The Tribune

By Simon Cooper

Res Socius

William of Wykeham, in Hampshire, England, was born of peasant stock in 1324. When he died 80 years later he was one of the richest men in England, despite some business ups and down. Along the way he built Windsor Castle, and was later Lord Privy Seal, Bishop of Winchester and, finally, the Chancellor of England under King Richard II.

His view on life was “maner makys man”, which we know today as “manners maketh man”, an expression that adorns the coats of arms of Winchester College and New College, Oxford, which he founded. Part of his job as Chancellor was to be the keeper of the King’s Seal, which was used to authenticate Royal Decrees.

These days, we no longer look for a royal seal on our legislation (although I believe Queen Elizabeth II still gives British laws the final nod). Instead, we rely on the authentication of ordinary citizens to certify things for us. Here I’m thinking of notaries, accountants and so on.

In fact, our beloved bean counters enjoy a respected place in our society, despite the odd joke about what to call 1,000 of them at the bottom of the ocean (as in a ‘good start’). That’s because we accord them the final say when it comes to the truth of all books of business. I for one would not think of marketing a business for sale without proper accounts.

Bank managers place great reliance on the opinions of accountants, too, especially when it comes to dishing out loans to businesses (or, indeed, buying one as the case may be). And this means being provided with a professional set of accounts to prove that the business is well-run and worthy of the bank’s investment.

Business owners who neglect to maintain a properly structured set of books discover just how much accountants charge when asked to reconstruct them. In fact, handing a chartered accountant a set of invoices in a shoe box is inevitably a relationship-breaker like few others I know.

In past times, the solution lay in employing bookkeepers to knock things into shape as the months went by. Unfortunately, traditional accounting systems are often months behind date - and, by definition, detach business owners from the key trading numbers that should be their bread and butter.

Since personal computers and laptops began occupying corners of managers’ desks, more and more of them have turned to maintaining their own financial records. This gives them the advantage of knowing exactly what’s going on (and saves them plenty of accounting fees, too).

The advent of cloud computing products such as Xero provide added value to the process, in that there’s instant back-up and no risk of losing data. Moreover, it is far easier for an accountant to sanitise them annually, which makes the bank manager’s generous smile the best thing since sliced bread arrived.

NB: Simon Cooper is a founding partner of Res Socius, a business brokerage firm and businesses for sale directory service. Res Socius is authorized by the Bahamas Investment Authority to facilitate the sale and purchase of businesses and provide consultancy services. Contact 376-1256, visit www.ressocius.com or scan the QR code below.