The Right Accountant Completes the Team
Somehow it is almost always the case that the last person to be chosen for the leadership team is an accountant. You start with the idea people, the management people and the tech people. Somewhere along the way as you are wrestling with how to come up with an authentic business plan, it dawns on you that you need someone who is really good with numbers. Actually, you need someone who is good enough with budgets, statistics, ratios and percentages to help everybody else on the leadership team understand them.
While the dreamers and the builders seem to appear organically whenever an exciting new idea for a business is born, it is really necessary to recruit qualified people who know how to make the numbers work. Often, mentioning an accountant sounds like pessimism. In truth, however, accountants know how to make money function and turn dreams into growing realities.
Many Different Corporate Requirements
Every entrepreneur’s dream is unique, and the team that comes together to breathe life into that dream puts an individual stamp on it. When you begin to seek an accountant, you want one who is capable of being in touch with the direction and scope of your aspirations. It is also essential for that person to be in touch with how monetary realities will impact your vision.
To find just the right accountant, therefore, you need to locate a service with many options to offer and a wide range of candidates, such as Ageras. With the potential of international operations and the plethora of multinational trade organizations and agreements, you may well end up needing a variety of accounting professionals. Just as physicians specialize, over time and with experience, accountants also find those niches in which they operate seamlessly.
Two Certifying Agencies in Sweden
As you are establishing business operations in Sweden, it is important to know that there are two basic agencies that, among other things, certify and regulate accountants. The first of these, going back to 1936, is Srf, an association that has engaged with over 300,000 businesses both in Sweden and internationally. The second is FAR, an institution for accounting professionals headquartered in Stockholm that is actively involved in the international accounting organization IFAC.
The two organizations have established rigorous standards for accountants, a profession that continues to evolve as the global economy and the digital world evolve. Among the criteria for obtaining certification as an Authorized Accounting Consultant are:
- 180 higher education credits, of which 60 must be business administration and 15 in legal issues and 15 in taxation
- A minimum of three years of actual experience
Understanding Taxes and Depreciation
While you may be starting up a new business, it is important to think about getting rid of your equipment, which is to say you need to start planning already for depreciation. Your tax burden will be directly impacted by what hardware and real property you keep, how long you keep it and what you discard. There are many considerations when it comes to depreciation. For instance, you need an accountant who understands what can legally be depreciated, depreciation rates, how depreciation can lawfully be calculated and what happens in a case of over-depreciation. Knowing the ins and outs of this single issue can make the difference between a year of profit or loss.
About That Business Plan
While virtually all entrepreneurs recognize the need to create a business plan, there seems to be a universal tendency to make the plan say what you want it to rather than allowing it to speak to your team prophetically as the concepts are being developed. Whether you bring in an Authorized Accounting Consultant prior to the finalization of your business plan or only after you commence operating the company, an experienced accountant will have the ability to interact with your plans, keep them flexible and help your team adapt as well.
As Stever Robbins commented about business plans in a recent article for Entrepreneur, “It’s a tool for understanding how your business is put together. You can use it to monitor progress, hold yourself accountable and control the business’s fate.” If you have a great team, a well-conceived business plan and the right accountant, your dreams have an excellent chance of becoming realities.
