Written by Heather Satterley

You wear all the hats. You’ve worked hard to scale your business. But at this point in your venture, you feel overwhelmed by the numbers, receipts, invoices, and spreadsheets.

Does the thought of outsourcing your business’s accounting tasks make you do the happy dance? Some people really love accounting and it’s okay that you’re not one of them!

There’s a good chance that outsourcing bookkeeping and CFO services for your organization might just be your next step toward growth. To build a durable business, you have to start taking off those hats and sharing them with others.

When it comes to creating a business that you work on instead of in, outsource everything that’s not a core competency—including outsourcing your finance and accounting.

What does outsourcing your financial tasks look like?

Outsourcing financial services allows you to get the full accounting department experience without the internal hiring process hassle and expense. You get the benefit of knowledgeable and experienced finance professionals who can take the financial tasks off your plate and free up your precious time. The valuable insight they bring to the table helps guide your business decisions while you receive meaningful financial information.

They do what they do best, and you get to focus on coming up with great ideas that are backed by financial data to grow your business.

What types of business and financial tasks can you outsource?

Accounting and bookkeeping professionals can provide you with:

• Back office support
• Customer billing and invoicing
• Filing and submitting taxes
• Running financial reports
• Paying your bills
• Payroll processing
• Bookkeeping and reconciliation
• Financial planning
• Industry-specific accounting tasks

No matter the size of your company, outsourcing your accounting will help you make sure your financial accounts are neat and tidy and that all transactions are recorded correctly.

4 benefits of outsourced accounting

While there are numerous benefits to hiring outsourced accounting services for your small business, here are the most significant advantages that apply to all businesses, no matter the size or industry:

1. Save your business money

Hiring a full-time staff accountant or bookkeeper can be very expensive. When you hire employees to staff an in-house accounting department, you have to consider the inevitable overhead costs that it entails. In addition to their base salary, you have insurance, bonuses, paid time off, vacation time, and other perks that go along with having employees. Not to mention the time and money spent on-boarding and training them.

For many small businesses, it’s nearly impossible to budget for that kind of expense. Outsourcing your accounting services can be more cost effective because it allows  your company to tap into quality, well-trained professional financials for a fraction of the cost.

2. Get more hours back in your day

An outsourced accounting professional can handle the management of financial processes that are currently being carried out internally. Their expertise eliminates the guesswork from tasks like reconciliation, budgeting, payroll processing, and debt management so you have greater peace of mind.

As a busy small business owner, there aren’t enough hours in the day. Outsourcing these tasks to an accountant who knows accounting systems will free up your schedule so that you can focus on business development and other important initiatives that you never seem to have time for. What’s more, as your company grows, you can then scale up their involvement with your business as needed.

3. Shed new light on your financials

A fresh set of eyes can give your small business a leg up when it comes to analyzing your financials. Outsourced finance professionals provide an objective point of view. They’re not immersed in the day-to-day operations of your company and therefore hold no bias when it comes to assessing your fiscal health. Their priority is to impart their financial knowledge so that your business can continue to grow and be profitable.

4. Proactively monitor your business strategy

When you choose to hire an accounting service, streamlined systems can be put in place to guarantee you have full visibility of the core metrics required to make important business decisions quickly and efficiently. Instead of reactively looking back into your books and wondering why you didn’t see a profit in the third quarter, you’ll have a clear understanding of the financial implications of your business decisions. This allows you to be proactive and gives you a dynamic view of the next steps to take to scale your business and be profitable along the way.

Get the most out of your accountant

To make sure you get the most benefit from hiring outsourced accounting services, think about the challenges you’re trying to address and the results you’re hoping for. You may need ongoing bookkeeping and payroll services, accounting software that helps build out a specific analytic report, or just general guidance on what crucial benchmarks you should target.

Knowing what your goals are before you involve outside help will guide you to ask the right questions and ultimately hire the right accounting firm or bookkeeper.