All Entries in the "Accounting & Finance" Category

Seven Reasons to Outsource Your Accounting Practice

In today’s high-stakes business environment, companies outsource some operational functions to save time and money. As one of the first processes to be widely outsourced, accounting procedures continue to be released from in-house operations at an epic rate. This is because outsourced accounting practices can save money and time, and offer unwavering peace of mind to managers. As a business consultant, company owners often ask me whether they, too, should make this switch.  My answer, consistently, is, “Absolutely.”

I’ve seen various types of companies benefit as a result of outsourcing. Some business owners, however, are still unsure if the practice is right for their company. While there are many factors to consider before making the switch, below are a few reasons why outsourcing your accounting practice could be a smart business move for your company:

• Reduce overhead costs and increase efficiencies. Due to the specialized nature of the work, several employees are often needed to operate in-house accounting. In addition, accounting procedures may require businesses to hire additional personnel for task separation and internal control. Outsourcing proves effective at reducing overhead because it eliminates the need for extra benefits, training, office equipment, down time and taxes, just to name a few.
• Improve budgeting practices. Does your budget need to be refined? Companies that deliver outsourcing services provide expert advice on future planning and money management. Oversight from outside experts can help you identity financial problems before they occur and ensure the financial viability of your company.
• Improve cash flows. Do you run a successful business but sometimes struggle to pay the bills? Cash shortfalls can be stressful, but outsourcing can allow your business to take advantage of everyday accounting practices to help manage cash shortfalls. For example, a professional accountant can improve your cash flow by skillfully delaying disbursements while aggressively pursuing unpaid debts.
• Save time and get convenience. How much time has your accounting team wasted trying to solve a complex (or simple) accounting problem? Have you or your senior management team ever spent time bookkeeping? Let the experts take care of the accounting and free management to tackle the duties in their job descriptions. Outsourcing allows you to stop wasting valuable time on accounting and focus on business strategy.
• Receive sound advice. As opposed to hiring a “general” bookkeeper, outsourcing provides an opportunity toalign yourself with a professional who has experience with your type of business. Companies that provide outsourced accounting services employ knowledgeable personnel with expertise in every area of accounting. Accordingly, you will have access to individuals with specialized knowledge to fit your specific accounting needs.
• Expand staffing flexibility. As mentioned earlier, your time is better spent selling your services or product than it is working on the accounting. This is also true for your senior management.  Outsourcing allows you and management to focus on developing new business opportunities rather than tackling day-to-day tasks within the company.
• Get real-time access to your data. A dedicated accounting company will be able to assist in timely decision-making through technology. For instance, cloud-based accounting applications give you access to up-to-the-minute financial records on a web browser. The use of technology offers easy access to data, aiding day-to-day and strategic decision-making.

While outsourcing accounting procedures offers many advantages, it is important that companies making this move have a thorough understanding of their provider’s reputation, security practices and areas of expertise. In addition, companies must remain vigilant and not entirely surrender control of their accounting practices.

Many companies are benefiting from the rewards of outsourcing their accounting. As this practice continues to grow and the workforce becomes accustomed to its convenience, the prevalence of outsourcing accounting procedures may offer yet another reason for companies to take advantage of the benefits it offers.

By Jim Clarkson, Partner, BlumShapiro

Smart Money Tour is Back!

Last year, Treasury’s Smart Money Tour provided Rhode Islanders with a convenient opportunity to learn about the ways my office can help people find and save money. The Smart Money Team visited over 20 locations across Rhode Island in an effort to increase outreach and further educate community members about Treasury’s Unclaimed Property and Empower RI initiatives.

This year, the Smart Money Tour will continue with even more stops across the state.

My team and I are dedicated to providing Rhode Islanders with transparent and easy-to-access information about our work. The Smart Money Tour has proven to be an innovative way to reach out to local communities and ensure that all questions are answered.

We will continue to provide information about how people can take charge of their finances through our Empower RI initiative. This initiative is aimed at helping Rhode Islanders acquire the tools they need to become financially empowered. The various components of Empower RI include Earned Income Tax Credit Program & Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, Financial Coaching Corps, Collegeboundfund®,EverFi, and Payday Lending Reform.

The Smart Money team will assist attendees on-site as they search for unclaimed property online and will also show them how to access the state’s financial reports, investment performance and other related data.

Treasury’s team will also work to raise awareness about the ways in which Rhode Island’s Crime Victims Compensation Fund can provide financial assistance to those impacted by violent crime.

An increased awareness of Treasury’s many different services will ensure the community will have the knowledge needed to take advantage of the programs and initiatives at the core of Treasury’s work.

This year the Smart Money Tour will be accepting requests from community groups for a Smart Money stop at their location or event. To request a Smart Money stop visit treasury.ri.gov/SmartMoney.

