Outsourcing Accounting & Financial Needs for Small Businesses

by Chris Betley

With employee turnover, increased labor costs, and a lack of professional expertise, many small businesses, non-profit organizations, and governmental entities are moving to outsource their accounting and financial needs to accounting firms.

Outsourcing allows organizations to get the specialized knowledge and expertise they need to grow their businesses in a cost-effective, efficient, and scalable way. Accounting firms employ highly trained accountants and finance professionals who service a variety of different industries of varying sizes. This diverse range of knowledge and experience allows them to bring best practices to an organization and tackle complex issues seamlessly while providing deeper resources and more capacity than many smaller organizations.

Minimizing the loss of productivity from accounting and finance personnel is a major benefit of outsourcing your accounting and financial needs.   In smaller organizations, each team member is vital to the company’s success. The loss of productivity incurred with employee turnover or staff time off can make a major dent in work output. When a team member is sick or on vacation or chooses to pursue another opportunity, it causes stress and anxiety for remaining employees and business owners, and the cost can be substantial. Finding candidates, paying recruiter fees, and the time spent training the best candidates can be very time-consuming and costly to a small organization. When accounting and financial needs are outsourced, adequate staffing and gaps in resources become their challenge instead of the business owner. Most accounting firms have a nimble team of professionals that can step in when needed, shifting those responsibilities away from the business owner so that they can focus on the more important parts of their business.

Labor costs can be overwhelming, and outsourcing can bring substantial cost savings. All labor costs must be considered, including salaries, benefits, training, continuing education, equipment, office space, taxes, and unemployment. Because these costs are increasing, many organizations are looking for ways to minimize personnel costs while maximizing benefits. With outsourced accounting and financial work, organizations can capitalize on the firm’s expertise and quality of accounting and finance professionals while saving money on the overhead and operating costs of hiring additional staff.

With the decline in workplace candidates, most organizations have a fluctuating need for a bookkeeper, accountant, controller, and even a CFO.   These vacant positions can be hard to fill and take a toll on financial needs, especially if more than one position needs to be filled at the same time. Outsourcing accounting and finance allows you to receive services on an a la carte basis. For example, you may have a limited need for CFO and controller services but require additional accounting and bookkeeping services. Supervision ensures that all accounting and financial records are correctly managed, which allows you to progress faster and more robustly.

With the many changes in the workplace environment, including more cloud-based accounting software, electronic banking, secure file sharing, video conferencing, and telecommunications, outsourcing your accounting and financial needs has become a very viable solution for many small businesses. Looking into the potential for outsourcing may provide far more opportunities for your company than ever before. It is certainly worth a look to see what streamlining resources exist to help your business into the future.

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