Which Financial Professional Do You Need?
Many business owners these days feel overwhelmed and sometimes held hostage by their finances. Understanding numbers is not an innate skill most people have and layered with the daily stresses of running a business, wearing multiple hats and multiple ‘To Do’ Lists, managing finances and money can become onerous and a time sink for most business owners.
One way to reduce the stress and overwhelm is to outsource – hire someone to take care of the numbers so you can focus on what you do best – run your business.
The ultimate questions, then becomes… what kind of numbers person do you actually need to service your business?
The following table gives you an idea of what each numbers professional can do for you and your business.
Please note, the table is meant to show generalizations and what an Accounting Team would look like if you had one of each of the roles listed below. But as you know, small businesses cannot always afford to employ all of these individuals to do the books. In reality, we will find that some bookkeepers will do accountant tasks and vice versa. Similarly, the most senior accounting person may do some work that is typically done by Accounting Managers, Controllers, or CFOs. As a result, the one strong accounting professional who can “do it all” is the ultimate unicorn.
There are two big takeaways we want to impress on you as business owners selecting who to hire or outsource to:
Ability Over Title - Look beyond titles and look at the past experiences and tasks actually done.
Titles differ across organizations. Many professionals can negotiate what title they hold in organizations.
It’s not always the title or letters after a name that will determine if the candidate is the right fit.
Look for practical experience & fit with what YOU want done and taken care of as a business and business owner.
Accounting TEAM - Understand HOW each of your Accountants work FOR you.
Year-end Accountants typically need to maintain independence from you and your business in order to “sign-off” on your financials. Ie. They usually don’t do the day-to-day operations and wouldn’t normally do management reporting for you.
Your accounting team (employed or outsourced) works on behalf of management and takes your direction to carry out duties such as management reporting.
Both types of accountants work together FOR your business, but each have their own roles.
Financial Professionals: Summarized
| Bookkeeper/Accountant | Manager/Controller | CFO | Year-end Accountant | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Focus | Data entry: recording of transactions (AR, AP, payroll) Filing GST, PST, EHT, WCB | Budgeting & Strategic planning Financial systems | Financial Strategy Risk management | Year-end statements (NTR, Review, Audited) Corporate year-end T2 Tax filings |
| Education | Certified Professional Bookkeepers (CPB) Junior accountants (CPA) in training | Chartered Professional Accountants (CPA)1 | Chartered Professional Accountants (CPA)¹ MBA | |
| Costs² | Depends on experience & tasks Annual $35K-75K $25-$60/hour | Annual $70K+/90K+ | Annual $150K + | Depends on risk of company and how much the year-end accountant needs to do in the absence of the full-cycle team |
¹ Used to be CA, CGA and CMA
² Based on Robert Half 2020 & 2021 Salary Guide https://www.roberthalf.ca/en/salary-guide
For the full version, click here to download the Excel spreadsheet file.
As you can see, selecting which financial professional you need on your team can be complicated. Typically, significant changes in the business, stagnation or in the business can give rise to owners wanting to review their accounting function. Do you have the right team supporting you?
Book time with Denise to analyze if you have the right team supporting you.