Hiring an accountant for a high growth business like a brewery is not as easy as just going to your local CPA and asking for help. Your local CPA probably only does tax returns and won’t provide the ongoing support a growing brewery needs. It’s not going to a big firm, either. A bigger firm
What does it mean to be profitable as a craft brewery or food crafter? Your tax return will probably tell you that profit is your cash receipts from sales less cash expenses, whether those cash flows cover months in the past or future (ie real estate taxes or insurance). Some people will tell you that this is an OK way to view your business.
But it isn’t. Your tax return is meant to tell you your tax liability. And simply accounting for profit from cash inflows and cash outflows is only meant to tell you cash flow from operations.
But there’s another way…
All the costs and expenses in a brewery or food craft business have value. These expenses and costs ultimately contribute to your revenue and without them your revenue may not be what it is now. This is why it is so important to view costs as strategic rather than things to reduce. The trap you can find yourself in when you go the route of cutting costs, rather than being strategic, is that your quality can suffer enough to run your customers away. Clearly that is bad for any brewery or food crafter.
Being able to have your accountant or bookkeeper hop on to your accounting system to do their work while you still have access to do the things you need to do is incredibly valuable. Gone are the days of backing up QuickBooks and having your accountant do their work while you wait. Get set up with an app like Xero and your accountant is part of your team.
03
Jul
Jul
We are now Bronze Trade Members of the Michigan Brewers Guild!