Business owners have a ton of demands on their plate, from bringing on the right staff members to marketing their products and working to improve the customer experience. But as your business starts to take off, it can leave you with a difficult choice. Should you focus on growing your core business or continue to focus on the administrative side, like managing your accounting and bookkeeping needs?
When your business was small, it was easy to handle both. But now that you’re growing, it may be more difficult to adequately cover your administrative tasks.
Getting behind in your books can leave you frantically preparing for tax season. Without accurate financial records, it can be harder to secure funding and prepare for the future, too.
Outsource accounting services can help you stay up-to-date on your books, compliant with regulations, and firmly in control of your company’s financial future. With that in mind, here are some of the reasons why you should consider partnering with an online accounting firm.
Scaling as Your Business Grows
Your profitability depends on your ability to generate revenue and sustain growth over time. Outsource accounting services can help you accomplish this, providing a set of benefits that can help to cover back office responsibilities as you and your team focus on your core business tasks.
Specialized Skills for Every Step of Your Journey
While in-house accountants tend to be generalists, online bookkeeping firms can offer a specialized experience for every phase of your business journey.
Outsource accounting firms can often provide experience in unique areas such as:
- Personal financial planning and assistance
- Forensic accounting
- Managerial accounting
- IT auditing
- Non-profits
- Tax preparation
Additionally, the financial professionals found at today’s top firms often have experience in your respective industry, providing actionable advice that can optimize your company at every step of your journey.
Tax Planning
The specialized skills of an outsourced accountant typically include experience in tax planning and preparation. Outsource accounting services can not only ensure that your company has set aside sufficient funds to pay your annual income tax, but they can also help you to take advantage of the existing tax code to enhance profitability while staying in compliance with regulations.
This can be crucial for growing businesses. As your business expands, you may discover that rising revenues and a changing customer base can place you in unique tax situations. These needs can best be addressed by a professional accountant. Outsource accounting teams can enable you to navigate the confusing world of tax law.
Financial Reporting and Planning
Growing businesses often rely on small business loans for tasks like:
- Increasing inventory
- Hiring new employees or contractors
- Investing in new technologies
- Expanding retail or office space
- Other overhead costs
But in order to secure a small business loan, most lenders will want to see the basic data about your financials.
If your books are “a little behind,” this can jeopardize your ability to secure the necessary funds to grow your business.
Top-quality outsource accounting services can provide catch-up options designed to bring your books completely up-to-date. Best of all, with accurate reporting, you’ll be in a better position to secure additional funds as your business expands.
Taking Your Time Back
Your time is too valuable to spend on your books. And accounting doesn’t usually fall under your team’s core competencies.
A core competency is a unique skill or advantage that is ultimately responsible for your company’s growth. Any business process that’s not a core competency should be outsourced, allowing your team to focus on their respective areas of specialty.
That’s why bookkeeping and accounting rank among the top tasks to outsource for growing companies. Outsource accounting services can help you with these administrative processes so that you and your team can stay focused on your core business.
Here are just a few of the additional benefits that you can expect when you partner with high-quality outsource accounting services:
Saving Time While Staying in Control
Running your company is job number one. Relying on outsourced online bookkeeping services to handle your books can liberate you from the tyranny of administration and put you back in a position to make data-driven decisions.
Some business owners are reluctant to do this since it naturally means surrendering control. But letting someone else handle your books can actually mean greater control over your company—not less.
For instance, most accounting firms rely on the latest cloud-based technology, offering access to your financial data 24/7 from anywhere in the world. And at xendoo, our professional team is never more than a phone call, text message, or email away.
You save time and benefit from up-to-date, easy-to-access information about your company’s cash flow and financial forecasting, giving you confidence that you simply can’t match by juggling your own spreadsheets and flow charts.
Keeping Your Employees Focused
Of course, you may already be wise enough to delegate these responsibilities to another team member. But think about how much more your team could accomplish if they weren’t spending time clicking around in QuickBooks.
Your office staff could divert their attention to revenue-generating tasks as:
- Social media management
- Marketing
- Contacting customers
- Pursuing new leads
- Negotiating with vendors
Outsource accounting services reduce the burden on your staff as a whole, allowing you to direct your team’s attention to the key processes that go into running your business.
Spending Less Time Hiring New Staff Members
When you pursue outsourced accounting for small business needs, you won’t have to interview, hire, and onboard your own staff accountant. That means you’ll spend less time assembling a job description, posting a job ad, reviewing resumes, onboarding a new employee, setting up benefits, or securing an office space.
With an outsourced accounting firm, you can rely on a partner that will be around for the long term. You’ll benefit from the reliability of a dedicated team that understands your needs and provides ongoing support.
A Fast, Reliable Turnaround
What happens if your in-house accountant needs to take a sick day or goes on a two-week vacation? Depending on the circumstances, this could bring your company—including its payroll—to a grinding halt until your staff member returns.
With an outsourced financial firm, you have the reliability of a remote team and can avoid the time delays associated with unexpected absences or delays.
Reduce Costs and Increase Accuracy
Outsource accounting services can reduce costs, all while ensuring greater accuracy for your financial records. These benefits are seen in several ways:
Reduce Staffing Costs
Did you know that a typical certified public accountant (CPA) can charge roughly $40 per hour? The number climbs even higher if you need someone with specialized experience.
Hiring an in-house accountant can be cost-prohibitive for small businesses, whose margins are often already razor-thin.
Outsource accounting services typically operate on a monthly fee. xendoo, for example, offers plans starting at $195 per month. These monthly fees are a mere fraction of the costs of hiring an in-house accountant.
Reduce Errors
Errors can cost you, especially when it comes to your annual taxes. In many cases, business owners may face penalties for errors made in their tax reports, along with consequences for failing to file appropriate documentation on time.
Outsource accounting teams can minimize these errors, eliminating the expense associated with mistakes.
Optimize Costs
Accounting firms can streamline tax preparation to help grow businesses. But the advanced reporting features that they offer can also help you to streamline every aspect of your business.
Advanced analytical data can help you refine your business strategy and find ways to reduce costs. It can also help you to plan for seasons of increased demand, which may be particularly helpful information for retailers or eCommerce companies.
Get Paid Faster
Businesses often lose money from unpaid invoices. Online accounting services can speed up the invoicing process, ensuring that you can send invoices and receive payments faster than ever before.
Eliminating the delay between delivery and payment can ensure a healthier revenue stream and keep money from getting lost in a sea of outstanding invoices.
The reporting features offered by modern accounting firms can alert you to outstanding payments that need to be collected, giving you better control over your company’s cash flow.
Reduce Fraud
While no business owner wants to consider themselves to be vulnerable to fraud, an online accounting service can minimize your risk by handling your finances through a secure cloud-based platform.
This professional team might also be able to help investigate employee fraud by closely examining your books, saving your business the money that could otherwise be lost from white-collar crime.
The Best Time Is Today
If you’re wondering when to invest in an outsourced accounting company, the best time is now.
At xendoo, we offer our clients online bookkeeping features and accounting services that streamline every aspect of their businesses. We can save you time, save you money, and help your business thrive and grow.
If you’ve been spending your time trying to stay focused on two things at once, it’s time to go “all in.” Give us a try today by signing up for our free trial. Get out of the back office and back to doing what matters most.
