what is the value of your time?
At some point in growing your business, you may sit down at your desk and look at bills and financial documents around you and say to yourself, “I need help with my accounting”. Small Business owners’ might be doing the accounting themselves, or even have a family member updating the books when starting out and growing. When this gets to be too time consuming, there are a few options for accounting;
- hire an in-house accountant on company payroll
- outsource the accounting to a firm or individual
Why should you outsource at least a portion of your accounting team?
Here are some of the advantages
Risk
With an in-house accountant that the business owner hires, the company is responsible for training, benefits, employer payroll taxes, ensuring the workload is correct, and managing them. Outsourced accountants already have a knowledge of accounting practices and can typically jump right into the business operations knowing what to do.
Cost
It may seem costlier to outsource the accounting functions, but oftentimes Small Business owners do not have enough hours to fill an in-house accountant full-time. With an outsourced accountant, you only pay for the services you need, as much or as little as required. Cost with an outsourced accountant is either fixed fee or hourly. This price can end up significantly less than hiring someone directly.
Work Efficiencies
When hiring an accountant in-house, it is typically at either a staff accountant level or a controller level. A staff accountant will be forced to work up and take on work that he/she is not familiar with and lead to potential mistakes. A controller level hire would force that individual to work on lower-level data entry work that they should not need to be doing at a much more expensive rate than the business should be paying. An outsourced accountant often has different levels of staff that can be utilized on the engagement to ensure work is done at the correct staff level.
Expertise
Instead of a staff accountant trying to learn on the job, an outsourced accountant already has experience. The outsourced accountant usually has a network of resources to ask questions on unique situations and can find solutions to problems easier than an in-house staff member sometimes.
Focus your limited time on growth opportunities.
The drawbacks have solutions
Remote Work
The outsourced accountant is not typically in the office every day and you cannot go over to their desk to ask a question directly like you would be if you hired someone in-house. In a post pandemic world this is now normal for even employees, but we are a focused team using video conferencing technology to stay connected and accessible.
Trust
It takes time to build and only a second to lose. Integrity and trust is paramount to success as an outsourced accountant, especially at higher levels. Be sure to work with a reputable person/company. You can control access to things like read-only bank access to limit some of the trust issues.
Consider a Conversation
Whether or not you decide to outsource your accounting, look for a company or candidate with experience and that will be a good fit for your team. At Footprint Financial, we partner alongside to become an extension of our client’s existing organization and integrate with existing staff seamlessly in order to help business owners’ walk the path of profitability™.
About Footprint Financial
We focus on what we are best at and work alongside your trusted advisors. Footprint Financial works with a wide range of clients including technology firms, construction companies, medical research, breweries, and service industries. Our team has more than a decade of accounting experience and is confident in our capabilities but we do not claim to know it all. We have built a network of advisors to meet the unique needs of the businesses we serve. This includes tax, legal, operations, sales and marketing professionals. Build a team that regularly works together to meet your organization’s growing needs. Get started with a free consultation.
