6 Signs It’s Time to Outsource Your Finance Department

Your company’s finance department is the heart of your organization. It utilizes so many of the crucial functions that keep a business running. Many small business owners take an active role in its management—often to the detriment of other business operations.

In our experience, there are several key signs proving a business has grown past the point where it can handle its financial functions internally. For these companies, outsourcing is the solution.

Signs It’s Time To Outsource Your Finance Department

1. You’re tired of doing it yourself.

Isn’t this the crux of all outsourcing? Sometimes, you just need to offload the work to someone else.

This can be a tough task for small business owners. Most owners that build their companies from the ground up, start by doing the accounting and bookkeeping themselves. As the business grows, they may hire a few on-staff bookkeepers, but owners often want to retain control and keep finance-related operations in-house.

But financial expertise can be limited, even with qualified staff. Outsourcing offers a different approach that lets owners enjoy complete peace of mind with hired professionals focusing on ensuring better financial results from the business.

2. You’re missing opportunities.

Small business accounting involves analyzing data and making decisions that support your company’s growth. Typically, small business owners don’t have the financial expertise to find these insights on their own. Accountant teams know financial concepts from helping small businesses grow and stay profitable.

Outsourced professionals can discover and explain challenges, review data, and frame issues in ways that make sense to the business owner. If you’re used to standard reports, this simple shift can open a world of new opportunities.

3. You’re noticing too many errors.

Mistakes are inevitable in bookkeeping and accounting. Your books get complicated as your company grows, and unless your accounting gets regular reviews by multiple, knowledgeable entities, some issues are bound to fall through the cracks.

Even a simple audit from a financial analyst can reveal recurring issues that might be putting your business at risk. Why not let an expert run the show and eliminate these errors?

4. You need to build new financial policies.

As your company grows, how will you manage your new financial goals? Outsourced finance departments can offer insight, including providing tips on how to set up expense accounts and allocate resources to employees. They can also help with broader financial decisions, including which loans may be most helpful for your business or which new services offer the best revenue potential.

5. You’re growing faster than you thought.

Growth is not a bad problem to have. But unexpected growth can put a strain on your administrative functions, particularly when existing staff members are already working at full capacity. Finance and accounting outsourcing gives you flexibility.

You can use more services as needed and scale them back when the work slows. It’s a simple way to manage workloads without investing heavily in hiring, payroll, or taxes.

6. You have a backlog to organize.

Backlogs get particularly bad when you manage your books using manual, paper processes. Accounts stack up, get disorganized, and can be lost/forgotten. You may not run crucial reports when they should, and in the worst cases, you start to fall behind on more important goals, like staying up-to-date with accounts payable.

Outsourcing trends have evolved to meet this challenge, giving you the luxury of handing off financial operations to experts.

The Right Time to Outsource

When’s the right time to consider outsourcing your finance department? The answer is different for every company, but if you’re seeing more than one or two of these six signs, it’s time to start considering options. Take stock of your company and see how effective your accounting processes are. You might be surprised at what you find.

Learn more about improving the financial results from your business by downloading our free guide.