Ways Outsourced Accounting Can Benefit Your Business

In recent years, business owners have faced higher expectations regarding financial transparency and government compliance. Many businesses struggle to juggle the day-to-day responsibilities alongside more complicated tasks such as accounting, compliance, finance, and risk management.

If your business has never outsourced accounting before, you may have some questions. What exactly is outsourced accounting? What are the benefits of outsourcing? How much does outsourcing typically cost? We will discuss the answers to these questions in the article below.

Accounting outsourcing is hiring a service provider to handle the accounting responsibilities of your business. The business owner may choose which services to outsource and which to keep in-house.

Benefits of Outsourcing Accounting

1. Cost-Effective
   Outsourced accounting saves you the time and money required to recruit and train and relieves you from paying payroll taxes, salary, insurance, benefits, time-off, etc.
   
2. Outsourced CFO
   An outsourced accountant can act as your outsourced CFO when needed. This will help you have a better understanding of your business’s financial health, allowing you to make more confident and informed decisions.
   
3. Reduce Fraud
   If your accounting functions are in the hands of one or two people, your business is at a higher risk of experiencing fraud. Outsourcing your accounting reduces this risk and allows for better internal controls. Your outsourced accountant should be able to identify problems, flag errors, and notify you of any inconsistencies.
   
4. Saves Time
   According to a ZipRecruiter Salary Report, Minnesota’s average in-house accountant salary is $51,916. Add onto this the costs associated with employee benefits, software, hardware, and office supplies. Outsourcing your accounting will lower your total costs. It will also eliminate the potential negative consequences of a financial error. A small mishap from any of your in-house accountants may cost you far more to fix than having the right outsourced accountant do the right job from the start.
   
5. Improve Financial Statements Valuable 
   Financial statements can be more than just a set of historical documents. An outsourced accountant can help you use them for comparative analysis:
   1. Identify trends
   2. Make predictive operational decisions
   3. Forecast bank loan compliance
      
      Your accountant can also help enhance financial statements with:
   1. KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
   2. Sales/Employee
   3. Sales/Hour
   4. Sales/Total Hours
   5. Sales/Sq. Ft.
   6. Proactively monitor bank covenants
   7. Create operational benchmark ratios to help manage employee performance
   8. Benchmark your company to others in your industry and help identify opportunities for improvement
   9. Perform trend analysis with budgets
      
6. Gain Confidence & Peace of Mind 
   By outsourcing your accounting services, peace of mind ensues with the assurance that your financials are secured, protected, and accurately reported. The confidence that comes with choosing the right outsourced accountant is what your business needs so you are free to focus on growing your company.

How much does outsourced accounting cost?

Outsourced accounting should never be a one-size-fits-all approach. Smith Schafer has a menu of service offerings that can be customized to your unique needs. This means you can pick and choose from accounting services such as: 

1. CFO services
2. monthly bookkeeping
3. payroll
4. accounts payable processing
5. bank reconciliation
6. financial reporting
7. invoice preparation
8. forecasting & budgeting

With the current state of the country, it may be the perfect time for your business to outsource its accounting needs or other responsibilities. Outsourced accounting can help your business gain access to expertise, use resources more efficiently, and improve your bottom line. Contact us today to discuss a customized quote.