When does a company need outsourced bookkeeping services?
Accounting outsourcing is a fairly popular service not only among small and medium-sized business owners but also large companies that need to take the burden off their in-house specialists or outsource a certain area of accounting.The smaller the company, the more it has to overpay for doing bookkeeping on its own. Outsourced bookkeeping offers a full range of services. At the same time, it is not necessary to transfer all functions. Often, it makes sense to have an outsourced bookkeeping company take care of just some of the tasks. For example, reconciling bank accounts, passing a tax audit, preparing documents for a bank, and more.It makes sense to contact a consulting organization when, for example, a new project is launched in a company and it is necessary to determine all weak and strong financial points. It will also be useful to hire a specialist for internal control of your own accounting department and other departments.
What to expect?
As a rule, an outsourced bookkeeping company performs the following scope of work:
- Work with primary documentation: generate invoices, bank documents, work with documents from suppliers and sellers;
- Reflect all transactions in appropriate accounts in accounting programs;
- Calculate wages, vacation pay, sick leave, bonuses, various types of compensations, and other payments to employees and, accordingly, all taxes related to these payments;
- Prepare and submit tax and accounting reports to tax authorities, statistics bodies, and other agencies;
- Advise clients on emerging issues in terms of tax optimization and possible tax risks;
- Represent the interests of the client before the tax authorities (such as preparing responses to letters from the IRS, provide and request information, contacts auditors, etc.).
In addition, outsourced bookkeeping companies offer their clients additional services, such as remote access to accounting programs and information, phone and chat support, as well as financial, HR, and other types of advising.
How to choose a bookkeeping company?
Before handing over accounting to a third-party organization, you need to determine whether there will be tangible financial savings in wages and other expenses on the staff of the accounting department compared to the cost of paying for outsourced bookkeeping services. Usually, cost savings are considered a good indicator of savings for a company when outsourcing accounting. In most cases, companies are able to significantly cut costs or at least get better service for the same amount of money.Select several companies offering their services in the accounting outsourcing market. This can be done through search engines, recommendations from colleagues, pay attention to ratings, etc. When you have formed a pool of outsourced bookkeeping companies, then evaluate them according to the following criteria:
- Experience. The more years a company has been on the market, the higher the level of professionalism of the services provided, the greater experience in various fields.
- Number of staff. If a company has, let’s say, over eighty employees, then this indicates the presence of a sufficiently large number of projects.
- Professional level of the staff. It is advisable to ask the management about the availability of professional certificates from leading specialists, how often professional development takes place, and more.
- Professional liability insurance. No one is immune from mistakes, so the presence of a professional liability insurance provider means that the company is serious about providing services, and guarantees, in case of mistakes, maximum compensation for damage.
- Recommendations of clients. If a well-known brand entrusted the accounting to this outsourcing company, then it is worth your consideration too. Look for reviews posted not only on the website of the company itself but also on other websites and forums.
We hope that now the choice of an outsourced bookkeeping company will be easier with these recommendations.
