Few people start a business, enter an industry or create a new product or service to then do bookkeeping. Aside from the one unique area of accounting firms, CPAs and bookkeeping services, the activity simply isn’t anything close to the top 1,000 reasons to start or grow a business. However, bookkeeping is bread and butter companies, non-profits, and other entities large and small. That’s because accounting records are the key documentation of financial activity that has occurred and where it is now. And because of that fact, it is relied on for financial decisions, financial direction and financing support.
When bookkeeping grows faulty, falls behind or doesn’t get done at all, it’s a big problem. As problematic as it would be if a factory assembly line broke or a company lost all its salespeople, bookkeeping failures can bring a business to a grinding halt. It doesn’t happen immediately, but it will happen within the same year. So, it has to be resolved.
Considering Outsourcing When Overwhelmed
A common problem with businesses in a panic situation over bookkeeping is to freeze or delay response. Both are a mistake. Instead, what should be done is to bring in expertise if it’s not present with in-office staff. This is actually easy to do now, especially with remote services. Bookkeeping has two big advantages that work extremely well for remote services.
First, it follows a standardized approach. The construction of ledgers from receipts and transaction documents uses the same methodology as any other company that follows generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP.
Second, the work is predominantly on Internet-connected computers and can be transferred as spreadsheets or data files such as CSV format. Both make the work easy to move and transfer from one work group to the next online.
Along with the standardization above and Internet-compatible data formats, an outsourced bookkeeping service is scalable. This third benefit is a big one because it includes the cost of hiring services to just what is needed at the time. Previously, when people were hired in-house, they became a sunk cost when not working and producing. With cloud outsourcing, staffing resources in bookkeeping are only on the clock to the extent that they are producing value. Once no longer needed, they are scaled down and work for other clients instead. This saves a tremendous amount of cost for a client. At the same time, when bookkeeping spikes in sudden demand, outsourcing can scale up to meet demand quickly. Regular hiring can’t even come close to that with everything needed in screening, training, monitoring and experience coming in the door.
Consider Outsourced Bookkeeping During Spikes
While remote accounting doesn’t work for everyone all the time, it can be an incredibly useful tool in pressure situations when accounting documents need to be completed and reports run in a timely manner. Especially if short on seasoned staff, or hiring is going to take weeks to get back up to speed, scaling up with remote bookkeeping can fill the gap effectively and keep a business running with accurate financial information on transactions.