Small business owners often view outsourcing Accounting Services as a simple way to cut costs. However, outsourcing can also pave the way for growth, efficiency, knowledge acquisition, and time savings for your business. These additional benefits have made accounting and bookkeeping among the most outsourced services today, with around 37% of small businesses relying on outsourcing for these business processes.
Four benefits of outsourcing Accounting for your small business
1. Free up time for your in-house team
If your team dedicates a lot of time to repetitive tasks – such as tax returns, bookkeeping, or verifying compliance documents and certifications – outsourcing can be a lifesaver. By delegating these repetitive processes to highly skilled experts, you’ll free up time for your top talent to focus on strategic, high-value tasks that move the money needle for your small business.
2. Scale quickly and keep up with growing demand
As your small business grows or you experience fluctuations in your workloads, it’s easier to adjust your outsourcing commitment than to go through a long and expensive hiring process. Outsourcing allows you to boost productivity and take on more work to increase your revenue. It also gives you greater agility to meet tight deadlines during busy tax times, such as the end of the financial year.
3. Fill skills shortages with knowledgeable experts
Outsourcing gives you access to a pool of pre-trained professionals who are experts in accounting and bookkeeping for small businesses, an increasingly valuable commodity given the current skills shortage. According to a poll by Deloitte in 2022, around 82% of hiring managers at public companies and 69% at private companies face a challenge with talent retention for accounting and financial positions.
4. Cut staff costs without sacrificing the quality of work
Outsourcing can give your small business high-quality accounting and bookkeeping expertise for a fraction of the cost of hiring in-house. You won’t spend money training, upskilling, or retaining your outsourcing partner. Nor will you pay retirement benefits like superannuation or insurance premiums for workers’ compensation. While there are several benefits to outsourcing accounting and bookkeeping processes, the cost savings alone are enough to make it an extremely lucrative proposition for most small businesses.
Six factors to consider when outsourcing Accounting Services
While outsourcing can give you a competitive edge, there are several factors you should consider before you dive in. These six considerations will ensure you avoid common outsourcing mistakes and find an outsourcing partner who acts as a seamless extension of your team:
1. Scope of work
First, you need to identify the exact services you wish to outsource and agree on the scope of work in a service-level agreement (SLA). This also allows you to establish clear performance metrics, such as turnaround times, accuracy, and reporting frequency
2. Expertise
Once you have identified your scope of work, look for an outsourcing partner with the right level of expertise for your business’ needs. Are you looking for specialised skills in bookkeeping? Or do you need an expert in negotiating international tax compliance for small businesses? At Sundaram, for example, we deliver back-office accounting services for small businesses to provide accurate, high-quality financial reporting and bookkeeping.
3. Alignment of values
An outsourcing provider that values the same principles, ethics, and quality standards will be the best fit for your business. For example, Sundaram Business Services’ value proposition outlines our values relating to stability, reliability, security and compliance, scalability, risk, and cost benefit. Our aim is to deliver beyond simple business process outsourcing and act as an extended team for your small business.
4. Security
Data security is critical given the accounting sector is highly regulated by a range of compliance frameworks. Your outsourcing partner should demonstrate an unwavering commitment to security through certifications in ISO standards and adherence to relevant laws and regulations at the very least. At Sundaram, we go above and beyond to safeguard our clients’ security, including working off client systems, using stealth logins, encrypting data, and restricting internet site access for staff. You can read more about our security strategy here.
5. Communication
Around 53% of businesses interact with their outsourcing partner on a daily basis. With different time zones, languages, and cultures in play, poor communication will soon see outsourcing become an unwanted bottleneck for your small business. To ensure our partners receive timely, transparent communication around the clock, Sundaram has team members based in Australia and India.
6. Reputation
Research your outsourcing partner before you bring them onboard. Consider how long they’ve been in business, how many clients they’ve worked with, whether they have built lasting long-term relationships. Look at case studies and reviews, check them out on LinkedIn, and seek feedback from other businesses – these can all help your small business identify a potential partner with an outstanding reputation and history of success.
What makes Sundaram your top choice for outsourcing small business Accounting?
We have a 20+ year proven track record providing world-class accounting outsourcing to our clients. Sundaram can provide leading CFO Support Solutions for your business, including:
- Procure to pay
- Accounts receivable
- General accounting
- Financial analysis and reporting
- Tax, treasury and compliance
- Travel and expenses
We support 60 accounting firms – including two of Australia’s top 10 firms – with high-quality support services such as:
- Financials and tax returns
- Business and instalment activity statements
- Fringe Benefits Tax returns
- Collection of data for tax planning
- Estate returns
- Closure of books and financial preparation
When you partner with Sundaram, you access a team of 400+ professionals with experience in Australian accounting systems. To ensure a seamless working relationship from day one, we train our teams in a range of accounting and bookkeeping platforms such as Xero, MTOB, APS, QuickBooks, Sage, Tally, HandiLedger, Solution 6 and your proprietary software.
If you’d like to speak with Sundaram about outsourcing Accounting and Bookkeeping Services for your small business, you can send us a message through our contact form. A member of our experienced team will get back to you to discuss your needs as soon as possible.
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Sundaram Business Services is a business process outsourcing company with offices in Australia, India and the UK. With over 20 years’ experience in the Australian market in providing outsourced teams to Australian businesses across Accountancy, Portfolio Management, Self-Managed Super Funds, and Mortgage Broker Support, our business becomes an extension of yours.
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