Beyond the Numbers: 5 Questions Every Business Owner Should Ask Their Accountant - FChain

Most business owners ask their accountant the wrong questions. What should they ask instead?

Five questions to ask your accountant to better understand your business

In many companies, conversations with the accountant end with the same questions:

— Have all reports been submitted? Have the taxes been paid? Are there any penalties?

Of course, these questions are important. But they only tell you one thing — whether the company is meeting its obligations to the government.

What about the business itself?

If a business owner wants to make decisions based on numbers, they should regularly discuss a different set of questions with their accountant.

1. What changed compared to last month?

Don’t just ask your accountant to show the report. Ask them to explain the changes.

What increased?  What decreased?  Which indicators changed the most?

Sometimes a single conversation like this can help identify a problem before it starts affecting profitability.

2. Which expenses increased, and why?

An increase in expenses is not always a bad sign. What matters is understanding the reason.

Is it due to seasonality? Higher sales volumes? Supplier price increases? Or are expenses rising without a clear business reason?

Without this analysis, the owner sees only the final amount and not what is behind it.

3. Which customers are delaying payment?

A sale does not mean cash has been received. If several customers regularly pay late, this can gradually create cash-flow problems.

It is much better to know this in advance than to discover it when the company is trying to meet its obligations.

4. Are there any indicators that concern you?

A good accountant does more than record numbers — they pay attention to changes. For example:

• accounts receivable are growing rapidly;
• inventory levels are increasing;
• cash balances are declining;
• certain expense categories are rising.

These signals can help management take the right action at the right time.

5. What should I pay attention to next month?

This is probably the most important question. It shifts the conversation from reviewing the past to planning the near future.

Discussions like this turn accounting into a management tool rather than just a bookkeeping function.

A good accountant prepares more than documents. They help the owner understand the numbers, notice changes, and identify trends that may affect the company’s performance.

This does not always require complex reports. Sometimes a regular conversation focused on key indicators is enough.

Tip for business owners

Set aside one day at the end of each month for a short meeting with your accountant. Even 20–30 minutes discussing the main financial indicators can be more valuable than reviewing dozens of pages of reports without explanation.

Article by Emil Nazarov

 

Accounting Is Not for the Tax Authorities — It’s for the Business Owner

 

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