6 Reason Why F&B Firms Should Use a Freelance Accountant

Let’s talk about the most significant appeal of hiring a freelance accountant: Instead of spending all that unnecessary time on keeping track of your financial accounts, you could be experimenting with new menu offerings in the kitchen instead. And let’s face it, categorising expenditures into ‘taxable’ and ‘non-taxable’ is tedious and mind-boggling work which is better left to people who actually do it for a living.

In case you aren’t quite ready to part with some of your dough to hire a freelance accountant to take charge of your food business finances, I’ll help by listing 6 advantages of hiring a freelance accountant for your F&B business in Singapore. Hopefully, this will convince you to rid yourself of the burden of poring over your business’ detailed financial accounts.

1) Clear-Cut Cost Savings

Freelance accountants charge for their effective services through a fixed fee accountancy package. Once you sign a legally-binding contract with the accountant, they’ll be required, by law, to provide you with accounting services till the end of the contract period. This means that they will be unable to demand for an increase in pay, like a full-time accountant paid by the month,because your business ‘ finances has suddenly become too ‘complex’ three months into the job. Besides, unless you run a multi-million dollar business, having a full time accountant under your payroll doesn’t make financial sense for the amount of work required.

Avoid all that unnecessary drama and get full knowledge of the accounting costs up-front. You will then be able to better manage your budget allocations for the future – new coffee machines, higher pay for your disgruntled under-paid waiters and maybe even fancy new lighting? Furthermore, freelance accountants generally charge reasonable costs: they have to stay competitive in the job market. This ultimately translates to savings for you.

2) Avoid Trouble With ACRA and the Law

Have you ever felt like you were drowning in endless piles of paperwork which you have to file with the Singapore government? ACRA and IRAS may seem like the random union of four letters each but these government bodies actually legally mandate that you have to process certain documents with them regularly. Any errors made will not only cause you to have a mind-splitting headache, they will also cost you financially through fines and penalties.

Why would you want to part with part of your profits simply because you missed a deadline on filing for paperwork with the ACRA and IRAS? That’s not fair, isn’t it? This is where a freelance accountant comes in: they make sure that everything is filed properly and well within the stipulated deadlines so you don’t have to tear your hair out keeping track of all that administrative details. Now, you’ll have more time to fine-tune your menu offerings – salted egg fries maybe?

3) Manage Your Taxes More Effectively

Other than preventing your business from bleeding out on potential fines and penalties from filing your taxes wrongly, a freelance accountant can also alert you on the possible tax reduction schemes you’re eligible to apply for. Did you know about the Productivity and Innovation Credit Scheme (PIC)? Apparently, businesses are able to attain 400% tax deductions or allowances on up to $400, 000 of spending per annum in six qualifying activities. You can read about it here.

That’s crazy, the government is literally paying you back for your expenditures! If you hadn’t known about that scheme, well, I think a freelance accountant is just the person you need. Your accountant can also manage your expenditure and more efficiently allocate taxable income that will save you money.

Channel all that money saved into something which could help your food business expand and conquer the whole of Singapore. Come up with an innovative dish on the menu. I don’t know, anything, since you have some extra money which didn’t end up being paid as taxes.

4) Receive General Business Advice

Having dealt with a variety of businesses, freelance accountants are well-equipped with general business advice to dole out to young food businesses who need it. Rather than listening to the business advice of your family members and friends, I would think that you are a lot safer in the hands of an experienced accountant who has seen the daily operations of many businesses. They would have a general idea of what profit and losses work for your business so their advice is well worth a listen.

Ultimately, whether you choose to act on their advice is still up to your own discretion – it’s always good to have professional financial advice though.

5) Better Understand What Customers Want

If you’ve experimented with your marketing strategies or menu offerings but are unsure of how these changes have been affecting your business, a freelance accountant will be able to statistically paint a clearer picture for you – make changes based on data-driven results. Through analysing your financial data, a freelance accountant will be able to pinpoint what you are doing right and what you need to change in your business.

Maybe you’ve recently introduced a ‘Brunch’ menu to your offerings: a freelance accountant would be able to tell you whether it is going to make a profit for you in the longterm by analyzing how many dishes you’ve sold and at what profit margin that makes financial sense. Isn’t that great?

6) Spend More Time Running Your F&B Business

When you first opened your own eatery, I’ll bet that you did not envision yourself being cooped up in a dingy little room, electronically filing paperwork for your taxes and keeping account of your finances, did you? Of course not, who would? But the truth is that even though all the above stated activities are necessary, it doesn’t have to be you who does it! Hire a freelance accountant, who has a higher chance of loving keeping track of financial accounts than you do.

Think of all the time saved from not having to mail documents to the government boards. You could spend more time socialising with your clients and finding out what they personally enjoy about your business, adding new menu items and how about more time with your family?

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If I have managed to convince you of the need for a freelance accountant for your food business, there are 4 factors to take into account when you hire one. Price, quality of work, competence and also expertise in the industry. After having reviewed these 4 important factors, FC Accounting seems like the perfect company to hire a freelance accountant from.

FC Accounting‘s freelance accounting fees start at an extremely affordable price of $300 a month and many accountants who have had experience working in the Big Four are under the company. This means that these accountants are well-equipped with accounting knowledge and pride themselves on the ability to deliver results within stipulated deadlines. Furthermore, these accountants also possess relevant experience mainly in the F&B industry.

*This post originally appeared on sethlui.com