Accounting is without a doubt one of the major industries actively using outsourcing solutions. Even years back when the outsourcing landscape was dominated by manufacturing and customer support, accounting was making its mark. Since the early 2000’s bookkeeping and financial accounting have been consistently two of the most outsourced accounting tasks. But today, back-office tasks like accounts payable and accounts receivable, billing support, tax preparation, pre-filling and even internal auditing are becoming commonplace in the outsourcing arena.
Accounting is vital in business, regardless of company size. But let’s talk about business capacity, sustainability and continuity and why offshoring is such a great idea.
Business Capacity
Business growth is not just about making more money. Growth is about expanding to new horizons for your business, entering new markets, taking on new audience demographics and most of all, hiring new and brilliant employees to join your team. This is an achievement and a challenge at the same time. You don’t want to limit your business’ output with budget shortage.
As a rule, a business with 30 to 60 employees has generally one accountant to get the job done. They take care of payroll distribution, accounts payable and receivable, billing support, invoicing, financial statements, reports, income statements etc., the big stuff oh and the little things like the petty cash etc. It will take extra hours to get the job done. But they get there, right..?
But what happens when you’re scaling up, the business is experiencing growth and you need more financial support and advice than ever. Do you want your accountant reconciling the petty cash or by your side sharing some of the heavy liftings? This isn’t the time for two accountants, this is when you need to wrap support around your existing team, so they are able to focus locally without the routine distractions of day to day, time-consuming tasks.
Business Sustainability
Business doesn’t tend to get easier, it wasn’t easy to begin with and that really doesn’t change just the problems do. Growth is accompanied by change and challenge. You may not be a fan of change, but it will come regardless. According to the Financial Times, business sustainability is finding balance and managing three important factors, the profits, the people and the planet
- Financial (profits)
- Obligations and opportunities (people)
- Social and environmental risks (planet)
Considering these three factors, accountants obviously play a big role within the finance of your business and with the right person in the job, they are also vital to the balance of people and planet – your business, your team will also fit within these factors, perhaps just focused differently. Sustainability means establishing a cost-effective and strategic approach to how you run your business and how you do business. A sustainable business attracts and retains talented employees. Not only that, with effective ROI, your business will experience less financial risk and get you a step ahead of the competition.
Business Continuity
This is not the usual lather – rinse – repeat method. As mentioned above, change is inevitable whether you like it or not. Continuity in business is all about business continuity planning. You need to be prepared for everything, both positive and negative. In business, we work with people and life happens. Your financial planner out for a month due to an overseas bereavement, a senior accountant away for three weeks with the flu. You need someone, not something. With continuity in place, your business will maintain efficient output despite life interfering with our best-laid plans.
Enter Your Offshore Solution
Offshoring addresses all three.
Capacity – With your business growing, you’ll need to grow your accounting department as well. Offshoring allows you to hire three skilled accountants for the price of one onshore accountant.
Sustainability – Offshoring is all about cost-effective business strategies. You might be concerned around distance or communication barriers within an offshore setup. Thanks to modern technology and innovative management solutions, these issues were resolved years ago. You don’t have to sacrifice your operational output just because you don’t have enough money to hire another accountant.
Continuity – Instead of hiring one or two accountants, you can build a team removing the worry of having your one and only accountant out of action. Your business is able to maintain the level of efficiency you promised and worked to provide to your customers since day one.