Do you find yourself stuck performing (sometimes mundane) tasks in areas of your business that might be better off performed by someone else? Most small business owners would answer with a resounding “YES!”
In the ideal world you’d have a chief financial officer who generates financial reports that help you monitor profitability. Wouldn’t it also be nice to have a human resources director to coordinate hiring and employee benefits for your business? Let’s not forget about a chief technology officer who can make sure your computer network and software are up and running smoothly 24/7.
If this sounds like a dream come true for your business, join the club of small business owners who would love to delegate accounting, HR and technology tasks to someone else. But what if that “someone else” doesn’t exist in your business?
That’s where outsourcing comes in.
Why Outsource?
If you are like most business owners, you find yourself tending to time consuming internal administrative tasks when you could be spending that time developing new marketing strategies, expanding or developing a new product line, or creating a new internal process that enhances efficiency.
I have heard many business owners express frustration about how they are bogged down in handling day-to-day internal business tasks. While those tasks are necessary to keep a business running, they prevent business owners from concentrating on revenue-generating business initiatives.
And you know what? Business owners are realizing those tasks are getting in the way of guiding a successful business to the next level.
As a result we’ve seen a huge shift toward business owners outsourcing various internal functions to their CPA firm. There’s no real magic to deciding which tasks to let an outside firm handle. The idea is to free up your time to focus more on managing your business, without getting bogged down in the weeds.
Tasks You Should Outsource
Here are five common business functions that you can consider outsourcing right now.
1. Accounting
Accounting is one of the easiest areas to delegate, and one where you can get the most benefit from outsourcing.
Most accounting firms can help you with financial reporting, cash flow projections, A/R and A/P processing, bank reconciliations and month-end processes. And for those times when you struggle with your accounting software, most CPA firms can offer QuickBooks support. In a past blog post, we considered six reasons why outsourcing the accounting function makes sense.
2. Payroll Processing and Reporting
You can have your accounting firm process paychecks and handle your monthly, quarterly and annual government reporting.
3. Human Resources Support
While good employees are essential to the success of your business, managing those employees and the whole HR function takes an unbelievable amount of time. Outsourcing HR tasks like hiring, employee benefit plan administration, training, and writing and updating employee manuals can substantially free up your time.
4. Technology
Put simply, it’s a no brainer to have an IT professional handle computer software and network support. Spending time trying to fix computer problems isn’t a good use of your time. That's where managed services can come to your rescue.
Helpful tip: sometimes a business owner doesn’t even realize they have a technology problem on their hands until it’s too late. Outsourcing your IT function to a technology professional can help ensure that your business and its computers are protected from hacks, viruses and malware, and catastrophic data loss.
5. Business Advisory Services
Depending on the nature of your business, there are countless other tasks to delegate to a qualified accounting firm. We’ve already blogged about the reasons to use an outsourced CFO.
There’s also an opportunity to have someone else handle third-party reporting that is required by a bank, insurer or government agency. There are times when it makes good sense to have an outside firm review your internal controls and policies and procedures.
The list goes on. These are just a few of the internal tasks that can be outsourced to a qualified CPA.
Remember, it’s less about WHAT you outsource, and ALL about freeing up your time to do what you’re really good at – growing your business, developing new products and increasing revenue.
By outsourcing these tasks, you’ll free up your time to concentrate on more important things. As a bonus, you will likely save money, gain expert advice, receive insightful professionally-prepared reports, and make more informed decisions as a result of having outside quality experts involved in your business.
Need Help?
We can help you weigh the benefits of outsourcing any of these business functions. Contact us online or call 800.899.4623.
