Outsourcing can be as minimal or extensive as you need. Some companies need only the basic services such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, reconciliation, payroll and cash flow management. Others need more developed services including budgeting, customised reports and dash boards.

No matter the size – whether it’s a small and growing entrepreneurial venture or an established business facing changing or significant growth – companies are finding they have options in developing an accounting structure that works for them. Outsourcing can be customised to your needs and adapted to grow with your business. Consider the following five topics when determining if financial outsourcing is right for your company:

People
Handling full-time staff can often be challenging especially to small business owners. Outsourcing a financial team can eliminate the headache of managing multiple people, holidays, sick leave or any other disruption. Outsourcing means that there is always cover in place so no delays with expected deliverables produced by the financial team.

Quality
Quality of team members and quality of work are both equally as critical to clients considering outsourcing a financial department. Checking client testimonials may help determine the overall quality of the team. Remember that most outsourced financial teams will produce top-level deliverables because the reputation of the team depends on the team’s success which is determined by the client retention rate and client testimonials.

Technology
Keeping a competitive advantage in the marketplace is what drives outsourced financial teams to use the latest technology available that allows for the most efficiencies. Utilising a cloud-based software solution will ensure a client will be able to access financials, general ledger reports, aged debtors and creditors, outstanding bills and other financial status reports in ‘real time’.

Security
Protecting confidential documents and ensuring the proper internal controls are in place can be challenging and costly to a company. With an outsourced financial team, the client automatically receives the protection from the outsourced team’s internal IT department at no extra cost to the client. The client also is able to use the secure file sharing software licensed by the internal IT department, so that the company can file share outside of the secure server.

Pricing
With an outsourced financial team, the pricing of the monthly fees is typically always scalable to the amount of work expected to be completed each month. The total yearly fees often are equal or less than the pay of one full-time employee that the client would have to employ if the client chose to have internal operations instead of outsourced operations; which is typically not a scalable option for a start-up or small businesses due to the high amount of overhead needed to support an internal department.

If you are interested in exploring outsourced financial operations for your business, please contact Elly Rose on ellyr@hbpo.uk.com

If you have any questions, please contact Elly Rose on ellyr@hbpo.uk.com.