Welcome to “Accountants Nanaimo”!
Why such an odd name for a website? Well, I chose this name for a very specific reason. When business owners are looking for an accountant in Nanaimo, whether for bookkeeping, corporate tax returns, an audit, or just for someone to fill a temporary part-time accounting position, chances are that they will go to their favourite search engine and type in “Accountants Nanaimo” or “Accountants in Nanaimo” or some similar phrase. My guess is that is what you did, and here you are!
Accountant's modern convenience
I operate an accounting service providing temporary, part-time accounting help to companies/organizations of all sizes: from one-person shops to publicly-held corporations. If you are looking for a public accountant or auditor I would suggest a local public accounting firm serving businesses similar to yours.
From this point on, I’m going to assume that you are looking for someone to come into your office on an as-needed basis for any of the following:
- Maternity leave
- Vacation/Sick leave
- Year-end or Quarter-end
- Sudden vacant position
- Interim Controller/Accounting Manager
- Mentor/Coach to train a junior accountant to take a more senior role
- Internal audit
- Complex reconciliations
- Financial analysis
- Special one-time projects
- Custom Excel solutions using automation with VBA
Did I miss any services you require?
The first question I hear you asking is “What are your qualifications?” I’m glad you asked; this is where I get to test my tuba! I am a professional accountant (Certified General Accountant) with close to twenty years experience in companies ranging in size from a local HVAC contractor to a multi-billion dollar multi-national. I have worked in many temporary/contract positions in diverse industries and held accountancy positions from clerk to controller.
Your second question is probably “Do I need an accountant with a designation?” The answer is, of course, that it depends on what you want done. My guess is that about 90% of the accounting work done in a typical small to medium size business (SME) is repetition – the same kind of transactions processed, the same reports generated, etc. As long as the person you get has experience with that level of work, you should be fine not bothering with a designation. The remaining 10% is what I call the “Oddball Sector”: transactions, reports, analyses, processes, and procedures which are not repeated often; ins and outs of commodity taxes; streamlining and finding efficiencies; mentoring/training junior staff; and other things that I will think of later when I am trying to sleep. Although there is no guarantee, a designated accountant will most likely have relevant skills/experience in those areas.
Another question people ask is “I have heard of (this) designation and (that) designation; how many are there and what’s the difference?” Here in Canada there are three professional accounting designations: Certified General Accountant (CGA); Chartered Accountant (CA); and Certified Management Accountant (CMA). All three have a demanding program of study (same or very similar courses) and rigorous examination and experience requirements prior to certification. CAs can get their education only through university programs. CGAs and CMAs can work full-time while taking their courses – a more attractive option for many who have financial responsibilities to meet while upgrading their skills. CAs and CGAs may enter public practice as employees of auditing firms (or as self-employed practitioners) or be employed in industry in whatever capacity the employer requires. CMAs usually get employed in a manufacturing environment and serve the cost accounting or management accounting needs of the company.
One of the things I noticed in every place I worked is this: people do something a certain way because that is the way it has always been done. The first example that comes to mind is a $10M family-owned wholesaler where I worked as Accounting Manager. The senior accounting clerk would print a blank cashflow projection Excel worksheet and then use a handheld calculator to calculate the balances and fill in the blanks with a pencil. That is what she was taught to do. At a $10M subsidiary of a large multi-national, the accounting manager used a worksheet to calculate the inventory value instead of using the inventory module for which the company was paying an annual license fee. A municipality with about 15,000 citizens was using simple Excel worksheets to track their fixed assets. A $100M logistics company tried tracking their fixed assets the same way; they lost track of three $150,000 trucks and several other assets. A medical services company had trouble tracking their intercompany transactions and lost track of $800K; a multi-billion dollar construction company had a similar problem and lost track of $5M. This list could go on for awhile, but I’ll stop there.
My favourite technology for finding more efficient ways of doing things is VBA. This is Visual Basic for Applications and comes installed in Microsoft Office products. There is a learning curve, but Excel VBA is your best bet for getting more done with less staff. You can automate many tasks: generate reports at the click of a button; extract data from an external database, import it into a preformatted Excel worksheet, update linked reports and send them to a list of Outlook recipients – all with a single click, or get the whole process to run on a specified schedule; and much more.
Another thing I noticed is that SMEs have accounting staff which tend to stay for the long haul; they are taught their jobs a certain way, and with a year or two of formal training behind them they generally have little experience to draw on when faced with the “Oddball Sector.” If a company grows, the accounting requirements will grow too, but not to the extent of needing additional staff; rather the company needs the current staff to take on more work and more complex work. The problem is, of course, who is going to train them? Since this is new work, they can’t rely on “This is the way it has always been done.” This is where I come in. I can train your junior staff to take on a more senior role; I would be available for a Q&A session on a weekly basis and coach them into becoming accountants.
I have been thinking about my Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and this is what I have to offer you: a broad range of accounting experience coupled with two passions: one, coaching, and two, using technology to drive efficiencies.
That’s about it for now. Take a look around and let me know what you think.
