The beginning of a new year always signals a time for trend spotting Which financial opportunities, challenges and changes should companies prepare for now? Below are six soon-to-be realities that you should consider for 2019. .
CFOs take on more
responsibility.
The role of the CFO has merged with that of the COO to assume strategy and operations functions. This calls for greater collaboration in business areas such as marketing, procurement, sales and design/R&D in order for CFOs to build sound budget strategies and operational processes. With a team of experienced outsourced fractional CFO professionals, we offer deep expertise and industry-specific insights to support your financial decision-making.
Customers’ changing
demands disrupt industries.
Think of it as forced evolution. Millennials and Gen Z crowd
are making their wishes known – pushing for greater transparency, asking for more
sustainable products, embracing technical conveniences. Business has no choice
but to respond – re-evolving business models, selling on social media, adopting
voice-commerce, etc.
Technology makes
finance smarter and faster.
Automation and new technologies are making finance software programs do more with less. This leaves more time for focusing on the organization’s strategic vision.
We’re grappling with uncertainty
again.
From foreign policy to data regulation, businesses are
operating under the strain of uncertainty. Expect another year of having to
navigate a turbulent, highly politicized environment.
Even the workforce is
evolving.
2019 will introduce a diverse generation of employees with
new expectations and wants. For accounting, the skills gap widens, re-training requirements
grow, and a higher level of contract employees emerges.
New data risks are
surfacing
Companies will need to have a deeper understanding of General
Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), because there will be a higher level of
concern about data security as more info is created, collected, and stored online
which allows for the possibility of hacking.
As these developments proceed, the role of finance becomes more important and extensive. Many companies are turning to service providers to help them make the transformation. This may entail consulting services, augmenting current staff or even outsourcing the financial and accounting function.
Outsourcing will help you conduct a cost effective business by decreasing your payroll. It will help your company give a more specific oriented task to your executive employees.
1 – Cost Savings
Outsourcing makes sense for cutting costs while reducing workload on the employee. Outsourced labor may cost 90% less than the same labor performed in-house in Western Europe or North America, particularly for low-level tasks. You won’t need to make any upfront investment, which makes development projects much more attractive.
2 – Time Savings
Software development takes less time when people are working on your applications around the clock, so you can get your product to market more quickly than your competitors can.
3 – Lack of in house experience
When the internal resources of the company are not enough to globalize the company’s business, Outsourcing software development will bring new dimensions to manage a business worldwide. Business applications will be more sound and systematic for an overall performance.
4 – Flexibility
When you outsource, you don’t have to spend time recruiting, hiring, training, and housing employees for short-term projects.
5- Talented IT Professionals
You’ll have immediate access to some of the best and brightest information-technology professionals by going overseas and bypassing the gaps in hiring pools in more developed countries.
6- Focused Strategy
Outsourcing software development would streamline business processes. It will provide a focused strategy to have a competitive advantage in the technological race.
7 – Improved Compliance
Outsourcing software development would create an automated compliance system that will reduce human follow-ups in business processes.
8 – Enhanced Accuracy
Offshore development will improve work accuracy in terms of given deadlines on a project. Defined software will deliver accurate results in less turn around time.
9 – Technological Advances
Technology is evolving in different countries of the world. Companies thriving to gain competitive advantage are better off outsourcing software development for technological prowess.
10 – Risk Mitigation
You can mitigate risks by choosing an outsourcing firm that has a high-quality project management system and a tried-and-true process for developing applications.
Several functions can be outsourced by a company in different departments. From management training to accounting and financial operations, outsourcing takes care of it all. Website development & web design are increasingly outsourced by almost all companies for better maintenance and timely upgrades. Outsourcing accounting or other certain area of your business makes a lot of sense in order to maximize your profits in a small amount of time.