Treasury is committed to finding ways to move Rhode Island forward. The work we do is aimed at encouraging financial empowerment so that we may strengthen our state’s economy one person at a time. The Smart Money Tour gives the Treasury office the opportunity to come directly to our constituents to ensure their questions are answered and needs are met.

I hope you will take the time to visit the Smart Money Team at one of their stops to learn more about how Treasury’s services can help you and take charge of your financial life.

The Wrong Kind of Budget

What if one of our most fundamental assumptions–that the first step to financial stability is the creation of a personal budget–misses the point? A recent article in FastCompany, “Poverty Drains Mental Energy,” seems to imply just that. Let’s put it bluntly: being poor is exhausting and stressful. You have to constantly make difficult decisions: Do I fall behind on the utilities so that I can buy school supplies for my daughter? Who will babysit her while I spend 2.5 hours traveling by bus to and from an appointment to apply for food stamps?

 
If you look at the totality of these myriad decisions and trade-offs that are made month after month, you start to realize that you are dealing with a budget–only instead of a financial one, it’s a balance sheet that accounts for inflows and outflows of mental and physical energy. And according to Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir, this budget is the one that really counts. In their new book, Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much, they argue that when thinking about social programs, “We never ask, is this how we want poor people to use their bandwidth? When we design poverty programs, we recognize that the poor are short on cash…But we do not think of bandwidth as being scarce as well.” At first, this sounds absurd: shouldn’t the poor be thankful for the free and low-cost programs we offer them? But if you step back for a moment, the answer becomes clear: of course they’re thankful for them, but that doesn’t mean they fit into their budget!

The takeaway here is that before we start throwing services at the poor, we have to deeply understand their circumstances and be empathetic to the unique challenges they face. Just because we put out a flyer that says “Free Financial Coaching!”, it doesn’t mean that a family struggling to put food on the table, pay rent, keep the lights on and stay healthy is going to come bounding into our office.

 
It’s important to track your income and your expenses with an eye toward building up your savings and your overall stability. But maybe the greatest benefit of getting a handle on your finances isn’t so much that it will build savings as that it will free up emotional energy to focus on other things. Done right, the greatest impact of financial coaching programs may not be what is typically measured–increases in savings and credit score, reductions in debt and use of predatory services–but rather something less tangible. As the authors note, a well-run program can give you “back all that mental bandwidth that you currently use to fret, worry…We’d be taking a cognitive load off [which] would help your executive control, your self-control more broadly, even your parenting.” Those impacts start to sound like the kinds that truly empower a family to move out of poverty.

What Small Business Owners Need to Know About Banking

For a small business owner, banking can often be an afterthought – a mere conduit for necessary business activities like making deposits and meeting payroll. But a good banker, and more specifically, a good banking relationship, can have a positive impact on a small business and provide peace of mind for owners.

Here are a few things small business owners should think about when it comes to banking.

Understand your credit worthiness

One of the major reasons a small business owner approaches a bank is to secure capital for things like a major equipment purchase or a new location. But there are things a business owner needs to know before they walk into their banker’s office, particularly around credit worthiness, an assessment of the likelihood a borrower will be able to fulfill his or her debt obligations. If a small business is a partnership, the partners should talk about their individual credit situation. Small business owners should also engage their CPA to get an accurate picture of cash flow, one of the first things a banker will look at. Getting a better handle on credit worthiness can help make a small business owner’s meeting with a banker more productive by understanding their own capital picture ahead of time.

Cash flow management tools

Small businesses often operate on tight margins and cash flow issues, around things like payroll or major expenses, can be a major headache. Working with a banker to learn about available cash management tools – like remote deposit, which allows a business to make a deposit without leaving the office, and merchant processing, which allows them to collect payments right from the office –can give business owners a better understanding of how to manage cash on hand.

Banking needs change as a business grows

When small businesses get off the ground, they don’t typically have a lot of overhead – it’s often only one or two people, or family members working together. But as a business grows, banking needs change. For example, hiring more employees necessitates not only payroll changes, but also planning for benefits, as well as the retirement needs of employees. The type of banking products a small business needs may look very different in year five than it did in year one. A good banking relationship is flexible; it grows and evolves with the needs of a company.

Don’t look for a banker – seek out a relationship

This all leads to a final, overarching point: banking shouldn’t be just a bunch of transactions, but a relationship. Working with a banker who understands you and your business, where you are now and where you want to be in the future, is extremely important. Banking is an everyday part of a small business; don’t let it be an afterthought or something someone else handles. Seek out someone who will be an advocate for you and your business, someone who will be there to help you grow.

Krista Snyder is a senior vice president and small business banking manager for Bank of America.