You have a full-time accountant for your small business because you know you are incapable of managing every detail alone. Since you have a small business, you prioritise the tasks that are essential to keep your business running. Accounting is one of them. You need to submit tax reports to the government and be in compliance with the law. You also need to know your financial status. Having someone working on all these documents full-time would help take a burden off your shoulders.
An alternative to full-time employees doing it is hiring an accounting firm. They can perform the same services. Some signs will tell you that ditching your full-time employee for the services of an accounting firm is the right choice, for example:
Cutting expenses:
If your business did not take off as well as you would have hoped, you need to reduce expenses where you can. Letting go of staff that you are regularly paying each month is a practical idea. With accounting firms, you will pay them depending on the project. If you don’t need their services, you don’t need to pay them. You will save a lot with this strategy.
Your employee is no longer performing well:
The problem when you have a small business is that you also have a few employees, and you treat each other like a family. However, if one of them is not performing well, firing that person is a challenge. You need to evaluate your employees how other companies do it. If your accountant always commits mistakes or has issues when submitting the requirements on time, the best option at this point is to let go of that employee. You are better off with an accounting firm that also has experts in accounting.
You need more than accounting services:
Accountants working for you full-time can only provide accounting services. This person already has a lot on their plate; too much to offer other services beyond accounting. With an accounting firm, you can ask for other services like payroll, financial management, financial advice, and many others. The other option is for you to hire more accountants, but it would be impractical.
Your company is getting bigger:
You can assess the direction of your company. If you are growing, or you plan to expand soon, you can’t afford only to have one accountant dealing with several accounts. It will take too much time to finish everything. There might also be lots of mistakes. You can either form an accounting department. Between these options, outsourcing would be the more practical choice.
If you can’t let go of your employee, you can still outsource the accounting tasks. You can transfer the said employee to a different job where you think you can still make the most of their skills. Set up a meeting with an accounting firm and work out the details of your partnership.
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