On your first day in business, chances are – other than piles of expense receipts to itemize – you will not have too many bookkeeping or accounting demands. As your company grows and becomes busier, however, you will too. Like most business owners, you will likely find yourself spending much more time than you would like managing your company's finances.
Hiring full-time bookkeeping and accounting staff and building an accounting department for your business can become expensive fast. These employees have highly specialized skills, are responsible for a critical part of the business, and as a result, they come with highly specialized price tags.
When business owners need to supplement what they are able to do themselves, rather than hiring in-house employees, they often look to CPA firms for assistance. Although CPAs are perfect for doing your taxes, or completing an audit, they typically aren’t set up to dedicate themselves to improving your bookkeeping and accounting function or provide client accounting services that help you grow your company. They aren’t experts in a smart back office or management accounting, so they end up being an expensive choice.
Whether you call it outsourcing, remote, online or virtual, the point is that its worth it for you to consider reasons for transitioning your business's bookkeeping and accounting from being an in-house function to partnering with an outsourced firm.
Overseas call centers have unfortunately earned the word "outsourcing" a bad reputation, but outsourcing to a U.S. based company is actually a pretty amazing option for most growing businesses – especially when partnered with a reputable provider. Outsourcing is not always overseas or offshore - it simply means services that are directly not part of your in-house staff. Read on to learn what an outsourced accounting services provider can do for your business.
13 Reasons to Partner with an Outsourced Accounting Services Provider
1. Save Time and Money
As a business owner, your time is valuable. When you consider how much you could earn for your company during the hours upon hours you spend itemizing expenses, paying bills and sending invoices, you are working at a pretty expensive rate. An outsourced provider frees up your time, allowing you to focus on what you do best – running your business.
2. Fully Dedicated Team at a Fraction of the In-House Price
Choosing an outsourced accounting services provider delivers more value for your company's dollars than hiring an in-house staff peon. Like a time-share that actually generates a return on investment, partnering with an outsourced bookkeeping and accounting provider gets you a fully dedicated team of experts at a fraction of the cost of building up an in-house accounting department.
3. Easily Scalable
Many providers offer customizable services. If you select one that does, it will allow you to only pay for the services your company needs, when you need them, and add more value added services as your business grows.
4. Two (or More) Heads Are Better Than One
When you hire a premium outsourced provider, you will have an entire team of specialists available to collaborate, provide advice and brainstorm creative solutions.
5. Ease the Burden of Employee Management and Training
In small and medium-sized businesses, the responsibility of training and managing employees often belongs to the business owner. Training and managing bookkeeping and accounting employees, however, can be a challenge. Constant changes to compliance rules, technology updates and a competitive job market make it difficult to find, train, supervise and retain the right people.
6. Department Continuity
A high-quality outsourced accounting provider will offer continuity with a team of individuals dedicated to service client accounts. So, if someone falls ill, takes a vacation or finds another job, you won't have to worry about falling behind on your finances while they are away. This not only allows for a back-up plan, but also provides an additional level of knowledge and experience so you can be confident in the accuracy and efficiency of your financial processes and procedures. You'll also have a second set of eyes eliminating the chance for errors, mistakes, or fraud.
7. Risk Management and Mitigation
When you hire an outsourced firm to handle your finances, the burden of risk shifts from you to them. They are responsible for keeping up with ever-changing tax code and regulations to ensure compliance. If a system crashes, they are responsible to fix it – not you. In addition, a reputable outsourced accounting provider offers additional layers of protection with separation of duties and other safeguards against internal fraud.
8. Increased Financial Privacy
When you hire an individual to handle your bookkeeping and accounting in-house, you risk your company's financial and proprietary privacy. There is no guarantee that your employee will remain with your business forever or that they will refrain from discussing your business finances with other members of the community. An outsourced provider ensures a layer of confidentiality that an in-house employee cannot.
9. Pro-Active Financial Health, Tax, Audit and Compliance Management
With an outsourced provider, you will receive timely and accurate financial reports. With these reports, you will be better able to safeguard your business's financial health. You will also be better able to plan and prepare for taxes and audits, ensuring you avoid unnecessary costs such as tax penalties and regulatory fines for non-compliance.
10. Perfectly Timed Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable
Smart outsourced bookkeeping and accounting services will also establish best in class cash management processes for your back office to reduce days sales outstanding with perfectly timed receivables and payables.
11. Leverage the Latest Technology at a Lower Price Point
Competitive outsourced providers stay ahead of the competition by testing and offering their clients the latest in bookkeeping, accounting, and time tracking technology. With an outsourced accounting provider, your company can access and benefit from these technologies without the risk of having inadequate support or over-spending on unnecessary technology tools. We don't sell you technology. We sell you accurate, timely financial intelligence. It's our job to make the technology work.
12. Make Data-Based Decisions
Streamlined bookkeeping and accounting services allow you to make data-driven decisions to reduce costs, increase revenues and improve cash flow. With outsourced CFO services, you can learn to read, understand and leverage your company's financial reports to boost and manage growth.
Lucky 13. Manage Growth
Although business growth is a sign of success, successfully navigating the growth stages of your business can be extremely challenging. An outsourced accounting services provider that includes the expertise of a CFO can help you anticipate cash flow shortages, fluctuating costs and measure customer acquisition costs against a customer's lifetime value to handle the kinds of growing pains all successful businesses experience.
CHoose Wisely
Choosing to partner with GrowthForce could be the luckiest (smartest) decision you ever make for your company. We offer reliable, reputable expertise through our host of scalable outsourced accounting services. Working with a team of dedicated and bookkeeping and accounting professionals, you can strategically grow your business and increase profits, while reducing the burden of managing your business's bookkeeping and accounting.
