Do you know how to find the right outsourced bookkeeping firm for your needs? It might seem tricky, but let’s simplify it below.
Key Takeaways
- Slow down and take your time to evaluate the market as a whole
- How would outsourcing compare to your current approach?
- If you need tax services, make sure to find that feature
- Also, financial reports are critical, so ask about their reporting process
Choosing the right outsourced bookkeeping company can leave you with your head spinning. What elements should you compare? What kinds of features and services matter and what can you do without? It’s common to have more questions than answers at the start when you look at bookkeeping services that might be able to serve your business.
We’d like to use this article to help you put some of those questions to rest. Finding the right accounting services shouldn’t require a business owner to spend a huge amount of time, as outsourced bookkeeping is something that is supposed to save time, not the other way around. You should find the tips below helpful in comparing accounting firms and settling on a partner you can trust. If you’d like to see whether or not Swiftbooks is going to be a fit for your situation, schedule a call with our team right away to get started.
Don't Get Overwhelmed
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you first start to look at all of your options for accounting services. There are a ton of companies to pick from in terms of outsourced bookkeeping, and many of them will be up to the challenge of delivering you solid results. So, does that mean you should settle on the first one you find? Well, not necessarily.
Bookkeeping services, like so many other things in business, need to be tailored specifically to your needs. If you don’t partner with a company that has your best interests in mind, and is willing to tailor their accounting processes to serve your requirements, you might not get the boost that you should get when switching from an internal accounting department.
So, the first step in comparing the leading outsourced bookkeeping services is just to not get overwhelmed by your menu of choices. Yes, there are plenty to pick from, but no, it’s not going to take you that long to sort through the competition and pick out a winner. After you talk to some accounting firms and get to know more about what they provide, you’ll quickly have a feel for which one suits you best.
Compare an Outsourced Accounting Team Against Your Own
Before you dive into the task of comparing other accounting firms against each other, it’s a good idea to pit the idea of outsourced accounting services against your own current setup. What do you stand to gain through this arrangement? Does it make financial sense to go in this direction? Almost certainly, the answers will be that you stand a lot to gain, and yes, it makes total financial sense.
Outsourced accounting firms are better at delivering consistent, reliable results than an in house accounting team for a number of reasons. First and foremost, you’ll have more workers available with outsourced bookkeeping, so it’s easy to pick up the slack if someone is sick or goes on vacation. Also, these accounting firms will use quality accounting software that is going to track everything accurately, watch for errors, and provide excellent financial reporting. As you start to go down the list and think about what your current accounts payable team is able to do, and compare that to how outsourced bookkeeping works, there really is no comparison.
Understand Their Tax Services
One of the truly standout features of most outsourced bookkeeping services is the fact that they can offer tax services on top of basic bookkeeping. That’s true here at Swiftbooks, and it is true for many other outsourced bookkeeping providers, as well. Before you sign up and make your selection, however, you want to get a little deeper into their tax services to figure out what kinds of tax preparation they do and what won’t be available.
The goal here may be to replace your CPA entirely with the financial reporting and work during tax season that is offered by outsourced accounting firms. This will save you a significant amount of both time and money, since you’ll be streamlining the process and only working with a single contractor for all of your financial needs. Accounting outsourcing works best when it is simple and there aren’t too many moving parts to manage. If that setup sounds appealing to you, pay attention to the whole range of services when comparing the top providers, especially in niche areas like outsourced bookkeeping for child care.
Do They Prepare Monthly Financial Statements?
At Swiftbooks, we don’t believe you should have to wait a long time between financial statements. In fact, we think monthly financial data is critical to running a business properly and making clear and confident business decisions. So, early in your process of talking to outsourced bookkeeping companies, ask how often they prepare financial statements and how much that service will cost. This is something you may have been doing without so far in your experience as a business owner, and it’s a huge step forward once you learn just how valuable this kind of information can be.
Is outsourced bookkeeping the only way to get frequent financial data? Certainly not – but it is likely the most affordable. If you work with CPA firms to get this kind of information, they are surely going to charge you a considerable sum, and the cost just might not be worth it to your company. Outsourcing bookkeeping is supposed to be a great way to save some money, and it could be just that when in addition to accounting and bookkeeping, your service also delivers the reports you want to see month after month.
The Leader of the Pack
Whether you are looking for simple bookkeeping services, tax preparation services, financial statements, or all of the above, Swiftbooks is the easy pick. We are proud to have served many businesses with our reliable accounting services and we’d love to add your name to that list. Even if you aren’t sure that we’ll be a good fit, take a moment to get in touch and give us a chance to show you what we can do. Thank you for considering Swiftbooks!
