Outsource Your Bookkeeping: 5 Real Life Situations it Could be Your Best Option

Keeping accurate financial records is key to ensuring your business enjoys steady growth while remaining legally compliant. Sound financial reporting gives you the ability to analyze what you’re doing right and identify areas for improvement, which places tremendous importance on who you have managing your books. Here we highlight a few situations where you might consider the increasingly popular decision to outsource bookkeeping to a professional service.

5 Real-Life Reasons to Outsource Bookkeeping

1. You’re Concerned About Legal Compliance

This is perhaps the strongest argument for outsourcing your bookkeeping to an outside firm. Regular changes in tax laws and requirements can leave anyone’s head spinning, and trying to keep up can be overwhelming for small in-house bookkeeping teams. While we empathize with their situation, non-compliance with new tax and financial regulations can have dangerous consequences.

A professional firm that specializes in this field will have a much larger team and is better equipped to stay on top of any changes in tax code and financial regulations. The decision to outsource provides this up-to-date expertise and removes the stress of worrying about whether your in-house bookkeeper is doing every little thing according to code.

2. You Run a Small Business and Need to Save Money

Minimizing costs is particularly important for small businesses that need to invest everything they can into things like marketing, payroll, and operating expenses to fund growth. Having an in-house bookkeeper tacks on extra expenses such as employee taxes and benefits, accounting software, and allocation of extra office space. Outsourcing this will cover your company’s accounting needs while avoiding these extra costs.

By outsourcing this function, you’ll only pay for the actual bookkeeping work that gets done. This is useful for companies that only need bookkeeping help at certain times of the year, such as tax preparation season. There’s no need to pay an in-house accountant to sit idly for much of the year. You’ll also avoid the cost of accounting software, which requires regular updates as tax laws change and can get quite expensive.

3. You Don’t Want To Rely on Just One Bookkeeper

While you may not have considered the decision to outsource bookkeeping, outsourced bookkeeper services ensure you’re getting the right financial guidance at all times. In-house bookkeepers often operate alone, meaning they have a limited pool of knowledge and experience to draw upon when matters become complicated. This can lead to delays or mistakes that will add unnecessary costs to your operation.    

When you outsource these services, the bookkeepers doing your work are not only highly trained but work alongside an entire team of professionals with a much wider range of experience to draw upon when needed. If any question or issue comes up, it’s highly likely that someone in the team will have gone through it before and can provide immediate guidance. By paying for one job, you essentially get access to a whole team of experts.

4. You Want To Use the Latest Technology

Accounting laws change every year, as do the software and tools that bookkeepers use to comply with them. Having the best technology can provide tremendous benefits for your company, including the ability to generate operational reports and remain organized in the event of an audit. But advanced bookkeeping software can be quite expensive if you need to continue upgrading it for an in-house bookkeeper.

To remain competitive and keep their clients satisfied, outsourcing services that specialize in bookkeeping will always work with the best technology available. In many cases, this means you’ll have access to automated systems and reporting that will require minimal effort from you. This means more time focused on running your business while having access to first-rate financial reporting without having to pay for the advanced tools it requires.

5. You Need Flexibility and Scalability

Economies shift, markets evolve, and consumer trends can turn on a dime. Businesses must adapt to survive, and this applies to every employee and department in your company. Any shift in how your company operates could require an equivalent shift in financial reporting strategy, and your in-house bookkeeper may not have the skills to keep up. Additional training costs time and money, as does hiring additional personnel and getting them up to speed.

Professional outsourcing services avoid this dilemma by providing you with constant access to a diverse pool of experienced bookkeepers. This will provide continuity, flexibility, and scalability as your business evolves, and further gives you the option to expand or reduce your bookkeeping team with a simple phone call. Outsourcing means no need for time-consuming interviewing, hiring, and training processes.

These are some of the situations that drive companies to consider the option of outsourcing their bookkeeping needs to a professional firm that specializes in this demanding field. It can save money while ensuring companies are legally compliant, in addition to scaling along with the company as it evolves in the future.