At some point every growing business needs someone to own the books. The choice is usually between hiring an accountant and outsourcing the work to a firm. Neither is always right.
What an in-house accountant gives you
- Someone on site who knows the business day to day.
- Immediate answers to quick questions.
- Control over priorities and working hours.
What an outsourced team gives you
- Coverage. Bookkeeping, reconciliations, GST, TDS and reporting handled by people who do this every month for many businesses.
- Continuity. No gap when one person is on leave or leaves the company.
- Review. Work checked before it reaches you, which is hard to arrange with a single hire.
- Predictable cost. A monthly retainer instead of salary, benefits, software seats and recruitment.
Questions to help you decide
- How many transactions do you have each month, and is that growing fast?
- Do you need someone physically present, for example to handle cash or inventory?
- Who reviews the work today, and who would review an in-house hire?
- What happens to your filings if one person is unavailable at a due date?
- Do you need monthly reporting for investors or lenders?
A common middle path
Many businesses keep a junior team member in-house to collect documents and handle day-to-day payments, and outsource the bookkeeping, compliance and reporting. Decisions, approvals and payments stay with the business; the routine work moves out.
Outsourcing to FigureWise
FigureWise takes on bookkeeping, GST and TDS compliance, payroll accounting support and monthly MIS on a prepaid monthly retainer, with one point of contact who knows your books.
