What are the benefits of outsourcing your finance function?

Outsourcing your finance function: Is it right for you?

Outsourcing your finance function can free up time and resources better spent elsewhere. And offers reassurance that your business is compliant with the finance laws and regulations applicable to your business. Your time is valuable and is better spent on implementing strategy and setting business goals rather than working on payroll or VAT returns.

When a business is founded, it’s often easy to forget that the burden of day-today finance tasks will quickly ramp up and take founders and senior executives away from their priorities. Creating efficient processes isn’t always at the forefront of your mind as your business grows and time-consuming manual tasks can take up more time ongoing.

Outsourcing your finance function enables you to take advantage of the attractive economies of scale that an outsourcing accountancy practice can offer. And will often result in a substantial saving on administrative costs to your P&L.

As your business grows, you may find keeping control of accounts receivables becomes more difficult. It’s vital that you have an up-to-date picture of how much you are owed and by whom. So accurate and timely bookkeeping is key here, as is a robust credit control process. It can be tempting to put this on the back burner while you deal with what seem to be more pressing matters. Outsourcing your finance function allows you to have the visibility you need, enabling you to foresee tax liabilities accurately.

And you may see that as the number of payments you have to make increases month by month, it gets harder to keep an eye on accounts payable (including payroll). And the time burden of making manual payments becomes increasingly taxing. Including payables as part of your outsourcing package eliminates manual processes and ensures accurate payments to suppliers and employees. And, again, this will help with anticipating payable liabilities.

There may be a requirement for multi-level authorisations when making payments, to mitigate employee dishonesty or error.  An accounting service can implement specialist payable software and processes to give you a streamlined and safe way of settling bills with customised authorisation levels. 

Managing documentation (receipts, invoices) for transactions can very quickly be pushed to one side as the workflow increases. HMRC expects businesses to keep all such documents for 6 years and to be able to relate them to specific transactions. An accountancy service can implement a process for this, eliminating paper and ensuring you are compliant.

Reporting isn’t always the first thing a founder thinks of, but accurate P&L reporting is an essential part of the outsourced offering. Tailored, timely management accounts can be provided at intervals of your choice and will become an essential business tool for planning and budgeting.

Management account packs can include forecast versus actual reviews as well as other reports suitable to your situation.

Employee Expenses can quickly become an administrative problem. There are many options for handling expenses that employees incur, and an accountancy service will be able to advise you on what method is best for your business.

Maintaining accurate books and records according to the UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (UK GAAP) standards is a skilled practice that requires training and experience. It’s easy to be tempted with software adverts promising easy accountancy solutions at the touch of a button. However, it’s simply not possible to keep accurate accounts to the correct standard with just software. An outsourced accountancy service will maintain your financial records and submit filings, keeping your business fully compliant.

Remember, company directors are responsible for the company’s business and can be held accountable for its actions.

How can we help?

Dragon Argent has a team of highly experienced accountancy professionals, running finance functions of a diverse portfolio of clients. We can:

✔️ Manage your bookkeeping, management accounts and VAT returns;

✔️ Process your payroll end-to-end, including all year-end requirement;

✔️ Prepare and submit financial statements including CT returns;

✔️ Manage your receivables, payables and carry out credit control;

✔️ Provide a part-time CFO including attendance at board/finance meetings if required

✔️ Provide cash flow and budgeting forecasts.

If you would like to explore how Dragon Argent could manage your finance function, book a Free Consultation by clicking the link provided below. One of our expert accountants will be in touch with you at your convenience.

Book a call with our Accountant today ↓


Author

Sarah Long

Internal Finance Manager

 

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