Founders create businesses because they have a passion or expertise in providing particular goods or services to market and often get caught up on focusing on items outside of their expertise. Being a startup means there’s always more work to do, and not enough time to do it. It is easy to get caught in numerous non-value add tasks that take anyway from working on the business. That’s why most success startups outsource certain tasks to companies or individuals who specialize in providing valuable time-saving services for a fee.
With all the advancements in technology, it’s easier and more convenient than ever to outsource. Here are five things you should consider outsourcing to experts.
1. Accounting & Finance Firms
Most entrepreneurs are not Accountants. However, understanding cash flows or analyzing profitability of a business is vital to its success. Too often startups neglect building an accounting process until profits go downhill or cash slowly drains away. Setting up an accounting process for your startup is critical to the long-term success. An accounting process is also important because it allows your business to look forward. Startups or small businesses that that don’t have an accounting process in place find themselves trapped by past actions or constantly worried about having enough money to pay bills.
In addition to accounting process, setting up an accounting system is important for your startup as it will allow you to see how your business is doing and allow you to make decisions to strategically position your business for growth.
Look for an outsourced accounting firm that does more than just bookkeeping. Partnering with someone that goes beyond debits and credits and gives advice on such things as cashflow will help set you up for success. Technology is vital to help provide necessary insights.
2. Graphic Design and Web Development.
Coming up with a brand-defining logo, an attractive website, and print materials can be extremely time consuming and difficult to get right. Using a professional graphic designer will help your business look its best. They understand a lot of things that you may overlook. Whatever your goals, there’s a graphic designer with the talent, aesthetic sensibilities, and visual skills to fulfill your vision and enhance your company brand.
Look for a graphic designer that offers web development to help streamline the process and provide a unified message.
3. Web Research.
Prospecting for new business and keeping up with the latest developments in your industry can be time consuming and daunting. A web researcher can research information you, whether it’s gathering information and statistics for an upcoming presentation or looking up the names of companies and contacts for a leads list. They can also organize this material in a form that’s easy to use and read.
4. Administrative Assistance.
If half your day is spent sifting through your overflowing email inbox, returning call and making travel arrangement, a virtual administrative assistant (VA) may be just what you need to streamline that frustrating process and keep you from being inundated by a constant stream of on administrative tasks that keep you from more value-added items.
Before you waste your time on something that is not in your expertise, consider outsourcing. This will make your to-do list shorter and free you up to focus on the things you’re best at and that generate the most income for your business.
Are you a startup and are considering hiring accounting and finance personal?
Having the right finance and accounting policy, procedures and technology in place could be critical to your success. Lots of startups outsource many of the tasks not related to your company’s core competency, including accounting & finance. Should you invest the money in hiring FTEs and purchase accounting software or use an outsourced accounting firm? Let’s look at four ways hiring an outsourced firm can help your startup business.
Select the right accounting package.
Too many startup businesses purchase off the shelf accounting packages that do not provide proper visibility into their business. As a result, they either spend a lot of time with Excel spreadsheets to try and gain necessary information or they simply neglect items that inhibit growth and put the business at risk.
With the proper technology you have visibility into your business from anywhere, enabling you to spend more time on the business instead of in the business.
Help with investment capital.
Whether you’re applying for a business loan or seeking outside funding from angel investors or venture capital firms, accurate and up-to-date financials are essential.
Professional services firms will provide you with the up-to-date financial statements, along with explanations of the data in those financial statements, which can help your company standout amidst all those other businesses.
Be financial audit, partner and/or investor ready from day one.
Trusted advice.
Fractional CFO services or CFO guidance including advice, counsel and insight — providing you with financial statements, budgets, forecasts and dashboards to monitor all your financial data. It’s one thing to have all the financial data you need to run your business. But the real benefit is to have someone to explain exactly what the financial statements mean, and help you to make the decisions that will steer your company toward growth.
4 . Scale with your company.
With outsourced services your variable cost become a scalable fixed cost. Why add non-revenue generating cost when you can gain resources, technology, quality and support all tailored to your needs? When your company grows the outsourced services company grows with you.
