7 Signs Your Business Needs Outsourced Accounting Services
Do you ever feel stuck when it comes to your business finances? Do you worry about missing critical financial deadlines, keeping accurate records and over- or underpaying your taxes? If so, outsourced accounting services could be the perfect solution to streamlining your finance and accounting function in a cost-effective way.
Outsourced accounting can help lay the foundation that will help you make more informed business decisions and reach your business goals.
So, let’s review the top seven signs that you need outsourced accounting in your business.
Top 7 Signs Management of Your Business Needs Outsourced Accounting Services
Managing your business finances can be tricky and time-consuming—especially if you don’t have the right resources or expertise. If you’re feeling overwhelmed trying to manage your business finances, here are the top seven signs that it might be time to look into outsourced accounting solutions.
You Struggle to Hire, Manage and Retain Accounting Talent
Maintaining an in-house accounting team can be difficult for management of any business.
According to the AICPA 2023 Trends Report, bachelor’s degree completions in accounting dropped 7.8 percent from 2021-2022 after a steady decline of 1-3 percent per year since 2015-2016. Compounding the pipeline problem, experienced accountants leave the profession due to long hours, high stress and heavy workloads.
With a shortage of available talent, it’s difficult for your internal accounting department to stay on top of daily accounting tasks—let alone provide financial insights for data-driven decisions.
With outsourced accounting services, you don’t have to worry about attracting and retaining talent. Your outsourced accounting team becomes a one-stop shop for bookkeeping services, tax filing support, financial reporting, monitoring key performance indicators and more.
Your Accounting Systems Don’t Provide the Information You Need to Run Your Business
Do you maintain your books on an outdated version of desktop accounting software? Do you spend way too much time manipulating complicated Excel spreadsheets to get the data you need to run your business?
Outdated accounting software isn’t just inefficient; it can also put your business’s sensitive financial data at risk of data breach or loss. It can also leave you struggling to keep up with changing industry regulations and reporting requirements, making you vulnerable to compliance risks.
With outsourced accounting, your financial data will reside in a secure cloud-based accounting system, giving you real-time visibility into your finances so you can focus on making informed decisions that will help take your business to the next level.
Your Business Is Growing Too Fast
When you started your business, it might have been easy to keep up with your business accounting tasks and financial reporting regulations. But as your business grows, staying on top of budgeting, deadlines, accounts receivable, accounts payable and other accounting operations becomes more complex. Without the right resources, these key aspects of running your business may fall through the cracks, leading to costly mistakes that could put your business at risk.
Outsourced accountants have the industry expertise to see your business through phases of rapid growth, ensuring you stay on top of cash flow, financial reporting and other back-office functions so you can focus on what really matters.
You’re Missing Deadlines or Finding Errors in Your Financial Records
Missed deadlines and inaccurate financial statements can have serious implications for your business. Missing tax deadlines can lead to stiff penalties, late payments can lead to a poor business credit score and higher borrowing costs, and errors in your financial records can mean you end up paying your tax preparer or auditors higher fees to clean up your books each year. Plus, when your finances aren’t properly organized and up-to-date, assessing your business performance and making a course correction becomes more difficult when you’re headed in the wrong direction.
Outsourced accounting can help you stay organized and compliant, ensuring you meet deadlines, issue accurate financial reports and avoid potential penalties or lost revenue caused by errors in your books.
You Worry About Security, Privacy and Internal Controls in Your Accounting Department
As a business owner, you’re responsible for protecting a lot of sensitive data belonging to your employees, customers, vendors and your own organization.
Worrying about security, privacy and internal controls in your finance accounting departments is a sign that your business could benefit from outsourcing accounting. Your outsourced accounting team can protect your financial data with the latest security protocols and internal controls to protect against potential threats and breaches. With these safeguards in place, you can enjoy peace of mind knowing your data isn’t at risk of fraud, theft and other malicious activities.
You Regret Your Accounting Software Selection
Implementing new accounting software can be a daunting task for any business. While new accounting software has the potential to streamline your accounting tasks and improve overall efficiency, it can also cause headaches if you don’t take the time to properly plan and implement your tech stack and update your accounting processes to align with the technology.
Outsourced accounting solutions can help you troubleshoot your accounting software pain points and ensure you have the right solutions and processes in place to maximize efficiency. Your outsourced accounting team can also provide training so everyone on your team is confident in their ability to use the new system.
You Have Higher Level Accounting Needs
When you started your business, you may have thought bookkeeping and filing taxes was the extent of your accounting needs. But growth brings more complex business issues. While recording transactions, paying employees and staying on top of state and federal tax compliance are still important, you want more than just compliance—you want to optimize working capital, project your cash flow for the next 12 months, obtain assistance with special projects like selecting and implementing new accounting software, comply with lease accounting standards and prepare customized management reporting.
These projects may take more industry specialization than your existing finance and accounting teams possess.
You might not have the budget or need for full-time CFO or Controller services, but your outsourced accounting service can help you tap into this level of expertise on a fractional basis.
It’s not unusual for business owners to be concerned about relinquishing control over their accounting, but this can be a positive transition with the right partner. A talented and experienced outsourced accounting provider can help to make your workflow more efficient and cost-effective while providing audit-ready financial statements you can trust.
Don’t wait until you’re in crisis mode—contact a Windham Brannon advisor today to learn more about our Outsourced Accounting services. We can work with you to set your business up for long-term success. For more information, contact your Windham Brannon advisor today, or reach out to Jodie Bartock or Rebecca Smith.
