The improvement of technology and the growth of the online community have shifted how people do business forever. It has linked us to experts who can help us run the day to day operations of our businesses, hence enabling our companies to run seamlessly – boosting profitability. Accounting is one of the major areas that this has made a huge difference for business owners.
Accounting is like a visit to the dentist – none of us wants to spend time doing it but if you ignore the matter, it can lead to severe consequences. This is why a large number of small and middle-level companies have taken up this idea of using a virtual back office for their accounting services.
Outsourcing your accounting services to a virtual back office allows business owners to enjoy technology platforms that are more streamlined, automated business procedures, and enhanced skills set. It also provides real-time reporting as well as analytics. Other benefits of a virtual back office include reduction of the amount of time you spend on recruiting, training, and maintaining the company’s accountants, reduction in transaction costs, audit efficiency, and effectiveness in document management.
The ultimate objective of using a virtual back office for your accounting services is to enable the management use all these components, to get quality real-time information that enables them to make corporate decisions that lead to the success of the business. Here are telling signs that it is time to outsource for your accounting needs.
- Reduce Costs While Improving Efficiency
The reality for many companies – especially small and medium enterprises – is that their accounting departments do not have enough on their plate to keep them occupied for the whole month. These accountants have to be paid full wages for the month, allowances, as well as other benefits like their paid annual leave. In addition, you have to pay for the offices that they occupy and additional utility bills. All these expenses can be eliminated by using a virtual back office. A virtual back office can increase the efficiency of your books and finances and they will cost less than having a partially used internal accounting department.
- High Employee Turnover
If your company has been experiencing a high turnover of employees recently, or you have been finding it hard to find people with the right skill set to fit in your company’s accounting department, then using a virtual back office could be the solution. Using a virtual back office reduces your costs, and also provides a team of professionally trained accountants who have the knowledge and experience in this field. This team of professionals will crunch the numbers and ensure that the financial part of your business keeps running flawlessly. In addition, outsourcing will help you cut on the time and money that you would have spent advertising for the accounting position, short-listing, interviewing, employing, and training the new employees. All of this effort can now be channeled into other more important aspects of building your business empire.
- Lack Of System Integration
Are you running an accounting platform that requires regular manual intervention because it lacks system integration? This type of system puts you at risk for errors, such as input errors, that can lead to inaccurate accounting data. Remember that it is the accounting data that you use to make key management decisions. Therefore, if you use the erroneous data to make decisions, you may end up making the wrong decisions and hence, steering the company in the wrong direction. Virtual back office accounting firms use the latest accounting software to eliminate manual intervention, therefore eliminating the chances for errors. Using a virtual back office will allow you to enjoy improved and timely reporting, as well as accounting data that is 100 percent correct.
- Fraud And Data Privacy Worries
How sure are you that your accountant cannot sell or leak the company’s confidential financial information to your competitors? Outsourcing your accounting needs will allow you to work with a team that upholds neutrality and professionalism that is unmatched by internal employees. When you use a virtual back office, you reduce reliance on internal accountants, which reduces the risks of embezzlement and fraud through the appropriate separation of duties. A virtual back office will also use cloud-based systems, therefore reducing the number of manual checks, which in turn reduces the possibility of human error and exposure of sensitive information. Working with a virtual back office also greatly reduces the chances of your employees filing lawsuits that could end up costing your company a lot of money.
- Changes In Regulations
Changes in regulation may introduce new things that you are not aware of and you may not be able to relay the correct information to the main stakeholders. Accounting firms have the expertise to deal with any regulatory changes when you use a virtual back office, you will be able to keep your company compliant to the ever-changing laws and regulations governing businesses and reporting.
- Focus Your Skills On Other Areas Of Your Business
It is a no brainer that accounting will take some of your time. However, if you spend the bulk of your workday dealing with accounting issues until you do not have enough time to deal with other aspects of your business, then it is time to outsource your accounting services. Using a virtual back office will free up all of the time you spent balancing your books and it will allow you to focus this time on other, more important areas of your business – at a small cost.
When a business is starting up, you tend to occupy all the roles as the owner. You tend to hold as many positions as possible so that you can keep your business running without hiccups. However, as the business grows your exceptional skills may be required in more important areas of the business than the accounting department. Using a virtual back office will remove accounting from your to-do list, and enable you to focus your energy and time to areas of the business where your skills are most needed.
