Your VAT return is due.
Your annual accounts need approving.
There are transactions that need explaining.
For many business owners, these are the main reasons they hear from their accountant. The conversation usually begins because a deadline is approaching, a document is missing or a payment needs to be made.
But when did your accountant last contact you because they had noticed something useful in your figures?
When did they last tell you that sales had increased but profit had not increased with them? That one venue was outperforming another? Or that the business might now be able to afford the additional member of staff you desperately need?
If the answer is “never”, it does not necessarily mean you have the wrong accountant.
It may mean the relationship is still centred on processing information and meeting deadlines, rather than using that information to help you run the business.
Your Accountant Can Be One of Your Most Useful Resources
Your accountant has access to information that can tell an important story about your business.
The figures can show whether increasing sales are producing more profit, whether staffing costs are sustainable, whether prices need to change and whether one part of the business is supporting another.
They can help you understand whether the business is in a position to recruit, invest, open another venue or increase the owner’s pay.
Used well, an accountant for hospitality businesses can help you identify problems earlier, test your plans and make decisions with greater confidence.
They can even help turn a struggling business around—not by running it for you, but by showing you what is happening while there is still time to do something about it.
The difficulty is that many businesses use only a small part of what their accountant can offer.
Why Valuable Advice Can Get Lost
Business owners often say that they would like more tax advice and more regular contact from their accountant.
That is completely understandable. If you have a qualified financial professional supporting your business, you naturally want to benefit from their knowledge—not only hear from them when a return is due.
But much of the available time can be taken up by collecting receipts, processing invoices, correcting records, answering bookkeeping queries and preparing returns.
By the time the compliance work has been completed, there may be very little space left for a meaningful conversation about the future of the business.
That is a missed opportunity for both the business owner and the accountant.
Your accountant may have valuable ideas about tax planning, cash flow, pricing, recruitment or investment. But useful business advisory services require current information and enough time to understand what you are trying to achieve.
If the relationship has been built mainly around VAT returns, annual accounts and tax returns, the accountant may be delivering exactly what was agreed.
The opportunity is to build on that relationship and create room for something more valuable.
Technology Has Changed What Is Possible
There was a time when business owners collected paper invoices and receipts, placed them in an envelope and delivered them to their accountant.
They then waited for everything to be processed before they could find out what had happened in the business.
That should no longer be necessary.
Modern cloud accounting software is designed for ordinary business users. You do not need to understand debits, credits or accounting jargon to record an invoice or receipt.
A restaurant manager can check a delivery and immediately take a photograph of the supplier’s paperwork using a phone.
If an invoice arrives in the post, it can be photographed after the envelope is opened instead of being placed in a drawer or left in a pile for someone to deal with later.
If a supplier sends a PDF invoice by email, it can be forwarded straight into the accounting software. There is no need to print it, carry it to the office or wait until the end of the month.
Bank transactions can feed into the system automatically. Software can match payments to invoices and receipts, while bookkeeping automation and AI can extract information from documents and highlight items that need attention.
The restaurant manager does not need to decide how the transaction should be treated in the accounts. Their role is simply to make sure the document enters the system while it is still current.
The bookkeeper or accountant can then review the information, check that it has been recorded correctly and deal with the items that genuinely require their judgement.
Technology is not there to turn your restaurant manager into an accountant. It is there to make capturing financial information part of the everyday operation of the business.
Get the Bookkeeping Out of the Way
Accurate bookkeeping for restaurants, pubs and other hospitality businesses is essential. Without complete and current records, your accountant cannot tell you reliably what the business can afford today.
But bookkeeping should be the foundation—not the final result.
When invoices and receipts are captured as they arrive, there is less paperwork to chase at the end of the month. Automation can deal with much of the repetitive processing, leaving the accountant or bookkeeper to review the records and concentrate on the areas that require human judgement.
This changes the conversation.
Instead of spending the available time trying to identify an old payment, you can discuss why profit fell last month.
Instead of searching for missing receipts, you can look at whether a particular venue, menu or service is performing as expected.
Instead of waiting for the annual accounts, you can use current management accounts to discuss decisions while there is still time to influence the result.
That is how technology helps move the accountant’s role from recording the past to helping you plan the future.
Could You Afford to Hire Another Member of Staff?
Imagine that your restaurant or pub is busy, but you and your managers are exhausted.
The kitchen is stretched. Service is becoming slower. Managers are regularly covering gaps in the rota instead of concentrating on customers, standards and the wider business.
Another member of staff would reduce the pressure, but you are worried about taking on the additional cost.
The bank balance will not give you the full answer. Some of that money may already be needed for VAT, PAYE, rent, suppliers or loan repayments.
Turnover will not give you the answer either. A busy venue can generate strong sales without producing enough profit or cash.
This is where a hospitality accountant can become a proper adviser.
They can help you understand whether recent profits are sustainable, what the new employee will cost in full and how recruitment could affect cash over the coming months.
They cannot guarantee that employing someone will be the right decision. But they can give you the information and professional insight you need to make that decision with greater confidence.
Instinct matters, especially in hospitality. But instinct becomes much more powerful when it is supported by reliable figures.
Create Room for Better Advice
A better relationship does not have to involve long meetings filled with accounting terminology.
It can be a focused monthly conversation about what happened, why it happened and what the business should consider doing next.
For that to work, the records need to be kept current and the service needs to include time for your accountant to review and explain them.
That may mean using bookkeeping automation to make the process more efficient. It may mean receiving monthly management accounts rather than waiting for annual accounts. It may also mean arranging regular advisory meetings so your accountant knows what you are planning before you make a major decision.
You may already have an excellent accountant. You may simply be using only a small part of what they can offer.
The goal is not to demand more work from them without changing anything else. It is to create a way of working that allows both of you to focus on the information and advice that can make a real difference.
You may be thinking, “But I’m not a numbers person.” You do not need to become an accountant or understand every accounting term. You need clear financial information connected to the decisions you make every day—such as employing another person, changing your prices, choosing a supplier, opening another venue or protecting cash during a quieter period.
That is what I will explore in the next article: “I’m Not a Numbers Person”—Why You Can Still Understand Your Business Finances.
At JERN Financials, we help hospitality business owners use modern technology to keep their records current and turn their figures into information they can use to make better decisions.
If you would like to explore how to get more value from your bookkeeping and accounting, book a discovery call with JERN Financials.
Esther Kyesimira FCCA
Founder, JERN Financials Limited