As a business owner or CEO, when it comes to managing any aspect of the business, certain things can easily take a wrong turn. You may not even see it coming until it gets too far.
Unfortunately, the proper management of business accounting and bookkeeping is often neglected or treated as an ornamental stepchild. This is because, it may not be as critical or important to you as building a brand or closing a sale. But the financial function of your company will give you peace of mind and be a source of truth to exploit.
In this example, we’re going to start with the accountant. The accounting process is often assigned to a single person for small companies. The associated responsibilities can be quite daunting, especially if the employee is not properly trained in the role.
Bookkeeping is absolutely inevitable, and negligence sometimes comes back to bite you. Maintaining records in some sort of shape is critically important in order to understand the financial health of your business.
Some of the common pains we hear from business owners include:
- Hiring-Finding competent accountants
- Training-Frequent turnover
- Workload Balance-A struggle to separate accounting tasks and duties
- Costs-Dealing with time management costs, efficiency and peace of mind
Recruiting a Bookkeeper
Finding, recruiting, and maintaining the best bookkeeper with the right skill set for the right money is definitely a challenge, but the reward comes when the business owner no longer messes with books or hands over tasks to an administrative assistant or a spouse. Nevertheless, a single employee is a single point of failure-there is no mechanism for internal controls to mitigate the risk of human error or workplace misconduct.
Without the resources necessary to assign accounting roles to separate and qualified staff, the financial integrity is at the hands of the knowledge and skills of the accountant. Further weakness is due to any gaps in operation caused by absence or turnover. The downtime between workers and the hiring process can be extremely taxing, and this ensures that precious time is spent in the accounting crisis mode.
Bookkeeper training
Once a qualified bookkeeper has been hired as staff, regardless of their background, time must be spent on systems and on procedural training. Without a formal training process in place, most bookkeepers are left to their own devices, or time is taken away from the owner or manager’s training day. Nevertheless, even a “minor” coding mistake can lead to a loss of revenue without proper introduction to your accounting procedures. With a single accounting officer, you are at the mercy of their experience, fairness and reliability.
Workload Balance
Limited resources, including employees, is another common issue facing small and growing enterprises. Often, small business owners can’t afford to hire a full-time accountant, and they certainly can’t afford the entire accounting department.
It indicates the accounting responsibilities are assigned to another employee, regardless of their accounting expertise. This almost always comes back at some point–the accountant is overwhelmed, critical responsibilities are neglected, and the business is now exposed to many threats, including human error and fraud. The next problem that could begin to emerge from stress and disorganization is the turnover rate of employees.
In an ideal situation, a team consisting of a Bookkeeper, Staff Accountant and Accounting Manager / CPA / CFO is involved to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the financial information. It reduces the risk of human error or fraud.
Expenses
Ultimately, accounting expenses typically have a significant impact on small businesses. There is no choice–someone has to think of books, but hiring, training, paying and balancing workloads take a heavy toll in terms of finances and energy. Depending on the life-cycle stage of your company, you need to ask, When do you need more than the basics?
Most small businesses can afford only one bookkeeper, and sometimes only part-time. Resources available to a larger organization, such as the entire accounting department with a Bookkeeper, Staff Accountant and Accounting Manager / CPA / CFO, are not a realistic option for a small business.
However, without the ability to separate duties between several employees (at least check writing and bank reconciliation duties) the financial integrity of the company relies on a single point of failure.
Solution
Get in Experts and Save Time Outsourcing some or all of the accounting and controller support functions can provide relief from these accounting challenges and provide timely and reliable financial information.
For a growing business facing any or all of these typical accounting challenges, outsourced accounting and management accounting services will ease the pain so that the business can remain focused on the larger business image. Instead of employing a full-time accountant and handling all of the costs and risks associated with that role, companies can benefit from the experience of the outsourced accountancy firm.
By devoting a dedicated team of experts to each customer, Nuage Digital is able to streamline activities and provide on-demand access to a team of experts, so there is no longer any sick days, holidays or (gap) turnover to worry about!
