How Outsourcing Your Accounting Can Save You in the Long Term

The effects of COVID-19 have had substantial impacts on organizations and their bottom line. For many, this has resulted in personnel cuts and lean business models for the foreseeable future.

As your organization looks for ways to contain costs, a critical factor to consider is the importance of financial statements and information. Without up-to-date, accurate accounting records, you cannot make informed decisions about your operation.

Further, financial records will be key when it comes to relief provisions. As guidance continues to be issued, compliance with the provisions within many of the relief legislation measures will crucial, especially as it pertains to forgiveness of loan proceeds. Having a trained financial professional review these will be a necessity.

As you take the next steps forward in your organization, your financials and accounting records must be top priority. Ensure it’s someone’s primary goal to ensure they’re not only up-to-date, but accurate so you can make the necessary decisions for your future. 

The Importance of Your Financial Records
Preparation has always been critical for organizations. Now’s it crucial. Your finances influence a number of factors in your organization, from supply chain to inventory to new business models. 

It all begins with a clean starting place. At a minimum, you should have a review process in place that documents when purchase orders are created, when bills are paid and when cash/checks or electronic payments are reviewed and deposited. This will help lay a solid foundation to ensure you’re on the right track.

Monthly you should be doing reconciliations for the following common accounts:

• Bank accounts – this helps verify all revenue and expenditure activity is captured in your records on a monthly basis.
• Accounts receivable – this helps ensure your customers are paying in a timely manner and will also help your collection procedures.
• Accounts payable – this helps verify the amounts shown due are true payables and allows you to pay your vendors in a timely fashion. This may also help you take advantage of discounts given by your vendors for early payment.
• Capital asset inventory – this establishes that any capital outlays are added to your software and/or external schedule. This list is an audit necessity.
• Payroll accounts (accruals and expenses) – this verifies that payroll is being accounted for properly in the correct accounts.

Further, because the downturn could have a longer duration, organizations will need to pay attention to liquidity and make it their top priority. To do this, they'll need to:

• Conduct financial modeling to understand how various scenarios and situations will impact their cash flow.
• Manage the assets on their balance sheet.
• Focus on inventory and accounts receivable.

Learn more about how to maintain cash flow and strategize cost containment techniques.

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The Benefit of Outsourcing Financial Positions
With tight budgets and limited resources, many organizations have instigated hiring freezes. Yet filling the role of your accounting staff is critical. That’s why many organizations are turning to outsourcing as a way to gain the information they need, without having to bear the burden of hiring someone full-time. 

Specifically, outsourcing can:

• Give you financial data you can rely on and trust to make strategic business decisions. Further, outsourced accounting reduces fraud risk as it adds an extra layer of oversight.
• Provide you with a team of resources and years of experience on a variety of accounting related options.
• Allow you to have an experience professional without the additional costs of a full-time employee (salary, paid time off, payroll taxes, insurance, unemployment, benefits). A full-time CFO can cost over $200,000 plus bonuses, benefits, training and more.
• Stay up-to-date on daily operations and compliance related issues.

In addition to data entry and monthly reconciliation, financial staff can help you craft a plan to move forward, even during times of crisis and uncertainty.

Outsourced accounting staff with a high level of financial knowledge can:

• Ensure the accuracy and timeliness of your financial data
• Help you manage cash flow.
• Present your financial data in a useful and meaningful manner to you.
• Analyze market trends and help you define key performance metrics and benchmarking data.
• Understand business strengths and weaknesses and identify opportunities.

Further, top outsourced accounting firms utilize technology to help you move forward with key business decisions. Instead of utilizing an on-premise, possibly outdated solution, the best accounting outsourcing organizations look to the cloud. Cloud computing allows organizations to be “elastic,” with employees gaining access to applications from anywhere in the world. Further, access to real-time analytics gives organizations a competitive edge while aligning with overall business objectives.

Save costs and gain expertise with outsourced accounting
It’s not a secret that accounting is a crucial component of business. In the current age of disruption, it’s more important than ever as organizations navigate into the next normal . The information is critical, but the funds might not be there. 

Outsourcing through a trusted advisor can give you the answers you need to your pressing financial needs at a substantially lower cost. The economic climate may be uncertain, but your financial records don’t have to be.