Do I need to keep my own books if I have an accountant? You have probably never asked it out loud, because the answer you give when anyone raises your finances is the comfortable one: my accountant sorts it out at year end. Then the accounts come back, months after the year closed, and they tell you something you would have liked to know last spring.
Yes, you still need to keep your own books if you have an accountant. A year-end accountant prepares your tax return and accounts from the past. Running the business needs five numbers looked at every month: what you invoiced, what you are owed, what you spent, your profit so far, and your cash against what is coming due. Those take about an hour a month to keep.
This guide covers how to tell whether you are relying on year end too heavily, why so many owners do, what it costs, the five numbers to keep yourself, what to do if the year has already got away from you, and how to make the habit stick. It is not an argument for doing without an accountant. It is the opposite.
Is this you?
- You see your real numbers once a year, when the accounts or the tax return come back.
- You could not say today whether this year is better or worse than last year, only that it feels busier.
- Your accountant's questions arrive months after the event, and you answer half of them from memory.
- Every year end starts with a bag, a folder or an inbox search for receipts.
- The tax bill is a figure you find out, not a figure you expected.
- You know your bank balance, and you treat it as the answer to how the business is doing.
- You talk to your accountant once or twice a year, and both conversations are about deadlines.
If the trouble is narrower than this, there are closer guides. If it is only the tax bill that catches you, start with the tax bill you did not set money aside for. If it is the receipts, what actually matters in a business expense tracker is the place to go. This piece is for the wider habit: the whole financial picture handed over and looked at once a year.
Why it happens
Handing it over feels like handling it
You hired a professional, you pay their bill and the return goes in on time. Every signal says the finances are dealt with. And for the job you gave them, they are. The trouble is that the job you gave them is a different job from the one you assume is being done.
A tax return and a view of your business are two different products
Year-end accounts and a tax return are a record of a period that has finished, prepared for the tax authority. They are accurate, and they are late by design. What you need to run the business is rougher and much more recent: is this month better than last, who owes me money, can I afford the van. Nobody is producing that unless you are, or unless you have asked and paid for it.
This is not a failing of accountants. When Xero surveyed 500 US accountants about their small business clients, the most common mistake they named was a lack of ongoing insight into the business's own financials, and the second was only talking to the accountant at tax time, as Accounting Today reported in March 2012. In the same survey 47% said a business should be in touch with its accountant monthly. The survey is old and was run by a company that sells accounting software, so treat it as what accountants say rather than as proof. But what they say is clear: they would rather you looked more often, not less.
The numbers feel like someone else's language
Many owners avoid the figures for a simple reason: nobody taught them to read accounts, and looking at something you do not fully understand is uncomfortable. Passing it to a professional removes the discomfort. It also removes the practice, so the numbers stay foreign for another year.
And sometimes you would rather not know
This is the part nobody says. If the year might be worse than it feels, not looking keeps the feeling intact. It is a very ordinary thing to do and it is not a character flaw. It is just expensive, because the number does not change by being left alone. Only the time you have to respond to it does.
What it costs if nothing changes
You find out too late to do anything. A price that stopped covering its costs in March, a client who slid from 30 days to 90, a subscription that doubled: at year end these are history. In the month they happened they were decisions.
You cannot see profit at all. Income is easy to see, because it lands in the bank. Profit needs the costs written down as well, and most small businesses do not do that anywhere near their invoicing:
Only about 1 in 5 invoicing businesses (25 of 112) records any expenses alongside its invoices.
Source: Billbooks invoice data, 8,483 invoices from 112 small businesses, September 2024 to September 2026 (aggregate only, figures shown only where 25+ businesses contribute). See the study.
Read that figure for what it is. It counts expenses recorded in Billbooks, so some of the other businesses will be keeping costs in a spreadsheet or in their accountant's software. What it does show is how common it is for the sales side to be up to date while the cost side waits for someone else, later.
There is less room for a surprise than you think. The JPMorgan Chase Institute looked at the accounts of 597,000 US small businesses over nine months of 2015 and found that the median small business holds 27 cash buffer days in reserve, meaning it could cover 27 days of its usual outgoings from the balance it holds. A quarter held fewer than 13 days. With a cushion of about a month, a problem you learn about ten months late is not one you can absorb.
The accountant's time goes on sorting, not advising. When a year of paperwork arrives in one go, the hours you pay for are spent reconstructing what happened. There is little left for the conversation you actually wanted, about what to do next year.
And the return is still yours. Rules differ by country, so check your own, but the general position is that using a preparer does not move the responsibility. The US tax authority puts it bluntly in IRS Publication 4717: even if you have someone else prepare your tax return, you are still responsible for everything on it. An accountant can only work from the records you give them.
What to do now, with what you already have
You do not need to become a bookkeeper, and you should not try to do your accountant's job. You need five numbers, once a month, in a spreadsheet or a notebook. Put an hour in the diary for the first working day of each month and do them in this order.
1. What you invoiced and what actually arrived
Add up the invoices you sent last month, then add up the payments that reached the bank. They will not match, and the gap between them is the first thing worth knowing. Write both down next to the same month last year if you have it.
2. Who owes you, and for how long
List every unpaid invoice with its age. Anything past its due date gets a reminder today, while you are looking at it. This is the number most likely to change what you do this week. If the list is long, why invoices get paid late covers what the late ones tend to have in common.
3. What you spent, in a handful of categories
Go through the month's bank and card statements and put every business payment into one of six or eight plain categories: materials, subcontractors, software, vehicle, rent, insurance, whatever fits. Keep the receipt with it, as a photo if that is easier. Ask your accountant which categories they would like you to use. It saves both of you time at year end, and it is a five minute conversation.
