6 March 2017

​Proper bookkeeping is a cornerstone to every successful business. Though a lot of entrepreneurs may feel comfortable handling their own bookkeeping in-house, there’s more to gain by outsourcing the accounting and bookkeeping function to a reputable outside firm.

For starters, outsourcing lets you access a rich pool of expertise. An independent bookkeeping firm specializes in all things bookkeeping and as such is likely to be highly skilled at it.

By hiring one to take care of your work, you access that high level of expertise that can be key to the success of your business. In addition, the independent bookkeeper is likely to use up-to-the-minute accounting techniques and bookkeeping best practices that aren’t commonly available with an in-house staff. In essence, they often make the bookkeeping work a lot easier.

More Effective Use of Time

Outsourcing your business’ accounting operations lets you free up some valuable time that can then be put to far better use. You take the trouble and costs associated with paperwork and compliance issues off your back so you can focus on doing what you have to: running your business.

Pouring over the books of accounting in your back office can often take up a precious amount of company time. A business needs the contribution of all its people to optimize growth. By outsourcing the accounting work, you set your staff free to directly contribute fully towards the business’s day to day operations undeterred.

Reduced Operational Costs

Keeping your bookkeeping in-house can mean hiring additional accounting personnel to run the accounts department. Running a whole department can be costly as it has lots of day to day overheads including the costs of reporting and compliance.

Once you outsource this to an outside firm, you are only left with the cost of hiring the service which is typically lower. You’ll no longer need to pay costly benefit packages to any in-house accountant. You pay only for the actual accounting service and nothing more. This way you are saving in both productivity costs and recurrent payroll outlays.

Access to Collaborative Accounting

Whichever way you look at it, it’s always better to have a team dedicated to handling your books of account. There are lots of details to mull over, and a single employee or two doing the work won’t always cut it. Being insiders, they may hardly be as accountable as an outside firm whose very existence depends on this bookkeeping job.

An outsourced firm has a dedicated team of professional accountants making sure your work gets the proper attention. While your in-house personnel would allow minor company bureaucracies and distractions to affect their dedication to the bookkeeping work, an outsourced team will check and double-check each detail in collaboration with one another to ensure that everything is tackled. In most cases, there will be the supervising eye of their boss to ensure that nothing is missed.

Reduced Cases of Fraud

Studies have indicated that privately owned businesses with less than 100 members of staff are the most frequent victims of fraud. This is mostly because these businesses often don’t have access to a CFO or controller to look at the business’ KPI and performance metrics that would reveal abnormal activity in the billing and transactional data.

By outsourcing accounting services, such businesses often gain access to the thorough accounting controls of CFOs/controllers available with these independent accounting firms. The professionals are thorough in looking for signs of fraud and can detect deceitful activity and implement the right fraud protection controls keeping your business safe in the process.

Increased Room for Scalability

Better profits and increased output are key to business growth. Once a business is able to save from outsourcing the accounting function, such a business can expand its scalability options by ploughing back the additional profits made from increased output, reduced fraud and more effective spending of business time.

A key way to grow a business is to cut down on costs and that’s what a business achieves by outsourcing its accounting and bookkeeping functions. Additionally, accounting firms can provide your business with valuable feedback and a list of suggestions that can significantly contribute to increased profits eventually.

It’s through the right accounting practices that you can keep track of your business finances and account for up to the last penny your business spends. For a small to medium size business though, the outsourcing option tends to be the surest way to finding such desired bookkeeping best practices.



This article is brought to you by GMAC Accounting, LLC, a full service cloud accounting and bookkeeping firm. With over 30 years of experience in the business of banking, accounting and project management, GMAC assists small and mid-sized businesses with all their financial needs. For more information on GMAC Accounting, please visit: www.GMACAccounting.com