Most start-ups, businesses, and entrepreneurs find it hard to hire an accountant. Particularly, someone who is well-experienced and skilled in preparing financial statements, analyzing financial data, managing bank account operations, and preparing invoices. These days, it is even more difficult to look for an eligible and qualified person with an affordable rate.
This is why more small businesses have decided to outsource their accounting and bookkeeping. It is also interesting to know that these small businesses who choose to outsource do not feel comfortable doing their accounting on their own. Even if it is a common belief that accounting and bookkeeping should be accomplished inside the business. However, it is also important to ask yourself whether you have the essential experience and skills needed in accomplishing the job. Also, ask yourself if your staff has sufficient experience to cope up with the increasing number of accounting tasks. Additionally, most small businesses think that they might have overpaid their taxes.
Because of this, it might be a good idea to outsource accounting services to a firm that has the proper knowledge and qualifications. Also, this company must be able to accomplish the job cost-effectively and more qualitatively.
Furthermore, a lot of executive directors discovered that accounting and bookkeeping services have various positive aspects. Most importantly, outsourcing these services should not have any adverse effects on their staff, business, and customers.
The following are some of the significant benefits that were experienced by businesses that choose to outsource their accounting and bookkeeping.
Cost-Saving Accounting Services
Generally, most businesses think that outsourcing would be an additional unnecessary cost for their business. However, this is not the correct perception at all. The reality is that the opposite is true. The fact is, companies that are outsourcing their accounting needs are willing to minimize their expenses without reducing the quality.
Businesses can save a lot with accounting and financial services firms since most companies are offering lower costs for their accounting services. Also, you don’t have to pay for office supplies, taxes, salaries, and benefits for your full-time employees. Your business will not experience a loss in productivity costs that usually comes when hiring full-time employees.
Saves Your Time
As your business grows, you will have less time to escalate your business since you will spend more time managing your money. Hence, hiring the services of accounting and financial services firms to do your accounting and bookkeeping can help you to focus your energy, time, and resources on formulating business strategies. As a result, you will be bringing more revenue to your business as well as building relationships with your potential clients.
No Need to Spend Time in Hiring Employees
If you take a closer look at it, the recruitment process can be a rigorous task. Managing this job requires some resources, from creating a recruitment method to choosing applicants and interviewing them. The recruitment process will take up your precious time. This is why most companies do not spend time looking for a professional Accountant.
Expert Accountants and Bookkeepers
By hiring an accounting firm, there is a possibility that you can work with a qualified professional with a lot of expertise at an affordable price. The staff at accounting and financial firms will continuously improve their qualifications and skills so that they can remain competitive in the market. Just imagine, if there are 50 people working in the same firm, then they can easily share new accounting tools, solutions, and trends. Additionally, reputable accounting companies have more access to courses and training, which they will likely participate in.
Consequently, an accounting firm could provide you with a team of accountants. For instance, by paying the fixed price, your company will get a team of accountants, not just one person who will handle different kinds of tasks. By choosing an accounting firm wisely, you can ensure that your accounting and bookkeeping are in reliable hands.
Escalating Accounting Easily
Accounting service providers have the available time to escalate your services without any lag. For instance, if your accounting and bookkeeping tasks cannot be handled by one employee then an extra workforce will be added. This can be done easily without the need to go through the recruitment process. Furthermore, you will be charged by the accounting and bookkeeping service provider on an hourly basis. In other words, you can either choose to scale down or scale up the hours without any disruption.
Automation Technologies
A lot of companies are using accounting automation software so that they can save more time. Aside from saving time, it can also help in minimizing risks. By automating accounting, human errors can be minimized. Additionally, by using accounting automation software, accountants will be able to obtain real-time reports. These reports can be very helpful in catching possible problems and resolving them as early as possible. And lastly, it can minimize the possibility of internal fraud.
