Navigating Workplace Stress

In any facet of life, stress is bound to appear. Perhaps one of the most common stressors in life is that in the workplace. Whether it’s conflict with others or work is just a little overwhelming, there are many ways to handle these stresses. 

Handling Workplace Conflict

One of the biggest contributors to workplace stress is conflict in the workplace. No matter where the conflict has arisen, there are many ways to deal with this. For starters, take time to understand how you feel. Breaking down the issue can help you really see what the problem actually is. Think about what made you upset, why did it make you upset, where is that feeling coming from? Sometimes, our emotions can contribute to creating a problem when there really didn’t need to be one. Once you’ve taken the time to cool down and understand what the problem is, it’s time to have a conversation with the other party. Shifting your language in an argument can really help the conversation go more smoothly. Instead of saying “You did X,” replace those sentences with I statements. “I feel X because of Y.” When you use statements that start with You; they push blame onto others and usually create a negative, or defensive, reaction from others. Be sure you are truly listening, not just hearing, and that you are listening to listen, not react. As the conversation flows, ask questions to clearly define the future and how to revolve this argument. A couple helpful examples include, “How do you want to move forward?” or “What does that look like?”. Asking these open-ended questions can lead to better resolution and help to avoid conflict in the future as everyone now has set expectations or a better understanding. Keep in mind that communication is a two-way street and that it’s important to recognize their viewpoint and work together to come to a solution.

How to Deal with Other Stressors

There may not be any conflict between others in the workplace, but there could still be aspects to work that are stressful to you. First off, perhaps your workload is too heavy, or feeling extra hard for you at the moment. One way to try to deal with this is by talking to your manager. Be sure to discuss whether you need help, if the deadlines are unrealistic, or any other problems you may have. Another way to deal with your workload is by balancing your time better and being kind to yourself. Check that you’re dividing your time as it is needed by each task and that you’re really focusing on each task at hand. Also, sometimes our need for perfection, or just doing something well in general, can lead us to be more critical than needed. A task may be taking you longer because you are spending too long critiquing it. Remind yourself that you are doing the best you can and that is enough. Another common workplace stressor for some is feeling alienated at work. It’s important to connect with others. If you are having trouble, do not hesitate to reach out to your manager. Alternatively, your HR department may be able to help you find resources and ways to connect with others within the workplace. In addition to the aforementioned, breaks can be a powerful tool to mediate stress and increase motivation for the day. According to the Harvard Business Review, “taking longer breaks in combination with more frequent short breaks can provide more energy, motivation, and concentration than infrequent short breaks.”

Even if our workplace environment isn’t causing us any conflict, the workload itself, or even the job you are doing, can still be stressful. Learning to deal with these “personal” stressors is important, too. To begin, and perhaps the most obvious start, is you need to be able to recognize what is causing you so much stress. Stress can cause all sorts of physical health problems like: headaches, insomnia, fatigue, loss of appetite, and much more. Pay attention to the signs your body gives you, if you have a hard time seeing when you’re stressed. A good way to help you figure out what is stressing you, is by writing down anything that has negatively affected you and your reaction to it. While you write down these stressors, consider asking yourself the following questions. One, “How did this make me feel?” Two, “What was my reaction?” And three, “What are some ways of resolving it?”. Keeping track of the signs of stress and learning what stresses you can help you find ways to counter, or lessen, stress in your everyday life.

Even when we know why something is stressing us, and what to do to fix it, it can still be difficult to manage stress. One good way to manage stress is ensuring that you really detach from work once you are home. Find something that engages you and forces you to think about that activity you’re doing instead of work. These things are often referred to as coping skills. Also, avoid dwelling on thoughts of work and distracting yourself with your phone while you do your activity. For some, using relaxation methods may work better as a coping skill. This includes things like meditation and breathing exercises. Something else that can be beneficial in getting rid of stress is reframing your thoughts. This is much easier said than done, but it can be extremely beneficial to you. An example of this is, your favorite coworker didn’t say good morning to you. You may jump to the conclusion that they are upset with you for whatever reason. Instead of accepting that instantly, look at the situation objectively. Maybe they had a rough morning or are going through something personal right now and aren’t really in the mood to socialize. As I often like to say, “perception is reality,” and the way you look at something is not always the truth. Retraining your brain like this is invaluable in the long run as it can help regulate your emotions, therefore minimizing stress. Finally, taking care of yourself physically is vital to stress management. Eating well and maintaining a healthy lifestyle can greatly impact your mental health and thus cause you more stress if you are not doing okay. Remember, if anything feels overwhelming, it is okay to seek professional help! You are not alone and life is extra challenging for all of us at some point or another.

Stress Doesn’t Have to Take Over Your Life!

Through learning how to conquer your personal stressors and managing tough conversations with others, you are all set to navigate through stress in the workplace!

Making Businesses Understand why They Need You as their Accountant

A little under half of businesses have never worked with an accountant and have no plans to! On the other hand, in the same study, those who have worked with an accountant, just under 75% of them are very satisfied with their accountant. If a large majority of businesses are happy with their accountant, why are there so many businesses without them? As an accountant, it’s crucial to figure out what these businesses need & help show them why your work is beneficial to them.

So, what do businesses really want?

There are many different things a potential client may be looking for when it comes to wanting an accountant. For starters, every relationship is built on trust, and relationships can not last without it. In the aforementioned study, 78% of business owners said they want a trusted advisor, making this the top rated answer. The next top answers, tying in at 74%, are that they want accountants to understand their industry and respond quickly. Finally, being affordable comes in at fourth at 70% and communicates clearly ranks last at 69%. 

