Spring 2014 issue of Horizons

In today’s market, organizations of all sizes are finding that outsourcing various aspects of their business can be a valuable and cost-effective strategy.

Many organizations are finding that outsourcing their accounting functions is a good strategy to cut costs, maximize profitability and accurately budget and staff.

What is Outsourced Accounting? Outsourced accounting is a business strategy of outsourcing some or all of the accounting functions necessary to keep the business operational. Outsourced accounting solutions are almost always unique to each organization and must be tailored with the organization’s success in mind. Some typical functions that organizations outsource include, but are not limited to:

∙ Bookkeeping

∙ Internal control analysis

∙ Financial accounting and reporting

∙ Dashboard reporting, trend reporting and additional analytics

∙ Controllership / CFO expertise and analysis

∙ Payroll

∙ Accounting policies and procedures

∙ 1099s

∙ Cost accounting

∙ Sales tax

∙ Cash management

∙ Use tax

∙ Bill pay

∙ Personal property declarations

∙ Invoicing

∙ Tax planning and preparation

Outsourced accounting allows organizations of all shapes and sizes to focus on what they do best and outsource the rest. Outsourced accounting allows organizations to leverage the skills of current personnel.

In many cases, organizations select untrained labor to do various accounting tasks because the organization cannot afford a full-time experienced professional.

Outsourcing helps organizations match the appropriate tasks to the best effective use of current labor. Organizations can also budget for all accounting functions utilizing a fixed fee arrangement to lock down previously variable costs.

Outsourcing accounting frees up time for management to grow the business instead of handling remedial tasks.

Determining if outsourced accounting is the right fit for your organization can be a daunting task as there are many steps that occur in the accounting processes.

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