Your accountant contacts you once a year, usually around tax time, asks for your financial records, prepares your tax return and annual financial statements, then disappears until next year. This pattern feels insufficient for running a growing business, but when you mention it to other business owners, they report the same experience.
Annual contact is completely normal for traditional accounting practices. It's not a sign that your accountant doesn't care or that you have a poor relationship. It reflects the reality that most accounting firms are structured to deliver compliance services on an annual cycle, not ongoing operational support throughout the year.
The issue isn't with your accountant. The issue is expecting a compliance service provider to also deliver ongoing operational finance support when their business model, skill set, and capacity aren't designed for that purpose.
Traditional accounting practices focus on compliance and reporting services that operate on an annual or quarterly cycle.
Tax return preparation involves collecting your financial information, reviewing transactions for tax treatment, claiming appropriate deductions, calculating tax liability, and lodging returns with the ATO. This happens once a year after your financial year ends.
Annual financial statements provide formal profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow statements prepared to accounting standards. These support your tax return and provide a statutory record of performance. Again, this is annual work.
Business Activity Statement preparation and lodgement happens quarterly for most businesses, involving GST calculation, PAYG withholding reporting, and other tax obligations. Your accountant might handle this or your bookkeeper might, depending on your arrangement.
Year-end compliance advice includes tax planning opportunities, structure review, depreciation schedules, and other matters best addressed as the financial year closes. This is bundled with the annual tax return work.
Statutory audit or review if you require one for shareholder, bank, or regulatory purposes happens annually in conjunction with financial statement preparation.
This service scope is valuable and necessary. Every business needs competent tax compliance and proper annual financial statements. The problem emerges when business owners expect this annual compliance service to also provide the ongoing operational finance support they need throughout the year.
Several critical finance functions require attention more frequently than once a year but fall outside traditional accounting scope.
Monthly management reporting that shows actual performance against budget, highlights variances requiring attention, tracks key performance indicators specific to your business, and provides context for decision-making isn't part of standard accounting services.
Most accountants prepare annual financial statements but not monthly management reports. If you're receiving any monthly reporting, it's likely coming from your bookkeeper and may be limited to basic profit and loss statements without analysis or context.
Cash flow forecasting and management requires ongoing attention to predict cash needs 8 to 13 weeks ahead, identify potential shortfalls before they become crises, plan for tax payments and other large obligations, and optimise working capital management.
Annual accountants aren't monitoring your cash flow week to week or month to month. They'll see the year-end result when they prepare your tax return, but they're not providing proactive cash management throughout the year.
Budget preparation and tracking involves creating realistic annual budgets based on business plans, breaking them down to monthly targets, tracking actual versus budget performance monthly, and adjusting forecasts as the year progresses.
Some accounting firms offer budgeting as an add-on service, but it's rarely included in standard packages and often isn't monitored monthly even when prepared.
Strategic finance consultation covering growth funding options, profitability improvement opportunities, cost structure optimisation, and business model financial viability requires ongoing dialogue about your business strategy and operations.
Annual accountants see your business through the lens of last year's tax return, not through ongoing strategic consultation about where you're heading and how to get there financially.
Payroll and compliance oversight beyond annual tax obligations includes ensuring award interpretation is correct, superannuation is calculated and paid properly, payroll tax obligations are met if applicable, and Fair Work requirements are satisfied.
Unless your accountant specifically provides ongoing payroll services, they're not monitoring this throughout the year. They'll check the year-end totals for tax return purposes, but errors and compliance issues that emerged during the year often go undetected until it's too late to easily fix them.
When your accountant provides annual compliance but not ongoing operational support, someone still needs to handle those ongoing finance functions. In most SMEs, that someone is the business owner.
The Xero Small Business Insights 2025 report found that business owners in companies with $2 million to $5 million revenue spend an average of 6 to 10 hours per week on financial administration tasks including reviewing financial performance, managing cash flow and working capital, paying bills and chasing receivables, reconciling accounts, preparing for tax and compliance, and making financial decisions without adequate information.
That's 312 to 520 hours annually that owners spend on financial administration because they don't have adequate ongoing finance support. This time carries significant opportunity cost, even if you're not directly calculating it.
Business owners capable of running $2 million to $5 million operations could typically earn $150 to $300 per hour consulting to other businesses or building their own company. The 6 to 10 hours weekly spent on financial administration represents between 1.5 and 3 full days per month not available for strategy, business development, operations improvement, or personal time.
Many business owners don't notice this cost because it feels like normal part of running a business. The financial administration gets done in evenings, weekends, or scattered throughout the week between other activities. It feels manageable even though it's consuming hundreds of hours annually.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics Business Characteristics Survey 2025 found that owner-operated businesses cite financial management as the second most time-consuming non-productive activity after general administration, yet few actively seek solutions because they assume it's unavoidable.
