As your organization grows, there will be challenges that must be overcome to meet your new needs, some of which you may not be able to do with your current financial reporting resources. The decision to hire an additional employee or deploy an entirely new system can be overwhelming, especially for early stage companies, but may be necessary in order to fulfill your growing organizations new needs. But what if you do not have the ability to support an entire new Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) and instead just need 10 or 15 hours worth of support a month? This is where outsourcing part, or all of your accounting function, may be the best solution.
Outsourcing your organizations accounting function can give the best of both worlds. You are able to get the service level you need while increasing your service level as you grow, without having to hire and train new employees. As technology continues to evolve, outsourcing part or all of your accounting function makes more sense from a both a level of service and budget standpoint.
Outsourcing can mean a lot of things, but in regards to an organization’s accounting function, there are a few different options.
Partial Outsourcing Model
Your organization may have employees on staff that are doing a great job and who you would like to keep in your organization, but they are not able to perform all of the tasks that are required for the level of financial reporting that you need. If you have a Controller or CFO, the accounts payable, accounts receivable, and payroll functions could be outsourced. Using cloud based platforms such as Bill.com, Expensify, and WorkForceGo!, SC&H is able to provide these services, with the Controller or CFO providing the last level of oversight before bills are paid or payroll is sent. This keeps the Controller or CFO free to do other activities where they can provide more value to the organization. SC&H can also perform the CFO/Controller duties, where an in-house clerk processes the payables and receivables. In this situation, SC&H would be the final level of oversight, reviewing what the clerk has prepared and initiate payments. Partial outsourcing can be any combination of these situations or something else entirely, it just depends on the needs of your organization.
Full Outsourcing Model
In this model, your accounting function would be fully outsourced, from bill payments to financial reporting. With cloud accounting systems such as Sage Intacct, you can continue to monitor the financial results of your organization in real time, while the accounting is outsourced. In combination with the cloud based systems noted above, your organization will have an extremely efficient financial reporting process that can be accessed anywhere, at any time.
Both outsourcing models offer the benefit of having access to a wide range of expertise, from the team that works on your account day to day, to other partners and managers in the firm that can provide insight as questions and changes arise. The ability to get the experience level of CPAs that is included in an outsourcing arrangement is something that cannot be obtained for the same price by hiring internally. At SC&H, the Accounting Solutions group is staffed with CPAs who perform outsourced accounting services, both on the partial and full outsourcing model, in order to meet our clients financial reporting needs. As our clients have grown, we are able to provide additional services as they need them when they need them. The Accounting Solutions group would be happy to discuss your organizations needs and discuss ways we could assist.
[sch_pullbox]We welcome the opportunity to help your business with our expert outsourced accounting services—please reach out to one of our team members today.[/sch_pullbox]
