If you’ve ever considered outsourcing for increased efficiency, or simply to remove the roadblocks that are preventing you from moving your organization forward, you’re not the only one. When choosing to contain costs through outsourcing, add quality talent to your roster and improve your business’s bottom line, you might ask yourself, “Which parts of the business make the most sense to outsource to a third party for increased efficiency?” The key is to outsource tasks that are non-core competencies, allowing you to focus on driving business growth.
Curious about how to implement outsourcing for increased efficiency? Below are some of the best tasks to start outsourcing with a virtual accounting provider to save on costs and get your time back. You’ll also discover just how efficient outsourcing really is (including the advantages of outsourcing).
How Outsourcing Adds Efficiency to a Growing Business
Are you bogged down with work? Do you struggle to meet deadlines or make time for value-added tasks, hindering business growth and team productivity? When you should be focusing on company core competencies?
At this point, you’re going in circles trying to find solutions to streamline your business operations better (without digging a financial grave for your organization). It’s a revolving door of frustrations that many companies have faced and continue to face in today’s modern finance and accounting landscape. But the reality is, you don’t know where to look or how to begin offloading your tasks. That’s where outsourcing comes in.
Benefits of Outsourcing Your Low-Impact Functions to Attain Efficiency
Lower Operation Costs
The number one reason many companies choose to go the outsourcing route is to contain costs. There’s a vast cost difference between hiring in-house versus pulling from a global talent pool. The numbers alone are enough for leaders to make the switch.
Ability to Maximize Resources
During a growth phase, many businesses will often find they benefit from having more workers on hand, but can’t afford the overhead costs that come with hiring and retaining full-time employees. However, outsourcing these functions will free up the resources, who can better concentrate on producing value-added work.
Add Quality Talent to Your Team
Finding people with the skills and experience you need can be difficult, especially in a volatile labor market. But with outsourcing, the stress of hiring is eliminated and you’re left with experts who are skilled at handling a variety of accounting and back-office tasks that support your company’s needs.
Gain a Competitive Advantage
It’s challenging to compete in a market where larger companies dominate the talent pool. And if you’re a small to midsize organization, you don’t have the funds or resources to push yourself into the next phase of your business. However, an outsourcing partner can help you mimic “big” by giving you opportunities to the same talent pool, efficiency and expertise that large companies revel in.
What Tasks Should You Outsource for Best Results?
Accounting - The Gateway to Achieving Outsourcing Efficiency
It’s no secret that every organization needs accounting work done, but the tedious tasks can soon take over, leaving you unable to focus on more important decision-based work. Enter finance and accounting outsourcing; outsourcing removes the need to find hard-to-source accounting talent, which is a favorable perk. But before you hand over the keys to your department, consider which tasks to delegate out:
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Accounts payable. It’s easy to push your bills to the back burner when you have other issues to attend to. In fact, managing your supplier and vendor relationships can be a challenge. And the more you have, the more at-risk you are for costly errors in your AP process. Moreover, a poor performing AP process can turn into a liability for your business.
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Accounts receivable. If you want to get paid (and on time), you need a fully functioning AR process. And if you don’t receive payments on time, your company will suffer from a negative cash flow (which makes decision making all the more challenging).
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Tax support. Filing the wrong tax numbers can have devastating repercussions for businesses. And making mistakes when it comes to taxes can cost companies more money than they’re ready to shell out. With outsourcing, you get access to skilled professionals who have experience in this area and are aware of the updated tax and regulatory changes.
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Payroll. A recent Paychex poll showed that one-quarter of payroll users said they are concerned about keeping current on tax laws and regulations, while 16 percent are concerned about tasks around managing taxes, withholdings, etc. for employees in different locations. Which is why companies should look at outsourcing this particular function.
Read More: 101 Tasks to Delegate to Virtual Accounting Teams
Back Office
The needs of your back-office team can creep up on you, fast. The best way to get ahead of it is to figure out which of your back-office tasks are priority tasks (and part of your business-critical) and what can be given to a third-party. By outsourcing your back-office to a reputable provider, you'll be able to reinvest your time and budget into strategic priorities and finally get important but often overlooked admin work off the back burner for good. Here’s a few back-office tasks you can get off your plate:
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Transaction support. If you’re handling thousands of transactions each month, you’re probably tied up. Outsourcing this function allows you to free up your time and turn your attention towards big picture projects.
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Data entry. A time-consuming process that involves large amounts of data that needs to be entered into your company’s system. In fact, this process probably takes hours on end – leaving no room for other tasks to be completed.
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Market research. Don’t have time to follow market trends or analyze your competitors? It’s easy to get caught up in other projects, but without the help of back-office professionals, your company would have no way to know which course of action to take next for the business.
Suggested Reading: Considering Outsourcing Back Office: Here’s What to Expect
If you’re looking for outsourcing efficiency, outsourcing your low-impact tasks is how you get there. Remember, when outsourcing parts of your non-core business functions, choosing the right provider is how you’ll yield success. To find out more about the services we provide and our approach to outsourcing, get in touch with one of our virtual accounting experts.
In the meantime, check out our article on what to expect when you outsource: Using Accounting Outsourcing Services: What to Expect.
