If you are a small business owner, interested in effectively reducing a portion of your payroll costs, contemplating outsourcing your current accountant or bookkeeper, and someone in your family is unemployed,outsourcing to family may be right for you.
Outsourcing your company's accounting functions may result in reduced labor costs or the conversion of fixed costs to variable costs, insurance,benefits and some tax savings, etc. Before you begin outsourcing, you need to invest in a quality scanner or fax machine and maybe even a high volume scanner or fax machine,depending on the volume and frequency of documents to be scanned. Scanning or faxing is necessary because all of the source documents(i.e. bank statements,vendor bills,customer invoices, etc.) have to be sent either by email or fax to the outsourced accountant to record your company's accounting transactions.
Whether you are the owner of a small business or the person responsible for accounting or bookkeeping, it's critical to establish a process by which someone monitors the activities of the outsourced company or person. If you decided to outsource, its also important to insure that a competent and independent person oversees and monitors your small business's financial results.
We often read that that if you outsource, some of your business accounting functions to a foreign country, then your labor costs will decrease as compared to what you would generally pay in the United States. In these uncertain times, when small business owners are facing survival issues resulting from lost sales, skyrocketing costs, contraction, often exacerbated by family unemployment, then it may make sense to give thought to employing a family member to help with the small business accounting. By employing a family member in your house or outsourcing your accounting function with family in a distant location, rather than outsourcing to another country, you may actually help the U.S. economy, in your own way, by keeping jobs in this country. A baby step,but certainly the right one for our country. This idea works, if the owners or members of the owner's family can learn QuickBooks, or another comparable online accounting software program. It's helpful, if the family member has some basic financial knowledge to undertake this responsibility of entering the financial information into an online accounting software. Given the current economy in the United States, there are situations where family members are now unemployed and are now ready, able and available to help and make a positive contribution to the family business.
Quite frankly,QuickBooks Online Plus is simple enough that with proper training, most detail oriented people with common sense can handle QuickBooks, as long as a CPA or accountant is available to ask questions,and there is mechanism to allow for real time or after the fact corrections or adjustments to the accounting records.
Under either alternative, outsourcing to a foreign country or outsourcing with a family member, an accountant or CPA is the ideal person to monitor either in real time, or after the fact i.e. monthly or quarterly financial information, and to check that the reconciliation process is working and more importantly,that outsource team or family member,are doing their job.
With the correct QuickBooks Online or other QuickBooks versions with remote access, it is possible for your CPA or accountant to remotely monitor an outsourced accounting department, whether the outsourced department is in a distant location or outsourced to family.
If you are thinking about outsourcing, it is recommended that you consult with your CPA or accountant to make sure that outsourcing is well suited for your particular small business accounting situation and to help access the skill sets of the person to provide the outsourced service.
This concept of outsourcing to one or two family members may not work for a large or mid size business. However, if you own a small business, interested in effectively reducing a portion of your payroll costs, have decided or thinking about outsourcing your current bookkeeper, and someone in your family is unemployed, outsourcing may be right for you. Once again, this will work as long as the outsourced family member is properly supervised and monitored by a CPA or accountant. In the beginning there may be more time required by your CPA or accountant to train and to oversee as compared to time that your accounting professional currently spends each month or quarter. In the long run, the amount of time required by your accounting professional should diminish. Notwithstanding, some time will always be required of your accounting professional to monitor the activities of the outsourced person. - 16890
Outsourcing your company's accounting functions may result in reduced labor costs or the conversion of fixed costs to variable costs, insurance,benefits and some tax savings, etc. Before you begin outsourcing, you need to invest in a quality scanner or fax machine and maybe even a high volume scanner or fax machine,depending on the volume and frequency of documents to be scanned. Scanning or faxing is necessary because all of the source documents(i.e. bank statements,vendor bills,customer invoices, etc.) have to be sent either by email or fax to the outsourced accountant to record your company's accounting transactions.
Whether you are the owner of a small business or the person responsible for accounting or bookkeeping, it's critical to establish a process by which someone monitors the activities of the outsourced company or person. If you decided to outsource, its also important to insure that a competent and independent person oversees and monitors your small business's financial results.
We often read that that if you outsource, some of your business accounting functions to a foreign country, then your labor costs will decrease as compared to what you would generally pay in the United States. In these uncertain times, when small business owners are facing survival issues resulting from lost sales, skyrocketing costs, contraction, often exacerbated by family unemployment, then it may make sense to give thought to employing a family member to help with the small business accounting. By employing a family member in your house or outsourcing your accounting function with family in a distant location, rather than outsourcing to another country, you may actually help the U.S. economy, in your own way, by keeping jobs in this country. A baby step,but certainly the right one for our country. This idea works, if the owners or members of the owner's family can learn QuickBooks, or another comparable online accounting software program. It's helpful, if the family member has some basic financial knowledge to undertake this responsibility of entering the financial information into an online accounting software. Given the current economy in the United States, there are situations where family members are now unemployed and are now ready, able and available to help and make a positive contribution to the family business.
Quite frankly,QuickBooks Online Plus is simple enough that with proper training, most detail oriented people with common sense can handle QuickBooks, as long as a CPA or accountant is available to ask questions,and there is mechanism to allow for real time or after the fact corrections or adjustments to the accounting records.
Under either alternative, outsourcing to a foreign country or outsourcing with a family member, an accountant or CPA is the ideal person to monitor either in real time, or after the fact i.e. monthly or quarterly financial information, and to check that the reconciliation process is working and more importantly,that outsource team or family member,are doing their job.
With the correct QuickBooks Online or other QuickBooks versions with remote access, it is possible for your CPA or accountant to remotely monitor an outsourced accounting department, whether the outsourced department is in a distant location or outsourced to family.
If you are thinking about outsourcing, it is recommended that you consult with your CPA or accountant to make sure that outsourcing is well suited for your particular small business accounting situation and to help access the skill sets of the person to provide the outsourced service.
This concept of outsourcing to one or two family members may not work for a large or mid size business. However, if you own a small business, interested in effectively reducing a portion of your payroll costs, have decided or thinking about outsourcing your current bookkeeper, and someone in your family is unemployed, outsourcing may be right for you. Once again, this will work as long as the outsourced family member is properly supervised and monitored by a CPA or accountant. In the beginning there may be more time required by your CPA or accountant to train and to oversee as compared to time that your accounting professional currently spends each month or quarter. In the long run, the amount of time required by your accounting professional should diminish. Notwithstanding, some time will always be required of your accounting professional to monitor the activities of the outsourced person. - 16890
About the Author:
Sandor Lenner,C.P.A.-M.B.A has been providing accounting services for companies for 35 years. He is also a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor and offers QuickBooks support and works as a part-time consultant with Susan Missal Lenner, P.A. . Please subscribe to our free monthly newsletter on timely accounting, tax and small business topics. We will not share your email address with anyone.
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