How to Outsource Accounting
Accounting can be one of the most tedious tasks for business owners, especially if you do not have much background on the subject. Sometimes, small business owners even get to neglect their accounting, which can be very risky and even devastating to your business.
This is actually a pretty common concern among small to medium enterprises, which is why the outsourced accounting industry has boomed over the last few years.
What is Outsourcing and What are its Benefits?
Outsourcing has a bad reputation to some. But in essence, outsourcing is identifying a weak area of your business and assigning this task to a professional offshore, or someone who’s not in your company.
Outsourcing is even more common than you think! You outsource your tasks whenever you hire cleaners, repairmen, and more. Outsourcing can also be greatly beneficial for you and your business.
One benefit you get from outsourcing is that you do not have to personally manage the employees for that task. Let’s face it, HR can be annoying at times, but with outsourcing, that wouldn’t be much of a problem, since you would be hiring already-trained professionals in the field.
Second, it’s cheaper in the long run. Most of these outsourced professionals have lower rates than actually hiring a full-time employee for your firm, and they still get the job done.
Lastly, you get to focus on your actual job and expertise. Hiring outsourced accounting professionals can make you and your business more efficient in the long run!
How Do I Outsource My Accounting?
You actually have a wide array of options on how to outsource your accounting.
- Hire an accounting firm. One of the most common options to outsource accounting is to hire a professional accounting firm. This is usually done by medium to large companies. What you do here is you send all your forms, receipts, and accounting and finance-related materials to the firm, and they will do all the accounting for you. In this option, accounting becomes like background work and utility, where you will just regularly pay the firm based on your arrangement.
- Hire a CPA. Another option you can do is to hire a certified public accountant (CPA) to do your accounting. While this can be more tedious, since you would probably still do all your bookkeeping, it’s still pretty efficient (and most likely cheaper than hiring a firm). Most CPAs form good rapport with the businesses they’re handling, too!
- Going the online route. There are so many outsourcing accounting options that you can do online now! There are websites that are especially dedicated to outsourced accounting, such as LessAccounting and inDinero. Alternatively, you can also hire freelancing CPAs online, and you can find them on websites such as Freelancer, Upwork, Fiverr, and the like.
The Bottom Line
You don’t have to spend your precious time on something you don’t fully understand. Accounting can be very complex, especially to non-practitioners. Neglecting your accounting tasks will not do your business any good, so you should take a look at the outsourcing options we listed, and let your accounting worries fade!