Much of the friction between SMEs and their accountants comes from a mistaken expectation about the scope of the work. The business owner thinks they handed over the company's financial side; the accountant knows they took on the accounting and tax side. These are different things, and the difference only shows up once something goes wrong.
It is worth separating three categories clearly: what the accountant does, what they don't, and who should be doing the rest.
What a certified accountant does, by law
The statute of the Portuguese Order of Certified Accountants defines the certified accountant's functions, and the main one is taking responsibility for technical compliance in the accounting and tax areas of the entities they serve. Specifically:
- Organising and keeping the accounts, under the applicable rules.
- Co-signing, with the legal representative, the financial statements and tax returns.
- Filing periodic returns — VAT, withholding tax, the annual IES filing, corporate income tax (Modelo 22).
- Calculating results and preparing the year-end close.
- Explaining the accounting and tax treatment of transactions.
It is a demanding scope, and one of personal professional liability. It is not, and never was, a financial-management scope.
What the accountant does not do
Not out of unwillingness, and not because of price: because it falls outside what was contracted and, in many cases, outside what they can do without being inside the company's day-to-day operation.
| Task | Accountant | Company or operations team |
|---|---|---|
| Collecting and organising documents | No | Yes |
| Issuing invoices to clients | No | Yes |
| Collecting overdue invoices | No | Yes |
| Recording and classifying documents | Yes | No |
| Reconciling bank accounts | At close | Weekly |
| Filing tax returns | Yes | No |
| Forecasting cash flow 90 days out | No | Yes |
| Explaining the numbers to management | Partly | Yes |
| Preparing the annual budget | No | Yes |
| Processing payroll | Depends on contract | Depends on contract |
The three grey areas
Who processes payroll?
This is where misunderstandings cost the most, because it has fixed dates and penalties attached. Many accountants process payroll; others do not, and only record the processing the company already did. What is rarely included either way is collecting the variables — absences, overtime, expense allowances, meal subsidy — which stays the company's job, and is where delays are born. It is worth having this written into the contract rather than assumed. The calendar is in the monthly payroll calendar.
Who does the bank reconciliation?
The accountant reconciles to close the books, usually weeks or months behind. That works for the accounts to be correct, but not for management: an error spotted two months later cannot be fixed any more, only recorded. Management-grade reconciliation is weekly, and it is the company's job, for the reasons explained in why weekly, not monthly.
Who explains the numbers to management?
The accountant delivers a trial balance and financial statements. Correct documents, in technical language, to comply with the law. They answer none of the questions a manager actually asks — how much cash will I have in six weeks, which clients carry margin, where did costs go up. That is a different document, described in the monthly report management actually needs.
Why the quality of the accounting work depends on the company
An accountant works with what they receive. If they receive incomplete documents, past deadline and unorganised, the result will be accounting that is technically correct and practically useless — entered in a rush, with VAT under-deducted, and a result that is only known months after the fact.
Almost all the dissatisfaction with accountants we come across traces back to this, not to the professional's competence. The part the company controls is covered in what documents to send your accountant every month and how to organise that documentation.
Check your own case
- You have it in writing, in the contract, what is and is not included.
- You know who collects the payroll variables every month.
- You receive financial information within fifteen days of month end.
- Someone at the company reconciles the bank accounts between closes.
- You can tell, without hesitating, what is the accountant's work and what is the company's.
If two or more fail, the problem is not the accounting: it is the gap between the accounting and the operation, that nobody claimed.
Frequently asked questions
Can I ask my accountant to do more than this?
You can and should ask. Some firms offer management services beyond accounting, priced separately. What does not work is expecting those tasks to come included in the accounting retainer: they don't, and the mismatched expectation wears down both sides.
Does switching accountants fix it?
It fixes it if the problem is technical quality or communication. It does not fix it if the problem is scope — in that case, the company switches accountants and finds exactly the same gap three months later, because the gap was never on their side.
Who does the work that falls in the middle?
Either someone inside the company with the function explicitly assigned, or an external operations team. What does not work is leaving it to whatever hours management has left over, which is the most common arrangement and the least sustainable one.
In summary
The accountant answers to the law; operations answers to management. Between the two sits a set of tasks — collecting, invoicing, chasing payment, reconciling, forecasting and explaining — that belongs to neither side by default. Writing down who does what is the cheapest way to fix a frustration that is almost never anyone's fault.