Not every business owner has the time and energy to manage every aspect of a business. It’s understandable if you are not able to handle all of the responsibilities of running a business. In such cases, outsourced services have become a more common solution for small businesses.
This article will introduce you to outsourced accounting services, one of the most popular types of outsourced services, and help you decide whether your business needs to use outsourced accounting services or not.
What are outsourced accounting services?
Outsourced accounting services are a third party that provides a full accounting department experience for small businesses.
An outsourced accounting service handles day-to-day transactions, accounts payable, accounts receivable, financial statements, taxes, payroll, financial reports, and many other accounting tasks like a regular accounting department.
Most outsourced accounting services provide a wide selection of packages; you can decide whether you also need a bookkeeper or an auditor. To remain competitive in the market, outsourced accounting service providers must constantly enhance their abilities and certifications. You can rest assured that your books are handled well by finance professionals.
However, keep in mind that even if you hire an experienced and qualified accountant, you’ll still need to be involved in authorizing invoices, making payments, evaluating timesheets, etc.
The benefits of outsourced accounting services
Cost-saving
Hiring an outsourced accounting service is often cheaper and more cost-effective than hiring in-house staff to handle the finance function.
By outsourcing, you can save your money on costs that hiring an employee would generate, such as paid leaves, health insurance, retirement, vacation, bonuses, and sick days. You just pay for what you require.
Furthermore, accounting and bookkeeping services are charged on an hourly basis. It means that you can increase or decrease the number of hours without interruption.
Time-saving
As your company expands, you’ll realize yourself focusing more on the business’s core value rather than handling administrative tasks.
As a result, using outsourced accounting services allows you to concentrate your attention, energy, and resources on developing a business strategy. This will then help you increase the business revenue and enhance the relationship with your customers.
Reduced hiring processes
The hiring process requires many resources. For example, it takes time to develop a recruitment policy, interview, and expenses for onboarding and training new employees. This process usually costs your business a significant amount of time and money and distracts you from other important tasks.
Outsourced accounting services can help you eliminate hiring and training costs as the service providers already did it for you. All you need to do is choose the most appropriate package for your business, sign the contract, and pay for the plan.
Accounting scaling made simple
Outsourced accounting service providers can expand their services dramatically in order to compete with their competitors.
In particular, if your bookkeeping and accounting activities require more than an accountant to handle, you can easily demand more staff from the service agent.
Automation technologies
Most outsourced accounting services have adopted accounting automation technologies to save time. It also reduces human errors and helps business owners eliminate hazards.
Moreover, automation technologies will lower the likelihood of internal fraud. You’ll have multiple pairs of eyes on your transaction processing and reports, which provides increased internal controls. Having a dedicated team with expertise in accounting best practices will be far more likely to spot an anomaly than one person who’s probably overburdened and overloaded with work.
You might also be interested in:
- Efficiency Up, Stress Down: the Top 7 Business Automation Tools for Small Businesses in 2022
- 10 Reasons Why Bookkeeping Is Important To All Businesses
- Accounting Vs. Bookkeeping: What Are The Differences?
When should you consider using outsourced account services?
Outsourced accounting services are most effective when:
- A small company doesn’t need a full-time accountant, but it demands someone with higher accounting knowledge and skills than a regular office staff or secretary.
- A business that can’t afford to hire a full-time accountant with the necessary skills.
- Temporary services are required, such as extra assistance with end-of-year reports or when a full-time worker is on maternity leave, sick leave, etc.
The bottom line
Choosing outsourced accounting services is not just about handling your accounting activities. It also helps you drive profits, improve cash flow, and grow your business in the long term. You can always discuss with the service provider to design a package that suits your business needs and budget, brings you the peace of mind, efficiency, and actionable financial intelligence you need to succeed.
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