Lavoie has had numerous conversations over the years with companies of all sizes regarding outsourcing or what we refer to as AaaS (Accounting as a Service). AaaS is a form of outsourcing that combines people, process and technology to help companies gain a strategic advantage. Some companies think they are too big to outsource any function. Others think they aren’t big enough. So, what is the right answer? They are both wrong!
FAO (finance and accounting outsourcing) started nearly 20 years with BP outsourcing its accounting functions to Accenture. FAO has traditionally been a horizontal offering with a value proposition driven by cost reduction and efficiency gains targeted at large organizations. So clearly the argument of an organization being too big has its flaws.
Smaller companies have been outsourcing payroll for years so they are already participating in a form of FAO outsourcing. The next concern we hear from clients is that they will outgrow services. This is certainly a possibility if you select the wrong partner that does not have the technology or staff to grow with you. For example, if a company is only providing bookkeeping services, it is certainly likely you would outgrow them. However, if a strategic partner is selected they will be able to grow with you and help you scale faster.
Large organizations are most often driven to outsourcing for cost reduction. However, as market requirements intensify, FAO solutions are increasingly becoming more industry-specific to provide strategic advantages and not strictly cost reduction. In smaller companies outsourcing can also reduce costs, but more importantly it enables them access to a full finance and accounting team that leverages economies of scale. Most SMBs can’t afford to hire an entire F&A department. So, what often happens is the company may only have a senior level person and they are stuck doing daily tactical activities or they may only have a junior level person and they are responsible for critical items such as cashflow analysis. Both have obvious weaknesses that prevent a company from reaching its potential.
AaaS solves this dilemma for SMBs. Companies don’t have to worry about daily tactical items that keep them from focusing on the company. In addition, they are provided with senior level advisory. To further maximize efficiencies, Lavoie services also include access to the leading cloud technologies. By combines people, process and technology we know AaaS can benefit companies of all sizes. info@lavoiepllc.com
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) recently came out with a report last month showcasing technology’s role in the future of finance. The report concludes that technology can revolutionize finance and accounting.
Technology has played a role in Accounting and Finance for numerous years. Originally, most accounting software was targeted to large enterprise due to its cost and complexity. The cloud drastically changed the landscape by bringing enterprise type technologies to the SME market. Now 80% of CFOs have cloud as part of their technology roadmap. Here are the benefits technology brings as identified in an ACCA survey of CFOs:
Improving efficiency and productivity – 70%
Creating new value for a business – 53%
Reducing costs – 33%
Improving communication internally and externally – 20%
Improving quality and standardization – 20%
As technology advances the above numbers will even be higher. Software companies have already begun to use artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Even though the returns can be great, it is important to be cautious about guaranteeing huge returns or overnight results. The report warns CFOs to use caution about where, when, and how they do or do not implement new technology.
A Technology Roadmap is Key
Technology is not automatically the solution. You need to understand your business goals and processes. Automating a bad process doesn’t fix anything. Implementing the wrong technology can be catastrophic and can possibly lead to employee turnover and insurmountable costs.
Companies shouldn’t rush into a decision, but also there is a lot of risk in not embracing technology and being left behind. The solution is to create a defined technology roadmap. A technology roadmap is a document which outlines the plan to reach short-term and long-term goals through the use of technology solutions. This type of roadmap typically provides key information which helps organizations make better decisions around technology investments.
Technology roadmaps are often driven by IT. However, it is important for CFOs and other business executives to be involved. They are the ones that understand short and long-term goals. Our seasoned team of outsourced CFO professionals brings a wealth of knowledge and industry-specific insights to assist you in making informed financial decisions. Lavoie CPA continuously studies and evaluates technology. We also have the business acumen to apply the right technology correctly. Need help with a technology roadmap or software evaluation, give us a call.