Most employees that are working at accounting service providers are highly qualified in using accounting automation software including Xero, QuickBooks, Visma, Sage, Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, and others. If your accounting staff is still using Excel sheets only, then you are just wasting your money and time.
An Accountant is A Good Advisor
A reliable accountant will always be at your side, providing you with some advice on how to make accounting more effective and efficient. Most often, they are working with other companies and share an excellent experience they had with another client, whether it is about accounting software, taxation, or financial advice.
When Should You Outsource Your Accounting and Bookkeeping?
Outsourcing accounting and bookkeeping can work best during the following situations:
- A company is unable to hire a full-time employee with appropriate abilities at an affordable rate.
- A small business does not need a full-time bookkeeper however requires a person with more knowledge than a receptionist or office manager.
- A company only needs temporary services. For instance, if the full-time employee is having a maternity leave or extra help is needed for generating year-end reports.
- A growing company is searching for opportunities to escalate accounting and bookkeeping services.
However, even if you choose to hire a qualified and skilled person, you still need someone who will be involved in the process such as reviewing timesheets, making deposits, approving invoices, etc.
Factors To Look for When You Outsource
After deciding that you want to outsource, the next thing to do is to look for an outsourcing company that will fit perfectly with your goals and objectives. Most importantly, they should be able to provide you with your needs and requirements. When searching for an accounting firm, your top priority should be the quality of efficiency and performance that they provide. Nevertheless, there are still other factors to consider.
Competitive Cost
Accounting and bookkeeping companies have their own particular payment schemes. Some companies will charge you on a per-service basis, while others will charge monthly. Hence, you will have to choose a payment scheme that is appropriate to your budget and needs. However, your decision should not be based on cost-effectiveness.
The Accounting and Bookkeeping Services That You Need
Do you need someone who will prepare payroll services, end-of-the-month reports, and balance sheets, or someone who will take care of our account payables and receivables? Or do you need a person who will enter the information into the accounting software or prepare your bank reconciliations and analysis? Whatever it is, you should be specific about your duties, the responsibilities of your in-house staff, and what are the things that you need help with.
Expertise
Be sure that the accounting firm that you have chosen is professional, experienced, and has the appropriate qualifications. Keep in mind that you can always ask for some feedback from their previous or present clients, verify their financial stability and reputation. And finally, verify their capacity to deliver high-quality and dependable results.
Flexible Service Level Agreement
Choose a flexible accounting and financial service provider that has the desire to accomplish your future needs and requirements. It is greatly recommended that you should verify the term and conditions before signing the contract. In this way, you will know how to terminate the contract in case you are dissatisfied with their work.
Data Security
Undoubtedly, data security plays a significant role when it comes to outsourcing accounting services online. A highly reputable accounting firm will handle their clients’ information with utmost privacy, at the same time, ensures that every transaction is completely secure. This is very important since you will not only be giving them your cash flow information, but also confidential information.
Accounting Tasks Your Business Can Outsource
- Payroll Processing
- Account Receivables
- Bookkeeping
- Account Payables
- Reporting to Management and Authorities.
If you choose a big-five accounting firm to handle the audit, then you should use another accounting firm to handle your accounting and bookkeeping. This is due to the independent standards and regulations within the accounting industry. A CPA firm that performs an audit will not be able to conduct accounting and bookkeeping services for that same company.
Conclusion
There are a lot of advantages for businesses that decide to hire an accounting firm to do the accounting and bookkeeper tasks. This includes flexible terms on contracts, cost-efficiency, and escalating the number of functions. Let’s face it. accounting and bookkeeping are a crucial part of any business, however, they can also get complicated. It requires more time and expertise. Without having sufficient knowledge and experience about accounting, a lot of errors might occur resulting in the decline of your business or even going bankrupt.
Savvy Financial is a reliable accounting service provider for businesses of any size. For more information about our accounting and bookkeeping services, you can visit us at https://savvyfinancials.com/.