Toronto accountant says the second half of the year is a useful time for business owners to catch financial issues before they become year-end problems.
Toronto, Ontario, 4th September 2026, ZEX PR WIRE— With the second half of the year underway, Toronto accountant and entrepreneur Ali Gillani is encouraging business owners to look closely at what their numbers are actually telling them before making major decisions about hiring, spending, expansion, or new investments.
Gillani, founder of Soberman Goldstein & Associates, works with businesses in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. He says one of the most common issues he sees is not a lack of activity, but a lack of clear information.
“A business can be busy and still have financial issues developing underneath the surface,” Gillani said. “Revenue might be increasing, but expenses may be increasing faster. Receivables may be taking longer to collect. Owners need to understand those details before they make the next decision.”
For Ali Gillani accountant experience has shown that the months leading into year-end can reveal problems that were easy to overlook earlier in the year.
He suggests business owners pay particular attention to cash flow, unpaid invoices, rising operating costs, tax obligations, and whether recent investments are producing the expected results.
Gillani also recommends looking beyond the most obvious figures. He points to measures such as how long it takes customers to pay, how dependent a business is on a small number of clients, which products or services generate the strongest margins, and how much of monthly revenue is already committed to fixed costs. Those figures can reveal pressure that may not be obvious from revenue alone.
Gillani also cautions against using revenue by itself as a measure of how well a company is performing.
“Revenue is important, but it does not tell you everything,” he said. “You can grow sales and still put pressure on the business if margins are shrinking or costs are not being controlled.”
His advice comes from both his accounting background and his experience operating businesses in hospitality, healthcare, and real estate. Seeing financial decisions from the owner’s side has made him especially aware of how quickly small issues can affect day-to-day operations.
One example is hiring. Adding staff may seem like the natural response to increased demand. Still, Gillani believes owners should first understand whether that demand is consistent and whether the business can comfortably absorb the added cost.
The same applies to expansion.
“Sometimes the right decision is to move forward, and sometimes it is to spend another few months improving what you already have,” he said. “The numbers should help you make that distinction.”
Gillani says this type of review does not need to be complicated. The goal is to identify what has changed since the beginning of the year and whether the assumptions made several months ago are still accurate.
He also encourages owners to ask direct questions: Are customers paying on time? Have costs changed? Is the company more profitable than it was six months ago? Are there upcoming obligations that have not been planned for?
Those questions can help business owners enter the final months of the year with fewer surprises.
“You do not need to wait until December to find out something was off,” Gillani said. “There is still time to make adjustments, but you have to look at the information early enough to act on it.”
About Ali Gillani
Ali Gillani is a Toronto-based accountant and entrepreneur and the founder of Soberman Goldstein & Associates. His professional experience includes accounting and advisory services as well as business interests in hospitality, healthcare, and real estate.
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Wisconsin Beacon journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.