Outsourcing Plus Technology Simplifies Bookkeeping By Richard Steinbeck There are many ways to handle business bookkeeping – from do-it-yourself software packages to having accounting professionals on staff. One way that is becoming increasingly popular is outsourcing. Companies of all sizes are increasingly turning to outsourcing to trim costs and gain access to top professional talent. A recent survey by Price Waterhouse Coopers sees outsourcing increasing in importance not just as a cost reduction tool, but as a management strategy to help businesses focus more on their core competencies. According to the Outsourcing Institute, the hottest growth areas in outsourcing are finance and accounting. “Outsourcing is going to become one of the major issues for finance over the next five years,” observed Craig Macdonald, senior vice-president and research director at World Research Advisory. “The reasons are both internal and external. The need to focus finance effort less on the transactional and more on the decision-laden aspects of the business is going to force companies to look for outsourcing opportunities.” A Coopers and Lybrand study reported that two-thirds of company builders rely on outsourcing to handle one or more internal corporate functions. And that the most popular outsourced services are financial, which is no surprise given the weaknesses in the financial staffing and budgets of many small businesses. The Top Six Reasons to Outsource Financial Functions: 1. Outside providers are more efficient 2. Retain focus on product and growth 3. Save cost of benefits and administration 4. Less overhead investment 5. Ease regulatory-compliance burden 6. Difficult to find skilled employees One company taking this outsourcing trend to another level is Financial OutSource Services, LLC. They have combined professional bookkeeping with communications and document imaging technology to create a business process package that is more efficient and cost effective than ever before. With Financial OutSource Services’ electronically outsourced bookkeeping, business owners now have a simple and secure method of outsourcing their bookkeeping and accounting functions providing all the advantages of a full accounting department for less than the cost of one clerk. “It’s about being more competitive and more efficient,” according to Ed Wenzel, Financial OutSource Services’ Managing Member. By simply scanning source documents into a remote terminal, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll and financial reporting are processed remotely by a professional accounting staff. Account balances and customized reports are updated virtually every 24 hours, keeping critical accounting results at the business owner’s fingertips. Wenzel pointed out that this new system of bookkeeping helps business owners reduce the high cost of on-staff accounting personnel, along with the hours devoted to hiring and training employees. “We can reduce bookkeeping time by 75% or more while providing greater accuracy and timeliness, even if you’re using pre-packaged accounting software like Quickbooks or Peachtree.” But the benefits aren’t limited to reducing overhead. Business owners have discovered that the system’s customized daily reports are a great management tool, and that electronic document storage eliminates filing and lost paperwork. Richard Steinbeck is with Financial OutSource Services, LLC. For more information, call (818) 348-8900.