work with when you need tax filing or planning, but we run into prospective clients all the time who say that they don't need bookkeeping because their "tax guy handles it."

Guess what? If your tax pro is trained primarily on tax prep and planning but handles your bookkeeping for you, how will they be inclined to treat your books?

They'll *charge you* to make *their job* easier. 99% of the time they'll organize your data solely around tax forms.

Why's that a problem? Because for the rest of the year, YOU WON'T BE GETTING DATA MEANT TO *HELP YOU BUILD A STRONGER BUSINESS.*

(God, I hate yelling like that, but to drive this point home, it's worth it.)

Because bookkeepers, tax pros, and advisors like fractional CFOs are different flavors of financial professionals. In short:

- A bookkeeper helps you *look back* at your business' financial activity and report on its *current situation* and how it got there

- A tax preparer (eg CPA or EA) helps you *look back* at your business' activity and *stay compliant with the IRS*

- A tax planner helps you make decisions based on your bookkeeping and tax filings that will reduce your *tax obligation* in the *future*

- An advisor or CFO helps you make decisions based on your bookkeeping that will improve the *strength and health of your business* in the *future*

Are there exceptions to this? Sure. Do some firms have multiple specialists in house? Absolutely. Will a tax-focused CPA firm still fail you when it comes to operational bookkeeping 99% of the time? I have so many stories...

While your needs and priorities will change over the life of your business, don't think that *one* of these folks is all you'll ever need. Because ultimately you'll need one of *each* of them to really thrive in the long term.

Need help understanding what you need now and what you need next? Let's talk.