Let’s face it, accounting – both in theory and practice – can be boring. As a small business owner, you’d much rather talk about your products and services than your accounting debits and credits. Yet, you still keep a careful eye on your expenses to help keep costs low.
Savvy business owners understand that precise and timely accounting is critical to a company’s survival and many soon come to realize that their time is better spent growing their business rather than focusing on managing day-to-day bookkeeping. As a business grows, your needs grow far beyond what a bookkeeper can provide. You need much more than billing, collections, payroll, deposits, sales taxes, bank account reconciliation, and basic financial accounting. You need next-generation management accounting.
Why Outsource?
Basic financial accounting helps ensure you are compliant and your books are up to date. But to make informed business decisions with real-time data and key performance indicators, you need management & financial reporting. There are a number of key indicators that your business may be ready for financial reporting and accounting, including escalating annual sales, a growing staff, funding from investors, too many critical priorities, and a need for more sophisticated financial reporting for data-based decision-making requiring technology systems that interface and talk to each other.
Many business owners view outsourced accounting as a true competitive advantage; something that helps them get ahead without an upfront investment of time or money. Today, many small businesses look to outsourcing as a strategic lever to scale and grow.
Exploring Your Options
- If you’ve reached the point where your accounting needs extend beyond what a bookkeeper can provide, there are several options to consider:
- Outsourcing a controller ($75,000-$100,000 salary, plus 20% benefits)
- Using a CPA ($175-$250 per hour)
- Contracting with a billing and collections agency and separately with a Value-Added Reseller (VAR) to design and install accounting software are examples of a la carte outsourcing to various firms.
- Outsourcing your bookkeeping and accounting to a Client Accounting Services (CAS) firm to manage your end-to-end accounting needs.
Engaging an Outsourced Accounting Services firm can be at least 30%-50% cheaper than developing and maintaining an in-house accounting department. But outsourcing isn’t only about saving money; it can help you free up time to focus on what’s most important… your business.
Concentrate On Your Core Business.
Let’s face it, accounting is not a key competency for most businesses. Anything that diverts your employees’ attention away from what they do best, should likely be outsourced.
When outsourcing your bookkeeping and accounting needs to a outsourced accounting services firm, you essentially gain a dedicated team who serves as your accounting department with deep domain expertise. It also affords you the opportunity to augment your in-house accounting resources to help increase efficiency at a fraction of costs of having a full-time department in place.
But outsourcing isn’t just for growing businesses; fully funded start-ups can also benefit from having a scalable accounting platform that provides the business and technology expertise you need to grow your business confidently.
How Outsourcing Helps
Outsourced accounting services can help your business or nonprofit boost operational efficiency and grow profitability via a QuickBooks-centric financial system that combines state-of-the-art automation and integration to improve financial reporting capabilities. You’ll lower your accounting labor costs, reduce the time it take to produce reports, reduce human error and risks, streamline workflows, manage cash flow and just make better business decisions.
At Pacific Accounting and Business Services (PABS), we are more than just bookkeepers and accountants, we are thought partners and business advisors who can help improve your business operations and provide you with the advanced bookkeeping and accounting services you need to augment your staff and or fully transform your finance function to drive profits, improve cash flow, and grow your business.
