- November 14, 2019
- Posted by: Janet Harlow
- Category: Book keeping
Are you looking to save time and money?
Bookkeeping can be very challenging for small businesses and startups.
Managers and owners basically have three options for their accounting:
- hire an employee
- do it yourself
- or allow a third party to handle things for you
These options all have disadvantages.
Obviously doing it yourself will take up a lot of your valuable time. It can be expensive to hire a full-time bookkeeper and might be more than what many small businesses really need.
Outsourcing requires you give access to all of your accounts to a third party – which requires a certain level of trust. But can become a major contributor to your success.
However, outsourcing has increasingly become a more appealing solution due to technology solutions. And if you can find a team you trust, the advantages are numerous.
The following are some of the top reasons you should outsource your small business or startup’s bookkeeping.
Need help with your bookkeeping? Chat to an expert from Phoenix Accountants & Advisors today!
1. Outsourcing Frees Up Your Time
The most valuable resource that anyone working at a small business or startup has is time.
There are just 24 hours in a day, and you need to dedicate some of them to sleep (if you want to remain functional). Creating more time for your team and yourself will instantly give you a competitive advantage.
Outsourcing tedious tasks can free up time in your busy day. However, this will normally come at a cost. Skilled professionals have a tendency to charge high rates for the services that they provide. However, you also don’t want to really trust an inexpensive bookkeeper. This is where automation comes into play.
A majority of small business owners have to spend several hours every week working on tedious and basic accounting tasks, such as processing payroll, organizing sales receipts, and reviewing expenses on Xero/ MYOB/ QuickBooks or Excel.
The less time you need to spend on accounting, the more time you’ll have to focus on growing your business rather than on mundane yet necessary tasks like bookkeeping, BAS lodgements, Single Touch Payroll & debt follow up.
The health experts at Get A Healthy Life experienced this first hand, They highlighted the number of hours saved, saying that “on average, we spent around 20 hours a month doing our own bookkeeping. We’re not experienced with this type of stuff, it’s not what we do. Outsourcing this task has taken a lot off our plate and we don’t have to pay that much since they get it done quickly anyways”.
Looking for help with your bookkeeping needs? Get in touch with the team at Phoenix at accounts@phoenixconsultancy.com.au and start feeling confident in your financial decisions today! Spend time on what you are good at & leave the rest to the experts.
2. Outsourcing Increases Productivity
The majority of successful startups and small businesses are comprised of a versatile team that can take on various roles. In these settings, it is very common for employees to take on tasks that are unfamiliar to them – ones that are not part of their job description – to help the business.
However, for managers and owners, when employees responsibilities are expanded, it always is a balancing act. When more tasks are added to an employee’s workload it can distract them from being able to do the important work that you hired them for in the first place. It can also cause people to feel overworked, which can reduce their engagement and lead to fatigue.
This is exactly what happened to thephysiotherapists at Integrity Physiotherapy. Their team commented on this, saying that “even spending an extra 30-minutes every once in a while to help out with the bookkeeping was exhausting. Nobody in the team wanted to do it and when someone did, it took forever. After outsourcing this task, it took a lot of stress of our team and there are no more arguments about who forgot to record something.
So, stop wasting the talent of your team! Instead, make use of automated outsourced bookkeeping technology to add up your receivable so that your employees can focus on improving and growing your business.
3. Outsourcing Is Less Expensive
When your bookkeeping is outsourced to a remote team or automation software, it will be more cost-effective than it would be to hire a full-time employee to do this same work.
Compared to an in-house accountant, outsourcing is exponentially cheaper. Even if you have a current employee doing your bookkeeping on the side, you still have to pay them for their time that is spent away from performing their regular tasks.
According to the business loan experts at Phoenix Lending Solutions, one of the best ways to stretch a loan and make it work for you as much as possible is to outsource. They noted that “staying lean in the initial stages by hiring remote talent or utilising automation software dramatically cuts down costs. This allows you to focus your budget on growing your business instead of simply operating your business”.
When you take full advantage of what outsourced bookkeeping services can offer, it provides your business with new growth potential.
Get this crossed off your to-do list today.
4. Outsourcing Provides You With More Flexibility
Even thriving businesses have slow months.
In December you may sell 1,000 products while in January you only sell 500. Fluctuating demand can cause the amount of work that has to be done to dramatically decrease or increase.
One month you might be desperately searching for individuals to take tasks on, and then the next month you could be waiting around for orders.
Gaps can often be filled by contract workers. However, for most business, it isn’t a realistic option to hire temporary in-house bookkeepers.
When a full-time bookkeeper is hired, you will need to pay that employer no matter how busy – or not – they are. What you really need to have is a bookkeeping system that is able to scale to meet your specific needs.
But by following strategic planning and receiving guidance from our CFO team who help business with quality & timely advise you can avoid the common pitfalls that many business owners face (and would cost you thousands of dollars!)
If you outsource your bookkeeping, you can make adjustments to your level of service in order to match your current needs. You can reduce the number of transactions when you anticipate slower months, and reduce your expense without needing to cut the hours of your loyal employees.
Looking for help managing your bookkeeping needs? Contact the team at Phoenix Accountants & Advisors and find out how! Call us today on 086444 6311 or 0465 786 065
Author Bio
Janet Harlow is a passionate freelance writer based in Sydney. She is a university student and has a major in Philosophy. Janet loves to travel. She goes to several tourist destinations whenever she’s free. She is also passionate about animals.