In addition to what clients say they want, it is important to know what the top, long-term issues that your clients face with money are. At the top of the list, and perhaps the most obvious, is cash flow problems (32%) If you have bad cash flow problems, most of the other common issues clients face will follow suit. This is shown by the second top answer being low profitability at a close 31% as well as the fourth and fifth ranking answers, needing capital (21%) and too much debt (11%). Your job as an accountant is to take all these worries and advise your clients to the best decisions they can make.

How do you help as an accountant?

The most considerable hurdle for accountants is that many business owners do not know why they need you. Clients need to understand that you bring more to the table than help in filing taxes and making the books look clean. There is no better place to start than being a great listener and truly understanding their issues as well as being sympathetic towards them. Furthermore, ask open-ended questions to let the client steer you in what they really need and to grasp a better understanding of what to do to help your client. Next, we all know that prompt responses are important but it is also important to streamline finances and ensure your accounting software is efficient too. If a client hasn’t moved onto the cloud-based world, it is time for them to move to online accounting software. There are many different choices out there, like QuickBooks Online or Xero, but no matter the software you will want to see to it that it fits the client’s needs, they understand it (and/or can learn too), and that is within a client’s budget. Using an accounting software reduces the chance of human error, subtracts the amount of work that has to be done from manual adding in information, and overall streamlines processes in day-to-day accounting. Additionally, as the financial advisor, you can help a client develop better financial procedures and systems to really help all these processes. On the topic of quick responses, it is vital to ensure that you have an easy, yet secure, way of communicating. You will want something where it makes it simple to send and view any financial reports, ask questions, and see if any tasks that either side (meaning you or the client) need to be done. Finally, clear communication means being able to talk to your clients in a way they can understand. This means taking your time to ensure they really comprehend what you’re doing and you are not confusing them with common work jargon. (Check out our blog here for very common accountant words when it comes to reviewing financials for some on how to explain these!)

Businesses need your accounting!

Trust comes from taking the time to get to know your client’s needs and delivering quick & efficient solutions. By guiding them through their finances at every step, and learning with them as you deliver great service, trust is bound to happen, and you will have clients who love you!

Client Guide to Year End for Your Accountant

The end of the year can be a stressful time for everyone; between the holidays, New Years’, and the dreaded tax season that looms over for April. As an accounting firm, we have our procedures in place for year end, but that could mean more ‘work’ from clients to obtain everything we need. Instead of all the back and forth, here are some ways to ensure your business is all set for your accountant and CPA at year end and why it’s important!

Gathering Documents for Year End

The type of business you own may require more things for year end, but there are many documents required for everyone. For starters, bank (and loan!) statements for the whole year. It seems obvious, but you may have missed one, or maybe you’ve been so busy you have forgotten to send the last few. Whatever the case may be, checking that your accountant/CPA has all your statements can save everyone some time. Furthermore, we require statements for every active business account and for each of those accounts, we need statements for every month. If a statement for December ends any time before the 31st, we will need January’s statement (the following month after December, into the new year) as well. Often, you see this with credit cards. For instance, your CC statement may end on the 9th every month. To accurately reflect the whole year for this account, we would need January 9th’s as it has information for December 10th to the 31st.

Next, if you do any type of contract work, confirm that you have all the needed W9s from each contractor. (Note that there are certain exclusions to this, so be sure to double check with your accountant/CPA if you are unsure or have any questions!) After that, review your transactions with no Vendor name. (In QuickBooks Online, also known as QBO, the Vendor is referred to as the person or business that that transaction went through. So if you bought food at Walmart, for example, the Vendor would be Walmart.) This is not as essential as the other tasks in this blog, but it can be important, as we’ll discover in the following section. Finally, review any other reports that your accountant/CPA may be missing that you want recorded in your books. For example, for many of our clients, we break-apart their sales to accurately reflect all the different types of things they are selling. These break-aparts always come from a report that, more often than not, the client is sending over to us. Now that you have a list of some of the vital documents needed, you may be wondering, “Why?”.

So WHY do we need all these things?

If you are unfamiliar with accounting, you may be questioning why all of these things are so important. You know that you have to hand these things over, but you are unsure what the exact reasoning is. First off, reconciliation is the process of using financial statements to verify, correct, and accurately reflect your current financial situation. In essence this means having bank statements allows us, the accountant/CPA, to make sure that your accounting software, (for us, we primarily deal with QBO), is reflecting what the bank is telling us you have done with your account throughout the year/months. This is why it is SO important to send over statements every month. We must see if the statements align for each individual month, and if we need to correct anything, we have to know all the transactions in said month from the bank statement.

Another thing a good accountant will need is all the W9s from contractors you’ve paid over the year. When you are an employee, you fill out a W2; if you are a contractor you fill out a W9. After a W9 is received, we can file 1099s- which is a tax form that shows different type of income that are not from employees. It is important that your business has all the W9s it needs so you, as the business owner, are not liable for any untaxed income on their part. Without a W9, there is no way to file a 1099, and thus you have no proof as to whether that money they received was ever taxed- which makes you liable for it. Finally, and although it is not a major issue, cleaning up your “Transaction without Payees” tab in QBO can be important. (Adding a Vendor as we talked about earlier.) Let’s say you have a $5.000.00 transaction coded as “Contract labor,” but they have no Vendor, how will we know who’s W9 to give? Additionally, cleaning up the Vendor list can verify that transactions are coded properly, and make your Book Review tab, in QBO, look cleaner!

Wrapping Up the Year End for Everyone!

Keeping these things in mind for year-end is helpful for everyone, but do not be afraid to ask your accountant or CPA any questions you may have! We are here to help your business grow and flourish through good financial planning! As a final parting note, it is a good habit to send all documents needed monthly, as well as checking in and reviewing these items throughout the year, to make year end easier on you as the business owner. This also allows time for a more in depth discussion about your financial reporting and how you can use those numbers to make better financial decisions in your daily operations.