Outsourcing Your Finance Function

Josh Smithurst from our cloud accounting team explains how the pressures of bookkeeping and accountancy can distract from your core business. That's why it often pays to get some expert help.

Accounts and finances are a major part of any business, from multinational corporations through to sole traders. For most smaller companies, this work be done by the owners or directors. No matter what type of business you have though, or what size you are, finances and accounts will take up a great deal of your time. This is time that could be better spent growing your business, whether that means selling more products, providing more services or networking with existing and prospective customers.

The general accounting areas and finance function can be split up into several different areas, with examples including:

• Bookkeeping
• Annual accounts preparation and filing
• Tax compliance
• Budgeting, forecasting and planning
• Funding and financing

There are numerous different ways you can work with external accountants, such as Page Kirk, to reduce the amount of time spent on repetitive tasks within the various areas of finance. Firstly, we can help you implement software to collect and extract data from paper or electronic invoices. This can be set up to automate a very time-consuming, monotonous task by syncing with your accounting software and pulling through accurate data every time.

There is then the option to completely outsource your bookkeeping duties, which will not only free up your time, but also ensure the data is completed as accurately as possible, first time. Working with your accountants can also ensure that your books are kept up to date daily. This means that budgeting and planning is easier and more accurate, as you are working with actual current figures and not estimating based on old, historic information.

For any business that is wanting to grow, it is recommended that you review your financials and create a plan for both the short and long term. Once these plans are in place, you can work on your cashflow forecast. This will help you foresee any possible difficulties in paying creditors when the bills fall due and identify any surplus cash which could be reinvested in the business. Budgeting will also help keep you on track of turnover and profitability, which are two key indicators that can be used to measure growth.

Interested in discussing the options for your own business? Then simply call 0115 955 5500 or email enquiries@pagekirk.co.uk.