4. Profit so far this year
Income minus costs, for the month and for the year to date. It will not match the final accounts exactly, because your accountant will make adjustments you would not know to make. That does not matter. You are looking for direction and rough size, not a filed figure. The IRS makes the same point in its guidance on why a business should keep records: records can show whether your business is improving, which items are selling, or what changes you need to make.
5. Cash against what is coming due
Today's bank balance, minus the bills you know are coming in the next two months, minus what you are holding back for tax. What is left is the money that is actually yours to spend or keep. Ask your accountant what share of profit to set aside for tax in your situation. That number is theirs to give, not ours and not a rule of thumb from the internet.
See where your cash runs lowest before year end tells you
The Cash Gap Check takes what you bill, when clients really pay and what goes out each month, and shows when your money actually arrives and the month it runs lowest. It is a quick way to do number five on your own figures today.
Then send it to your accountant
Once a quarter, send them the five numbers with one question, such as whether you are setting enough aside, or whether a purchase you are considering makes sense before or after the year closes. Some accountants include this in their fee and some charge for it, so ask first. Either way you have changed what you are buying, from a return prepared once a year to advice given while it can still be used.
If the year has already got away from you
If you are reading this with ten months unrecorded, do not try to rebuild the year in a weekend. That is how the habit dies before it starts.
Start with this month. Do the five numbers for the month just gone and keep going forward. A current month you can see is worth more than a perfect history.
Work backwards from the bank, not from the receipts. Download the year's statements and categorise from those, an hour at a time. The statement is complete and in date order. The shoebox is neither. Match receipts to the lines afterwards where you have them.
Tell your accountant now, not at the deadline. They have seen far worse, and they can tell you which gaps matter and which do not. If you already expect a tax bill you cannot cover, say so early. There are usually more options before a deadline than after one, and they are the right person to explain yours.
If the accounts have just come back with a surprise, ask for half an hour to go through them line by line. Ask which three figures they would watch if they were you. That becomes your monthly list.
How to stop it recurring
Fix the hour. Same day every month, in the diary, treated like a client meeting. The habit matters more than the method.
Keep business money in its own account. Every one of the five numbers gets easier when the statement contains only business transactions. If yours are still mixed, opening a business bank account is the first job.
Capture costs when they happen. A photo of the receipt on the day takes ten seconds. Finding it in March takes ten minutes and often fails.
Agree with your accountant what you will send and when. Categories they like, a quarterly summary, and a date for one conversation that is not about a deadline.
Let software do the adding up, if you want it to. This is the one place a tool removes part of the problem. If your invoices and your expenses sit in the same place, numbers one to four are reports rather than an hour with a calculator. In Billbooks, expenses are recorded next to invoices and the reports page includes a profit and loss report and an expense report. A spreadsheet with two tabs does the same job, and if that is what you have, use it. No software replaces the accountant, and none of it helps if nobody opens it once a month.
A plain note to finish: this is general guidance, not tax or financial advice for your own case. What you must keep, for how long and what you owe depend on where you are and how your business is set up, and your accountant is the person to ask.
Two free tools for the monthly hour, no signup
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to keep my own books if I have an accountant?
Yes. An accountant who works for you at year end prepares accounts and a tax return from records you supply, months after the period has closed. That does not tell you how the business is doing now. Keep five numbers yourself each month: what you invoiced and collected, what you are owed, what you spent, profit so far, and cash against upcoming bills.
What should I track myself if my accountant does my taxes?
Track what you need to make decisions during the year. That means invoices sent and payments received, unpaid invoices and their age, business spending in a few plain categories with receipts kept, a rough profit figure for the month and the year to date, and your bank balance less the bills and tax you know are coming. Ask your accountant which categories they prefer.
Is it enough to see my accountant once a year?
It is enough to get a return filed. It is rarely enough to run a business on. In a Xero survey of 500 US accountants reported by Accounting Today in March 2012, only talking to the accountant at tax time was the second most common small business mistake they named, and 47% said a business should be in touch monthly. A quarterly check is a sensible middle ground.
Who is responsible if my accountant makes a mistake on my tax return?
Rules vary by country, so check your own, but in general the taxpayer stays responsible. IRS Publication 4717 says that even if you have someone else prepare your tax return, you are still responsible for everything on it. In practice that means giving your accountant complete records, reading the return before it is filed and asking about anything you do not understand.
How much time does it take to keep my own numbers?
About an hour a month once the habit is set, if business money runs through its own bank account. The first month takes longer because you are setting up categories. You are not producing accounts, only a rough monthly picture, and your accountant still does the adjustments and the filing.
Will my own profit figure match my accountant's?
Not exactly, and it does not need to. Your accountant makes adjustments at year end that you would not know to make. Your monthly figure is there to show direction and rough size, so you notice a bad quarter while there is still time to act on it. If the two are far apart, ask your accountant why. The answer is usually worth knowing.
I am months behind on my bookkeeping. Where do I start?
Start with the month just gone and keep going forward, then catch up the earlier months from your bank statements an hour at a time. Statements are complete and in date order, which loose receipts are not. Tell your accountant now that you are behind. They can tell you which gaps matter, and you have more options before a deadline than after it.
The one thing to do today
Put one hour in your diary for the first working day of next month and call it the numbers. Then send your accountant a two line email asking which expense categories they would like you to use. That is the whole job for today. The first hour will be clumsy and the second will be easier, and by the third you will know something about your business that used to arrive once a year.
This is one of the problems in our bookkeeping problems collection, alongside the shoebox of receipts and the numbers nobody looks at until something is wrong.
