Bookkeeping and Outsourced Accounts Service

Good reasons to outsource

Richard Brattle and Joseph Robinson, directors of online accounts, providers of financial outsourcing solutions, review how the American philosophy to using outsource companies, is now becoming part of UK business thinking.

In the last ten years there has been explosive growth in the use of outsourcing both in the US and the UK.

Since 1990 when outsourcing first emerged, the growth in the US (according to Harvard Business Review) has risen to an estimated $318 Billion. The UK market is about 5 years behind the US; however, recent surveys show that businesses in the UK are changing their mindset to that of their US counterparts, and are adopting a “hand it over to the experts” philosophy, as business owners adopt to working on their business rather than in it.

'Outsourcing' - the term and the concept - emerged initially in manufacturing where many firms used foreign labour to make components and products. Outsourcing was also first used to describe relationships between firms and their providers of support services like bookkeeping, payroll, security, groundskeeping, maintenance, cleaning, and food services.

A highly effective way of easing the pressure on a growing company’s systems and management is financial outsourcing. At the moment, many businesses are led by entrepreneurs, however some of these individuals lack accounting expertise, or indeed, do not have the inclination to get involved in the accounting aspects of the business. Therefore for many of these companies the answer to their problem lies in outsourcing.

Various organisations are taking the decision to outsource part or all of their business processes in order to focus their attention on core business activities. Outsourcing can potentially save a company time and money, whilst still enabling them to have accounting flexibility. Financial systems such as bookkeeping, payroll, expense payments and debt collection, amongst other areas, are all increasingly popular functions to be outsourced.

There are a number of important reasons why outsourcing is worth considering, as there are many benefits such as cost saving, problem prevention, peace of mind and total accountability. In addition, increased European legislation and directives are increasing employment risk for employers, by outsourcing, this risk is reduced and flexibility is restored. The single most important thing is that handing non-core activities to a third party to undertake enables firms to focus their full attention on the areas in which they specialise. Outsourcing also gives a company access to world-class business processes that it would not normally have.

However, outsourcing is not a quick fix and should not be regarded as one. Implemented properly, it will provide many benefits to a company including improved services and greater financial control in making business decisions.

Further information

For more information about outsourcing contact Joseph Robinson on 020 7684 0707.