The accounting job often feels like a never-ending stream of minutiae and annoying little things that keep landing on your desk all day long. Incoming transactions, bank rule edits, customer payments that need to be recorded, overdue invoices that need to be chased, new bills and bill payments, payroll runs and contractor payments. You get the idea.

But what about the big stuff? Many accountants get lost in the weeds and forget the larger things they should be focused on to deliver value to business owners. Overall, I’d say these are the five key jobs your accountant should be remembering and doing all the time:

Job #1: To build and maintain a reliable, cost-effective accounting system

This is your accountant’s first and foremost responsibility. It involves choosing the right software and apps, configuring everything correctly, maintaining your QBO setup and chart of accounts, and creating workarounds for things that don’t work (which happens all the time in the accounting world). In short, your accountant’s job is to build the accounting machine and keep it running.

Job #2: To keep your daily, weekly, and monthly accounting operations running smoothly

This is the meat-and-potatoes of every accountant’s job: operational accounting. Basically, your accountant should be handling everything that’s required to keep the accounting and financial side of the business running smoothly. This includes managing your bank feeds and bank rules, overseeing your bank and merchant accounts, handling invoicing and customer payments, entering and paying vendor bills, making sure your employees and contractors get paid on time, and troubleshooting the wacky assortment of problems and accounting-related issues that pop up all the time.

Job #3: To deliver accurate, on-time, owner-ready financial reporting

As I mentioned in my e-book, the whole point of accounting is to give business owners accurate, timely numbers that tell them what’s happening with their business. Doing this consistently isn’t as easy as it sounds, and that’s where 99% of bookkeepers fail. The financials need to be prepared and organized correctly (in accordance with standard accounting practices), any problems or irregularities need to be reviewed and fixed before the reports hit the owner’s inbox, and everything needs to be delivered on-time (not 30-45 days later).

Job #4: To create a stress-free year-end accounting and tax process

If you read my previous article about classic accounting mistakes, you know that “The Year-End Accounting Mess” is a major problem and stress-creator for business owners. Not only does it indicate underlying operational problems, it prevents you from doing any type of intelligent tax planning with your tax preparer (like accelerating expenses, deferring income, or pursuing specific tax deduction strategies). Basically, your accountant should be doing concrete things all year long (month in and month out) to keep your accounting on track and ensure a smooth, headache-free year-end close. There will still be extra accounting work in December and January (there always is) but it will all be do-able and you won’t need to file an unnecessary tax extension.

Job #5: To provide useful feedback, analysis, and advice

For many accountants, this is the most challenging part of the job: taking all the boring stuff you do every day and translating it into useful information that helps business owners make better decisions. Your accountant should know the numbers inside and out (so you don’t have to) and highlight key issues and trends you need to be aware of. They should be able to provide quick, clear answers to any questions you ask. They should keep a close eye on expenses and tell you when something doesn’t look right. Lastly, they should look at your business and financials with an objective, skeptical mindset and point out things you might not necessarily be aware of or want to hear (because that’s what good accountants are supposed to do).