10 Reasons to Outsource Your Accounting

Businesses typically spend 2 to 5 percent of revenues to properly train and staff internal accounting departments.

While it might not seem like a lot, outsourcing your accounting can actually lower your total costs by eliminating expenses related to employee benefits, training, accounting software, hardware, and office supplies.

You will also save money from the potentially negative consequences of a financial mistake. Mishaps like this can cost you a lot more than the cost of bringing in an outsourced provider to do the job right.

By spending less of your day overseeing bills and payroll, you’ll free up valuable time that can be redirected back into managing and growing your business. As an expert in your field, it’s critical that you use that expertise to focus on business goals, growth and managing your day-today operations.

If a small business is doing its own accounting, chances are good that the person in charge of the task isn’t a master accountant. If you’re lucky, someone on staff may have a background in accounting but it’s not their core competency.

By outsourcing you’ll have access to a team of skilled accountants having a wide range of experience in the area. This ensures that your books are always up to date, payroll is done on time and you’re not at risk of being subjected to penalties due to inaccurate paperwork and underpayments.

By outsourcing, there is no need to buy extra hardware and software for your accounting needs. A provider will have access to leading accounting software and will have the experience and know-how to properly use it to help your business.

One of the hidden benefits that many businesses don’t realize is that outsourcing your accounting function provides an opportunity to upgrade and improve your current financial accounting processes. Outsourcing vendors instill best practices and controls that can help improve efficiency and timeliness of data. In addition, companies have found they can reduce the cycle it takes to close books, and they can develop better benchmark and baseline financial processes to help them meet regulatory requirements.

Whether it’s having access to the latest accounting software or improving your payroll processes, implementing up-to-date accounting procedures can help improve service levels, reduce costs, create better cash flow and position your company for growth.

More than one in five small businesses will have money stolen from them by trusted employees (an average loss is $200,000). It can be hard to enforce a strong checks and balances system without making honest employees feel distrusted, which reduces company morale. Thankfully, outsourced accounting offers the perfect solution.

When you hire an outsourced accounting service provider, you not only save money, time, and stress by having experts handle your financial reporting, you also have a third party to audit your money trail. You’ll decrease your risk of internal fraud by having an impartial standard of checks and balances, which will also help improve compliance.

When you outsource your accounting you can expect to minimize large investments in human resources, technology, and infrastructure and maximize your production, thereby giving an opportunity to scale and react to change more quickly. For example, outsourcing gives an organization the ability to more efficiently handle the surges in activity that may be seasonal or based on business cycles. Rather than having internal resources that are too busy at times and slow at others, companies can instead hand those concerns over to the outsourcing provider. Outsourcing can help you shift your focus and redirect energy from peripheral activities towards work that serves your clients more efficiently and helps grow your business.

Did you know that outsourced accounting decreases your carbon footprint and reduce wasted paper, space, and time? Think about it: it’s easy to take for granted how much paper and toner costs as well as what you pay to maintain your fax machine, printers, and/or copiers. Imagine how much less paper and storage space you would need if all of your financial information was available electronically instead. Less paper, means that you’ll be more organized and spend less time filing and storing hard copies.

Today cloud-based accounting applications allow you to access financial data and records online, giving you up-to-date access to your information such as cash balances, at any time, from anywhere. With timely, accurate accounting records and reporting at your fingertips, you have total visibility into the financial health of your business allowing you to make more confident and informed decisions.

With timely, accurate accounting records and reporting, you’ll gain total visibility into the financial health of your business giving you greater peace of mind to make more accurate and informed decisions. By outsourcing your accounting you can be assured that your financial information is correct, you avoid any potential threats of fraudulent activity, and have access to a team of experienced accounting professionals who you can count on. No matter the size of your company, outsourcing just makes good business sense. It gives you confidence and security you need that your financial operations are in order so you can focus on growing your business.