The solution isn't replacing your accountant. It's recognising that you need two different services to cover compliance and ongoing operations.
Accountant for compliance covering annual tax return and financial statements, statutory compliance obligations, year-end tax planning and structure advice, audit or review services if required, and periodic strategic tax consultation. This relationship typically costs $4,000 to $6,000 annually according to the Institute of Public Accountants 2025 Benchmarking Report for businesses in the $2 million to $5 million revenue range.
Finance team for ongoing operations providing monthly management reporting and analysis, cash flow forecasting and working capital management, budget preparation and variance tracking, strategic finance consultation aligned with business goals, and day-to-day finance questions and decision support.
This doesn't mean hiring full-time finance staff. For most businesses in this revenue range, it means engaging embedded finance support that works like an internal team but without employment overhead. This typically costs $2,000 to $4,000 monthly depending on business complexity and requirements.
The two services complement rather than conflict. Your finance team maintains records throughout the year and provides information to your accountant at tax time. Your accountant's year-end work informs your finance team's planning for the coming year. They work together at the annual boundary while operating independently throughout the year.
Businesses that implement the two-service model typically receive monthly financial support that includes several components.
Monthly close process where your finance team ensures all transactions are properly recorded, bank accounts and credit cards are fully reconciled, accounts payable and receivable are accurate, payroll and superannuation are processed correctly, and month-end reports are prepared within 5 to 7 business days of month end.
Management reporting package delivered monthly including profit and loss statement with prior period and budget comparisons, balance sheet showing working capital and equity changes, cash flow statement highlighting sources and uses of cash, key performance indicators specific to your industry and business, and written commentary explaining variances and highlighting issues requiring attention.
Cash flow forecast maintained on a rolling 13-week basis showing expected cash receipts from specific sources, planned cash payments by category, debt service obligations, tax payments and other large items, and projected cash position week by week.
Proactive consultation where your finance team raises issues before they become problems, suggests opportunities for improvement, answers questions as they arise rather than once a year, and participates in business planning and decision-making.
Coordination with your accountant at year-end to provide clean records, answer questions about transactions, and ensure smooth preparation of annual compliance work.
Moving from annual-only accountant contact to the two-service model involves several practical steps that most businesses complete within 4 to 6 weeks.
Contact your accountant and confirm exactly what services they provide and their contact availability throughout the year. Many business owners are surprised to learn their accountant is willing to provide more frequent contact but assumed the client only wanted annual service based on historical patterns.
Ask specifically whether they provide monthly management reporting, whether they're available for regular consultation calls, and whether they can support ongoing strategic finance needs. If the answer is yes and the relationship is strong, you might expand your accountant's scope rather than engaging separate finance support.
More commonly, you'll confirm that your accountant focuses on annual compliance and doesn't have capacity for ongoing operational support. This isn't a problem in the relationship; it's clarity about scope that allows you to engage appropriate additional support.
Look for embedded finance services, fractional CFO providers, or comprehensive bookkeeping firms that specifically offer monthly management reporting and strategic support, not just transaction processing.
Evaluate based on their response time commitment for questions, the depth of monthly reporting they provide, their experience in your industry or with businesses at your stage, and whether they work collaboratively with your existing accountant.
Most quality providers offer trial periods of 2 to 3 months so you can evaluate fit before committing long-term. This is reasonable and reduces risk on both sides.
Your new finance support will need access to your accounting system, bank feeds, and historical financial records. They'll typically spend the first 2 to 4 weeks cleaning up any outstanding reconciliation issues, establishing monthly close procedures, and setting up reporting templates.
Inform your accountant about the new arrangement and establish how year-end coordination will work. Most accountants appreciate working with professional finance teams because it makes their annual work easier and more efficient.
Agree on regular touchpoints with your finance support such as monthly reporting review calls, weekly cash flow updates if your business has tight working capital, and availability for questions as they arise throughout the month.
This is significantly different from annual-only contact with your accountant and takes adjustment. Many business owners initially under-utilise their finance support because they're not accustomed to having someone available for ongoing consultation.
After the relationship has been in place long enough to establish patterns, evaluate whether you're receiving the value you expected through better financial visibility and decision-making, reduced time spent on financial administration, earlier identification of issues and opportunities, and improved confidence in your business's financial management.
If the value is there, continue the arrangement. If not, identify specifically what's not working and address it with your provider before concluding ongoing finance support isn't worthwhile.
Adding ongoing finance support to your existing accountant relationship increases total finance costs, but most business owners find the return substantially exceeds the investment.
