I'm a big fan of accountants, but that's mostly because I don't like taking the time to figure things out. When it comes to money, I'd much rather listen and follow the advice of an expert than to try to learn it on my own. However, when you're creating a business budget, you may not need an accountant. Here's how to decide whether or not you want to go it alone.

#1: Do you have a solid understanding about what expenses your business is likely to encounter? An accountant will have knowledge about the expenses most businesses incur but they may not know your business specifically. The strength of an accountant often lies in knowing which expenses are tax-deductible. This information can be helpful when determining your budget.

#2: If your time spent on accounting tasks is better spent on tasks that bring profits to your business, then it may be wise to hire an accountant or bookkeeper to handle these tasks. If an accountant is going to be tracking your expenses and cash flow then you may want them to be in on the creation of the budget so they understand your expense categories.

#3: An accountant is most definitely an excellent resource when you're setting up your accounting software, even if you plan on doing the bookkeeping yourself. If you're going to use a software program like QuickBooks or Peachtree, many accountants are familiar with this software and can advise you on best practices.

If you hire an accountant as a consultant for your software and you're going to use the software to create your business budget, you would likely benefit from their knowledge not only about budgeting matters but also how to create your budget on your chosen software. However, both software programs mentioned above come with comprehensive tutorials and online help, so setting up your business is fairly straightforward and an accountant may not be necessary.

#4: If you're going to hire an accountant to do your taxes, they might be able to guide you to the right categories to assign to your expenses, so that doing your taxes takes them less time. Less time doing your taxes means less time you'll have to pay an accountant for, which means more money in your pocket. And that's always good! However, if you're like many and can handle your taxes on your own, the IRS website is a goldmine of information and an accountant is probably not necessary to help with your budget.

#5: Lastly, if you hire an accountant to help you create your business budget, you're likely going to get an earful about what to do with your profits and how to maximize your spending. It's all great knowledge to have and anything that helps you do business better is a good idea.