In any industry, quality and quantity often seem to be mutually exclusive, and accounting and bookkeeping are no exception. An accounting firm that is known for its accurate and effective accounting services may find it hard to scale its operations for fear of the potential loss of quality.
Accounting firms looking to expand their operations often struggle to maintain the right quality of work due to a lack of expertise, difficulties in hiring the right personnel, and, most importantly, the ever-present shortage of accounting talent. Here’s how each of these factors affects any CPA firm and holds them back from scaling their services:
Lack of Access to Specific Expertise: Hiring resources with specialized skills has always been challenging. Most accounting firms often resort to consultants, which can end up being costly. Additionally, there are fewer resources available, making it highly competitive to attract top talent.
Difficulties Hiring the Right Personnel: Finding and hiring the right talent is another significant hurdle. The process of sourcing and recruiting qualified staff who meet the firm’s standards and fit its culture can be time-consuming, resource-intensive, and costly. Ineffective hiring practices can lead to high turnover rates, resulting in the loss of time, money, and disruption of operations.
Limitations in Infrastructure: Accounting firms may require advanced infrastructure tools that can seamlessly automate bookkeeping and accounting tasks. However, considering the overall return on investment, these tools may not always be practical to purchase. As a result, accounting and bookkeeping firms may have to limit their output capacity. Limited infrastructure also becomes a deterrent for scaling their services effectively.
Shortage of Accounting Talent: The ever-present shortage of qualified accounting professionals is a major barrier. Post-COVID, there has been a significant shortage of accounting talent with the necessary skills and expertise. This shortage directly reduces the ability to even source the right candidates and thus limits the firm’s ability to take on new clients and expand services.
The Cost Problem: Imagine acquiring the right accounting talent, investing in the best advanced infrastructure, and expanding services. The cost of these services will inevitably increase, leading to higher operational costs and additional expenses. To compensate for this investment, the firm may need to generate significantly more revenue. For firms that are just beginning to expand, these increased costs may not align well with their current financial capabilities.
Outsourcing tedious and time-consuming accounting tasks is often the most viable solution for firms facing scalability challenges. By outsourcing to the right provider, firms can access specialized talent and advanced infrastructure while saving valuable time and resources. This approach addresses many of the issues that prevent firms from scaling their services effectively.
At Outsourced Bookkeeping, we regularly work with firms looking to reduce their accounting burden and save time and costs. By outsourcing their accounting functions, firms can repurpose their investments in time and money towards improving their services and scaling their operations.
For instance, here’s a recent case study illustrates how an accounting department for a real estate business saved over 100 hours by outsourcing their most challenging and time-consuming Accounts Payable processing tasks to our team at Outsourced Bookkeeping.
The Client: A prominent real estate management company overseeing over 10,000 single-family homes in Maryland.
Challenge: The Company faced a massive volume of 1,500 Accounts Payable (AP) bills daily, consuming significant time and resources. With bills arriving in various formats from multiple locations, timely vendor payments became challenging, leading to delays, errors, and increased processing time. The in-house team struggled with accuracy and missed early payment discounts, straining vendor relationships and diverting valuable time from strategic tasks.
Their Goals:
- Faster processing
- High accuracy and process ownership
- Comprehensive end-to-end management
- Enhanced vendor relations
Solution: We initiated automation by digitizing all manual invoices through scanning and OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology for accurate information capture and categorization. Our AP specialists managed exceptional cases and verified data accuracy. We streamlined the process by having vendors send invoices directly to Bill.com, facilitating faster processing. With dedicated resources, we processed 1,500 invoices daily by the end of each day, ensuring that all were reviewed and ready for payment by morning. Vendors were encouraged to send e-bills, reducing manual scanning. This transition allowed us to fully manage the AP process with our advanced automation tools.
Results: The Company’s 1,500 daily AP bills were processed with high accuracy and speed, benefiting from our convenient time-zone advantage.
The shift to e-bills significantly expedited processing, enabling the company to scale operations effortlessly while maintaining smooth accounting functions. Outsourced Bookkeeping provided comprehensive support in Accounts Payable, Receivables, Bookkeeping, and Tax Preparation, becoming the company’s preferred remote accounting partner.
By automating and streamlining their most time-consuming accounting processes, we saved over 100 hours, allowing the accounting department to refocus on more critical core tasks. Whether you are a real estate management company aiming to enhance efficiency and concentrate on core accounting tasks or a firm looking to scale operations, our accounting team at Outsourced Bookkeeping can provide exceptional support.
Our full-scale bookkeeping team offers specialized skills and time, helping manage all the time-consuming and tedious accounting tasks. Our team seamlessly integrates with your operations as an extended arm, ensuring you achieve efficiency and scalability in your accounting processes. For more information on our services, you can contact us here: /
