It’s always a good idea to maintain healthy relationships with everyone you do business with. As someone who plays an important role in your finances, your accountant is definitely no exception.

Luckily, there are four really simple things you can start doing now that will help keep your accountant in high spirits, your professional relationship smooth and allow your accountant to do their best work for your small business.

Keep Your Books Regularly

Far too many small business owners neglect to do their books for weeks or even whole months at a time. This can lead to inconsistencies and gaps in your income and expenditure records and is a pretty good way to cause your accountant headaches. This is why most accountants will recommend that their clients start keeping their books using accounting software. This helps you keep up to date, accurate records; but to really streamline your financial tasks, you should make sure you use software that is specifically designed with small businesses in mind. Once you get into the habit of recording your cash flow for just 15 minutes a day, keeping records becomes easy.

Keep Your House in Order

Make sure you have a proper home for all your paperwork. Try keeping your business receipts organised in a binder with explanations on the back of each one. This way you can avoid handing your accountant an old box of loose receipts that even you can barely remember. With an ever-increasing number of receipts being issued electronically, you can even get an app for your smartphone that stores and organises receipts for you (you can also scan in printed receipts: the ATO accepts scanned copies for deductions). Being more organised will save you and your accountant a lot of stress at tax time, make sure that you get to deduct everything you’re entitled to and reduce your chances of an ATO audit.

Respect Your Accountant’s Time

Before you even meet with your accountant, have a think about everything you want to ask, discuss and achieve from your meeting. Make a list of what you want to cover in your meetings and share it with your accountant in advance. This will let them prepare and ask you for any relevant information or documents before the meeting. Often meetings’ objectives aren’t met because the accountant needs more information before they can give advice, so a bit of preparation can avoid this.

Keep an Open Line of Communication

The more information your accountant has that can help them understand your business’s financial position, the more they can help you. Make sure your accountant is aware of any changes big or small to your business that could affect them.Your accountant isn’t here to judge you, so be as honest as you possibly can with them. This will help eliminate any room for error and the threat of legal or financial consequences.

Building a solid working relationship with your accountant will do many wonders for your small business. By following these four tips you’ll be well on your way.