Saturday, 20 September 2014

Outsourcing: A revolution is underway for SME sector


In today’s competitive environment, outsourcing accounting has become an important decision making element in a business. All the business houses cannot ignore the accounting of financial data of their company. A company failed to maintain proper financial records can lose their business as these records are the fundamental source of business information. SMEs are increasingly looking at outsourcing their accounting services to reduce costs and to be competitive in the market in the near future.
As in all sectors, so is in accounting and financial sector technology is changing at a fast pace. When you run a business, you want to focus on your core activities. We doubt you want to spend hours grappling with receipt processing, bank reconciliation or a hundred other bookkeeping tasks.

The pace of change of technology causes problems for organisations of any size, but for the small to medium enterprise (SME) sector, it can cause critical issues. A new investment in an up-to-date technology platform can rapidly become a constraint on the business as newer technologies come through, but the business just cannot afford to continue investing in keeping everything up to date.
Consequently, many SMEs are outsourcing some or all of their accounting and book keeping services.  The realbusiness.co.uk website has an article that discusses how SMEs could use the services of an accountant, especially if the enterprise only has one employee. It would be difficult to rely solely on just one person for everything, so bookkeeping duties can be assigned to accounting services instead. There are various advantages according to the article:
The key benefits of outsourcing:
• Lower operations cost by up to 50%  & improve process, productivity and profits
• Move fixed costs to variable costs. Pay for the outsourced function only for what you need
• Gain a competitive advantage by expanding your range of services
• Reduce overheads of recruiting and training specialist staff
• Avoid the liability of IT systems and software maintenance
• Open access to best practices such as technology and infrastructure
• Safety & security- A robust IT infrastructure and strict adherence to legislation
Someone preoccupied with the day-to-day running of a business might find that they make errors or miss deadlines where accounts are concerned, but outsourcing to an expert ensures that accounts are delivered in a timely manner, with no mistakes or errors.

About the Author

Sachin Lohade is a Chartered Accountant and works with Accounting Firms to improve practice and reduce costs. He can be reached out at sachin@corientbs.com or you can visit www.corientbs.co.uk for further information.