Accounting Talent: In-House vs Outsourced Teams

It is no secret that finding quality accounting talent can be extraordinarily difficult in today’s hiring environment. In fact, Personiv's F&A Talent Market Survey found that 81% of those surveyed had difficulties sourcing talent. For all but the largest and most prestigious firms, this obstacle is the one most likely to shatter expectations of creating a best-in-class accounting team that will give your business an edge over the competition. Learn the pros and cons and everything you need about accounting in-house vs outsourced teams.

The Value of Attracting Top Accounting Talent (In-House Teams or Outsourced)

Achieving best-in-class accounting talent adds value to business processes in profound ways. A top accounting team can deliver higher-value services at about half the cost of their average peer by redeploying finance talent, transforming accounting delivery models and leveraging technology to optimize efficiencies.

With world-class accounting, customers appreciate better service stemming from faster, more accurate billing. At the same time, partners and vendors appreciate a more efficient collection of receivables and disbursement of payables, and the company becomes a trusted and valuable partner.

Find out More: If I Outsource My Accounting Processes, How Talented Will My Team Be?

Why Use an FAO Services Provider to Build Your Team

The difficulty in finding top accounting talent makes outsourcing an attractive option rather than having to go through the hassle to hire in-house. Instead of risking resources on talent in a field with a turnover rate of between 15 and 20 percent, organizations can outsource their accounting to established service providers – a manageable, scalable solution to circumvent the cons of in-house hiring that takes much of the stress and uncertainty out of accounting.

Listen In: [PODCAST] Why a Shortage of Accountants Could be On the Horizon

Many organizations are hesitant to outsource finance and accounting talent full time because they believe their books are so complex and so unique that only the existing team can take care of project requirements properly. Business owners also tend to react to accounting management changes with distrust – but adopting accounting changes in small, incremental steps makes improvement easy. This can be achieved by partnering with a service provider that is willing to move at your pace, perhaps starting with only the simplest of transactional processes until success is proven.

Why Technology Alone Isn't Enough to Streamline F&A

Many organizations try to attempt to streamline their process, close their books faster and reduce time for transactional tasks using many of the ERPs and other software available in the accounting space. But while technology can help, the heavy lifting still has to be done by a human, causing those stand-out ERPs to be underutilized and a drain on resources. By adding in a dedicated team to work within these platforms, tech headaches are removed from the equation while also saving you from the high cost associated with training.

Outsourcing lets businesses leverage the expertise and resources of a dedicated finance and accounting service provider to achieve the same results large enterprises can. Instead of dedicating in-house resources to procuring and implementing new technology, organizations simply empower a third-party vendor for whom investing in efficiency-boosting technology is a top priority and constant need.

Is Outsourcing Right for You? Check out our F&A Outsourcing Implementation Matrix

The Best of Both: Combining Outsourced Accounting & In-House Teams

The key to achieving best-in-class accounting for your organization is using outsourced labor to perform low-impact transactional processes and support your project managers for business-critical, judgment-based process work.

How to Set Up Your Teams: Read all about Finance & Accounting Outsourcing 101

Outsourcing firms have better access to top-notch talent worldwide regardless of time zone and are able to match qualified applicants with the right skills set to the specific needs of your business. All while ensuring cultural fit. Low-impact transactional processes such as AP/AR, taxation and so on, are a great place to start when outsourcing F&A. And this can be done all while keeping your in-house team busy with more important projects.

Gain F&A Efficiency with Outsourced Accounting Talent

Save time and money, find out how to build a best-in-class accounting team with outsourced accounting talent by downloading our comprehensive guide, “The Winning Blueprint for an Efficient & Effective Finance & Accounting Team.”

Interested in how outsourced talent can augment your in-house team? Check out our finance & accounting programs or contact us for more information.