Traditional accountant-only model costs $4,000 to $6,000 annually for compliance services, plus 6 to 10 hours weekly of owner time managing ongoing finance operations. If you avoid calculating owner time, the visible cost is just the $4,000 to $6,000 accountant fees.
Two-service model costs $4,000 to $6,000 annually for accounting compliance plus $24,000 to $48,000 annually for ongoing finance support, totalling $28,000 to $54,000 in visible finance costs. However, owner time on finance administration typically reduces to 1 to 2 hours weekly for strategic decisions and review rather than operational tasks.
The increase in visible costs from $5,000 to approximately $40,000 feels significant until you recognise that you're converting 5 to 8 hours weekly of owner time into professional finance capability, improving decision quality through better information, and reducing financial risk through professional oversight.
For a business owner whose time is reasonably valued at $150 to $300 per hour, recovering 260 to 416 hours annually represents $39,000 to $125,000 in opportunity value. The incremental cost of $35,000 for professional finance support compares favourably to this opportunity value.
The question isn't whether your accountant is good at their job. The question is whether annual compliance services alone provide the financial management capability your business needs at its current stage and complexity.
Businesses with straightforward operations, experienced owners who enjoy financial management, limited growth ambitions, and stable cash flow may operate successfully with annual accountant contact plus owner-managed finances.
Businesses experiencing growth, operating with tight working capital, navigating complexity through multiple products or locations, or led by owners who'd rather focus on operations than financial administration typically benefit substantially from ongoing finance support beyond annual accounting.
The right answer depends on your specific situation, not on a general rule about what businesses your size should do. The key is making an active choice based on your needs rather than defaulting to annual-only contact because that's what you've always had.
If annual accountant contact feels insufficient but you've been uncertain whether that's normal or whether alternatives exist, you now understand it's completely normal for traditional accounting practices, and effective alternatives exist through the two-service model that separates compliance from ongoing operations.
Won't my accountant be offended if I engage separate finance support?
Most accountants appreciate working with businesses that have professional ongoing finance support because it makes year-end work smoother and more efficient. Frame it as complementary services rather than replacement, and clarify that you value their compliance and tax expertise while adding operational support they don't provide.
Should I ask my current accountant to provide ongoing support before engaging someone else?
Yes, it's worth the conversation. Some accounting firms offer ongoing support as additional services and would welcome the expanded relationship. Others specialise in compliance and prefer to focus there. Either answer is fine, it's about clarity.
How do I know if ongoing finance support is worth the cost?
Track how much time you currently spend on financial administration weekly. Calculate what recovering most of that time would be worth to you. Compare that value to the $24,000 to $48,000 annual cost of professional support. Most business owners find the economics clearly favour professional support once they honestly calculate their time value.
What if I try ongoing finance support and it doesn't work?
Quality providers work on relatively short notice periods, typically 30 days. If the relationship isn't working after a genuine trial, you can exit without long-term commitment. The key is trying with a reputable provider rather than assuming it won't work for your business.
Can one provider do both annual accounting and ongoing finance support?
Some larger accounting firms offer both services through different teams. This can work well if they're genuinely structured to deliver both, not just adding ongoing support as an afterthought to their core compliance practice. Evaluate based on actual service delivery, not promises.
Do I still need a bookkeeper if I have ongoing finance support?
Ongoing finance support typically includes bookkeeping as part of the service, or coordinates closely with your bookkeeper if you prefer to keep them separate. You don't need both a bookkeeper doing transaction processing and finance support duplicating that work, so clarify scope to avoid overlap.
How quickly will I see results from ongoing finance support?
Initial results appear within the first month through better visibility into your financial position. Meaningful impact on decision quality and time savings typically emerges after 2 to 3 months once processes are established and you've learned to utilise the support effectively.
Xero. (2025). Small Business Insights Report: Time Allocation and Financial Management Practices.
Institute of Public Accountants. (2025). Annual Benchmarking Report: Accounting Services Pricing and Scope.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2025). Business Characteristics Survey: Owner Time Allocation and Management Practices.
CPA Australia. (2025). SME Financial Management Research: Service Models and Business Outcomes.
Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman. (2025). Financial Capability and Support Requirements Survey.
Scale Suite delivers embedded finance and human resource services for ambitious Australian businesses.Our Sydney-based team integrates with your daily operations through a shared platform, working like part of your internal staff but with senior-level expertise. From complete bookkeeping to strategic CFO insights, we deliver better outcomes than a single hire - without the recruitment risk, training time, or full-time salary commitment.
Considering building an internal finance team?
We'll show you exactly what our three-tier model covers, how it compares to internal hires, and what it would cost for your business.
We'll reply within 24 hours to book your free 30-minute call.
No lock-in contracts and 30-day money-back guarantee.
Prefer to book directly? Schedule your free 30-minute call here
