How professional accountants help small businesses

According to real businesses in our survey for International Accounting Day

In honour of International Accounting Day (Nov 10th), QuickBooks have looked at the impact of accountants and bookkeepers on real businesses across the UK (and the world!). The results of the survey are in: accountants help small businesses to succeed!

In October 2022, QuickBooks commissioned a survey of 2700 small businesses in the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia about the impact of an accountant or bookkeeper on their business.

It’s clear that accountants help small business owners to make better financial decisions and feel more confident in the success of their business. They don’t just help with the taxes (although we appreciate that!), they have a much wider role in the growth of a developing business.

A matter of confidence

When starting out, feeling confident in your business can be tough. There’s a lot of plates to spin, a lot of new things to learn and accounting is just the tip of the iceberg!

However, 99% of UK small business owners said their accountant or bookkeeper gives them more confidence in their business.

Does your accountant or bookkeeper give you more confidence in your small business?

Behind the scenes of many of the UK’s small businesses, there are accountants and bookkeepers providing the data, peace of mind and encouragement needed for success.

Nine out of 10 small businesses with an accounting professional say they have reduced stress for the business owner (across the UK, US, Canada and Australia).

On the other hand, small businesses that don’t have an accounting professional are less likely to have confidence in their taxes and financial health.

How many small businesses are confident they are paying taxes correctly?

Of 300 businesses with an accountant or bookkeeper in the UK, 69% said they are confident they are paying taxes correctly. Of 300 without an accountant, only 45% were confident they were paying taxes correctly. 

That’s a significant 24% more confident business owners across the UK thanks to accountants and bookkeepers.

Inflation, taxes and change…

The UK has gone through a lot of changes in inflation recently! On top of the ‘making tax digital’ move, it can feel like there’s a lot of new information to process as a small business owner. 

We wanted to know if having an accountant or bookkeeper helped business owners to better understand the changing financial market, and make intelligent business decisions based on it.

We asked: has your accountant or bookkeeper helped your small business to limit the impact of inflation this year?

Of the 300 UK businesses with an accountant or bookkeeper, 83% said yes, they have helped to limit the impact of inflation.

This answer was also mirrored in the USA (87% yes), Canada (86% yes) and Australia (86% yes).

Has your accountant or bookkeeper helped your small business to limit the impact of inflation this year?

Save time and money

Whatever the money saving initiatives in your office (supermarket brand just doesn’t taste as good as Yorkshire Tea!), every small business owner knows how pivotal it is to spend wisely and invest intelligently.

We asked: how much money do small businesses save each month by having a qualified accountant or bookkeeper?

In the UK, the majority of business owners said approximately £1000 per month.

An average of all the responses in the UK, put annual savings at £28000 - that could be a whole new staff member!

How much money do small businesses save each month by having a qualified accountant or bookkeeper?

In US Dollars, Canadian Dollars, British Pounds, and Australian Dollars, the average savings are roughly $39,00 / C$54,000 / £28,000 / A$40,000

Of course, every business owner knows time is as precious as money.

Whether it’s yours or your employees' time, there’s always more to do when it comes to establishing and growing a small business.

We asked business owners how much time they think they save each week by having a qualified accountant.

The most popular answer in the UK was 4 hours each week! On average across all the UK responses, businesses owners think you could save 59 days each year by getting an accountant or bookkeeper.

That’s some serious time that could be used to serve new customers, improve marketing, invest in new areas of growth (or simply take some time off!).

How much time do small businesses save each week by having a qualified accountant or bookkeeper?

On average each year, each small business saves roughly 73 lost working days in the US, 97 days in Canada, 59 days in the UK, and 71 days in Australia.

Do you need an accountant?

10 out of 10 small businesses with an accountant would say yes!

Would you recommend other businesses get an accountant or bookkeeper if they don't have one?

An impressive 100% of the 300 UK businesses with an accountant or bookkeeper would recommend other small businesses choose to do the same.

This was the same in the USA, Canada and almost Australia. (To the 1% who said ‘no, definitely not’ in Australia, we hope things are okay!)

Almost two-thirds of the respondents in the UK said small businesses that don’t have an accounting professional should get one today. The remainder say: “When it’s right for their business.”

Would you recommend other businesses get an accountant or bookkeeper if they dont have one?

What’s stopping you?

Only half of the UK respondents to our survey had an accountant or bookkeeper. We wanted to know what was stopping the others.

Just over half (53%) said they thought it was too expensive, but businesses with an accountant put average annual savings at £28000. An accountant should be able to save you enough time and money to cover their costs (and then some).

The next highest response (39%) said they just didn’t know who to hire and needed a recommendation!

Don’t let this hold you back from the range of benefits small businesses report having an accountant brings: try our tool to find accountants near you.

In the meantime, accounting software designed for small business owners like you could really help!

Why doesn't your small business have a qualified accountant or bookkeeper?

Methodology

Completed in October 2022, Intuit QuickBooks commissioned online surveys of 2,700 small business owners and decision-makers across the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. 

In each country, half of the small businesses surveyed had an accountant or bookkeeper while the other half did not. 

Small businesses are defined as having 1 to 100 employees, including the business owner. The majority of the respondents (58%) have less than 25 employees. 

In the US, there were 900 respondents in total: 450 businesses with an accountant or bookkeeper, 450 without. In Canada, there were 600 respondents: 300 businesses with an accountant or bookkeeper, 300 without. In the UK, there were 600 respondents: 300 businesses with an accountant or bookkeeper, 300 without. 

Overall, 43% of the respondents were the owner or chief executive of the business (or equivalent) while the remainder were senior leaders and decision-makers who are familiar with the business’s financial management strategy. 

Percentages have been rounded to the nearest decimal place — so the values shown in the charts and graphics may not add up to 100%. 

Responses were collected in online surveys using Pollfish audience pools and partner networks with double opt-in verification, random device engagement sampling, and post-stratification against local census data to ensure accurate targeting and results. Respondents received remuneration.