As a startup, you already have a lot on your plate. But as daunting as a startup seems, the truth is that business growth never comes easy–no matter what stage you’re in. What you do to get to $1 million is different from what it takes to get to $10 million. You need a finance department that understands precisely how to shift objectives at every stage. With an FaaS team on your side, scaling and financial growth becomes attainable.
The days of finance departments succeeding with simple bookkeeping and compliance tasks are gone. In this market, you need professionals who understand how to implement software solutions, automate formerly manual processes, and analyze complex financial data. Moreover, you need professionals who can accurately communicate data and form long-term strategies with your C-suite executives, board members, or potential investors.
In this blog, we’re discussing why FaaS companies are perfect for startups. These teams are not only useful because they implement software and data analytics skills. One of the defining features of FaaS teams is the ability they give you to plug and play solutions as you grow as a business.
At Fully Accountable, we understand how rapidly your business needs to evolve at every stage of growth. That’s why our fractionalized professionals implement the most advanced accounting software and tools for your organization. When you use our services, you benefit from clear communication, state of the art technology, and scalable solutions that lead to sustainable success.
What Is Finance-as-a-Service and How Can a Startup Benefit from This Service?
Finance-as-a-Service (FaaS) is a term used to describe companies that offer outsourced accounting services beyond traditional bookkeeping and compliance services. FaaS companies work with you to integrate financial strategies replete with software solutions and procedures that consolidate your entire organization.
Startups can benefit from these companies because they offer a full range of financial services with one provider. Having all of your core financial functions consolidated into one system can result in significant savings. Not only do you save yourself the stress of hiring in-house employees. You not only have a full-service, scalable accounting team who simplifies bookkeeping and tax compliance. With FaaS, you also have the option to include services, such as strategic CFOs, who handle the more complex financial planning and reporting tasks.
FaaS Handles More Than Traditional Accounting
FaaS firms don’t limit themselves to traditional accounting techniques. Yes, they ensure your books are in order and you are tax compliant. But with the dawn of eCommerce, financial business intelligence (BI), and advanced analytics and software, the accounting teams of today require different skills altogether. FaaS teams aren’t focused on manual data entry and record-keeping. The accounting teams of today must have more advanced skills.
The accounting teams of today understand how to leverage technologies that perform bookkeeping and compliance tasks automatically while improving scalability and increasing agility, productivity, and profitability. They analyze cash flow and understand how to secure capital in areas not typically identified. They provide real-time reporting and advisory that pertains to the following areas of your business:
- Payroll
- Billing and invoicing
- Cost management
One of the most important pieces of this evolution is that startups have access to resources that only larger, more established enterprises would have had prior. Today, because of the scalability FaaS teams offer, you can realize the benefits of this approach to outsourced accounting–no matter your business size.
How Can Startups Benefit from FaaS?
Finance-as-a-Service has modernized the role accountants play in organizations. Since the genesis of accounting software, such as Intuit, companies no longer have to use human resources for what a machine can complete. Machines perform these tasks more efficiently and for less than humans. Cloud computing furthered the extent that accounting software can perform these tasks. Now, they can even perform forecasts, handle invoicing and billing, control payroll, and manage expenses.
You might ask yourself, then, why you even need a FaaS team. If you can automate the majority of your accounting functions, why do you need a team of humans? The answer is, simply enough, that humans can do things that machines can’t. Contrary to what Elon Musk has led you to believe, we still serve a purpose (for now). The benefit of an FaaS team is they decide what functions to automate, how to optimize procedures, and connect your organization under one financial system. In essence, the software collects the data but humans still have to decide what to do with that data.
Your FaaS team can help decide the following:
- How to improve cash flow, financial forecasting, planning, and management
- Easy access to financial systems from anywhere in the world.
- Cut expenses using data.
- Recommend scalable operations that maximize your investment.
FaaS Teams Respond to Your Company’s Needs
There are many reasons why only one out of every three businesses fail within the first decade. Most of them relate back to a company’s profitability. Without financial insights such as business intelligence (BI) and benchmark KPIs, your leaders can’t make informed decisions. Moreover, your leaders might not be finance-minded. If that’s the case, you need finance experts who can relate the data in clearly understandable terms. As you scale, the need for these types of experts will only grow. FaaS teams give you a simple solution to those growing needs.
Startups also need guidance on what to outsource, which can be challenging. An FaaS team will be able to determine with precision which tasks your startup should outsource. They will also be able to determine the cost savings you should expect from outsourcing. When your business grows, this doesn’t stop. Because FaaS teams are scalable, you’ll see long-term benefits from these services.
What Accounting Software Does Your Startup Need?
There are a plethora of options to choose from when it comes to the type of software you implement into your infrastructure. Startups also have much different software needs than established businesses. Financial technology choices hinge on the efficiency, cost efficacy, and scalability of the software. That’s why having a fractional accounting team by your side can help you to determine which software best fits your needs. Since startups can grow at a rapid-rate, FaaS teams can also serve as a valuable resource when it comes time to modify the software suite. QuickBooks is a great place to start because it’s a highly scalable software that integrates with most other financial systems and it produces highly-reliable reports.
Why Do FaaS Companies Make Sense For Companies of All Sizes?
FaaS aims to achieve more with less with any type or size of business. Because FaaS uses scalable solutions, you can benefit from them at any stage of development. As an established enterprise, you can benefit just as much from FaaS services as a startup. Regardless of your size and needs, you need adaptable solutions for your finance department. FaaS companies give you those solutions and simplify transformation. With benchmarking, software, and changing services, FaaS teams fit any size organization needs.
Bottom Line
Because of the challenges that arise from transforming your organization’s finance department, you might be tentative to implement FaaS solutions in your infrastructure. With the right outsourced accounting company at the helm, this fear is unfounded.
Reputable FaaS companies, such as Fully Accountable ensure your organization doesn’t skip a beat when implementing accounting software, benchmarking KPIs, and fractionalized finance professionals. With the right team at your disposal, you can scale without worrying whether your strategies are tenable in the long-term.
Contact us today to learn more about how Fully Accountable’s team of fractionalized finance experts can transform your organization into the streamlined machine you’ve always envisioned.
