Does DIY Accounting Work?

There is no doubt that with advent of Xero, MYOB and Quickbooks, the process of accounting has been made much simpler.

The premise being that you can simply input your daily/weekly transactions into their software and all will be well.

Even the ATO is rapidly progressing down the track of simplifying accounting for businesses.

And while to some extent, this is true – particularly when it comes to BAS, reconciliations and so on, however, I would humbly suggest that there is much more to small business accounting than just having an accounting software package.

And yes, I am an accountant, so please hear me out.

Consider this for a moment – does cutting your own hair result in the same outcome as going to a hairdresser/barber?

For the most part, the answer is NO.

The same is true if you have back pain or are not feeling well – in these cases you’d go and see a physiotherapist and a doctor.

DIY works very well for all those around the home jobs – fixing leaking taps, painting, putting up a new fence and so on.

However, when it comes to professional services, it’s a different story.

The primary driving force behind DIY accounting is that of saving money – why spend money if you can do it yourself?

So, here’s the bottom line, while these software programs are certainly sophisticated enough to do some of the work of a fully qualified accountant, the software will not be able to give you the sound advice that an accountant can give you.

Remember, garbage in – garbage out.

Ask any accounting professional who has analysed a self-maintained QuickBooks file and they’ll share the horror stories about how business owners have fundamentally messed up their books. And then worse, they’ve gone on to rely on those books when preparing their tax returns.

Xero recognizes the role of the accountant in achieving success for a small business.

Also, accountants who actually specialise in the cloud and even further, a particular industry niche, will add the most value to a small business.

An accountant who actively works with cloud accounting software along with their clients will add so much more value to the small business than merely completing a BAS at the end of each quarter.

Your accountant not only has a wealth of knowledge, experience and expertise – she also has access to other resources to help in areas that they may not have expertise in.

The accounting world is bringing so much power and functionality down to the smallest of businesses, but it takes a lot of knowledge and experience to make everything run well and to turn all that data into useful and reliable information at the end of the day.

Aperture Accounting, 1300 273 788