Being a business owner or a manager for your company can sometimes mean you are the one keeping an eye on everything. Being responsible for your company’s success and making sure everything happens as you have envisioned, is a tough job that you do well. But there is one specific area that should be the same for all companies, something that is only correct without any creative input - accounting.
Today most companies know of outsourcing and use this method with their IT or HR processes. Still, there are many more ways that outsourcing could benefit a company (large and small). Keeping your company’s finances well-tracked and accurate is where an experienced accounting firm can lend a hand.
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Outsourcing is hiring another company or individual outside of your own to manage various business-related processes and activities. This is done instead of using an in-house team or an individual.
Outsourced accounting, therefore, means hiring a service that provides a full accounting department experience. This usually comprises everything from the day-to-day transaction coding, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll and taxation to managing financial reporting. Few companies like Leinonen also offer extra services like company establishment abroad, taxation and legal consultation.
In some cases, outsourcing is called subcontracting. Outsourced bookkeeping in a wider sense is sometimes called Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), which means that an external company provides part or all of a business function. Less often the more specific term Finance and Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) is used.
It used to be that outsourcing one’s bookkeeping was more prevalent amongst small business owners since that meant getting top-notch service for pennies on the dollar. It is hard to find an eligible person that has the skills, time and resources to analyze financial data, manage bank account operations, accounts receivable and payable. Someone to prepare outgoing invoices, payroll, the annual report and other official reports to authorities like the company’s financial statements. Nowadays, in a world where all businesses are under increasing pressure to reduce cost and increase performance, outsourcing bookkeeping is becoming more and more a strategic choice.
It is a common misconception that the terms ‘outsourcing’ and ‘offshoring’ are used interchangeably. The main difference in the meaning of the two is the location.
Offshore means that the work or service being bought is performed in another country. Often in a very far away country where the workforce is much cheaper or legislation more favourable.
Outsource means a particular service or form of labour is being performed by a company that is not your own. This does not have any relation to the third-party firm being abroad.
Every company is different and knows best when it’s time to move their accounting to an outsourced company. Still, there are some more common reasons for doing this.
The legal regulations of accounting and finance are more stringent than ever. It has strict rules and laws since authorities and the public relies on such information to make their financial decisions.
Many companies are already using the benefits of outsourcing a business process. But there are some benefits of outsourcing your finance department that are more specific. Now we’ll look into those.
Continuous workflow is important to ensure your business’s finances are taken care of without exception. Revenue doesn’t care about Christmas or crying babies.
Superior expertise in accounting is an integral part of a company’s growth. You wouldn’t want an amateur to teach you how to skydive, so why take such a leap of faith with everything your business makes?
Time is money and money is time – freeing up valuable time for yourself and your employees could be a gamechanger in terms of business success.
Security is the backbone of running a productive business. Organisational continuity and disaster recovery should be thought of before there is any need.
It depends on the outsourcing company your business chooses, but there are some risks that it’s better to prepare for ahead of time.
Disruption – all change takes time, and so does moving your finance department. Inevitably this means some confusion, some reorganising, etc. Not all your employees are going to be happy with that and therefore might show resistance.
Loss of control – outsourcing your accounting means passing some control of the process and its outcome to a third party. It often is a skill to let go and therefore can take time to get used to. After all if you still spend a lot of time micromanaging then the whole change has been useless.
Of course there are many other concerns people have, but it’s reasonable to talk about these case by case. If you have any such concerns, our support officer will be able to give you an individual in-depth answer.
It is important to keep in mind, that whatever the shortcomings you are concerned about, most probably they can be negated. Whether it’s rearranging your current workforce or being more in control of everything. If in doubt, just contact us and we’ll discuss all the options.
If, after reading this article, you think that outsourced accounting might be something for you – contact us.
We will map out your business needs and put together a personal onboarding experience. That makes sure the process of coming over to Leinonen is as smooth as possible.
On top of accounting, we offer legal, taxation, payroll and management reporting. The cherry on top amongst our services is helping you set up your company abroad.
The first thing you should do is send us an email so we can schedule a meeting or just give us a call. We would like to know more about your business and to discuss the scope of your needs: number of transactions that move through your account each month, annual revenue, the number of clients that you have, the number of employees that are on the payroll etc.
We will send you a questionnaire that helps us map your needs and requirements. Based on this information we are able to compile an offer. Once we understand how the process works for you currently, we can suggest improvements and how to best move forward with outsourcing.
Please remember that we are always pleased to meet and negotiate the offer as well as agreement conditions and other details. Our consultation is complimentary so you can learn more about our expertise and services.
We provide our services according to our clients’ needs, so there is no necessity to outsource entire accounting and payroll. In fact, sometimes it makes more sense to just outsource some controlling functions.
For example, you can have a junior accountant within your company taking care of day-to-day tasks and documentation, while Leinonen accountants execute controlling functions, money transactions and reporting. The complexity of the outsourced services really depends on your demand.
We can work with our own as well as the client’s preferred software. Most frequently we use programs like Visma, Navision and Fortnox. In the CIS region, the accounting software 1C is used by more than 90 % of the market. This is because generally it is the only software that connects directly to government entities for reporting purposes, and is updated constantly to match the ever-changing legislative environment.
Leinonen Group operates in 12 countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine) with 14 offices. In some countries our services might vary due to local legislative acts. We can help with the legislation that regulates cross-border services, as well as provide Single Point of Contact services if you have business operations in several counties. For more information about specific countries, please contact us.
We only hire the best and therefore have a team of chartered accountants with professional experience in the accounting of diverse businesses. You can also benefit from our tax advisors’ knowledge and expertise.
Many of our offices are certified with ISO 9001:2015 by Bureau Veritas quality certificate, which is also reviewed annually. Additionally, to hiring only the best, we have Finnish values promoted in every local office to regulate and support the work there. If you wish, we can provide references that can vouch for the quality of our work.
In every country, we provide services in accordance with the local laws and regulations. To guarantee the maximum level of privacy we have internal group auditing practices and encrypt most of the handled documentation.
We serve both local and international clients from single-person companies to multi-billion dollar international companies. It can be said that most of our clients are somewhat involved in international trade.
A typical case would be a foreign-owned business, where the foreign owner of the local subsidiary is very interested in following the local laws and regulations. They would like to hand accounting over to a trusted partner who is an expert in those laws and regulations. This way they can focus on their business, while Leinonen takes care of accounting, taxation and reporting formalities.
We do not differ our clients by their size. Small businesses have great potential to grow and what would be better than to grow together. In fact, outsourcing usually makes a lot of sense for small businesses, where there is not enough volume to justify hiring an internal accountant. Having professional outsourced help with accounting can be essential since you pay only for the help you need.
It depends on what kind of project you are thinking of. It really does always depend on the scope and specific requirements of the project. But of course, the best project would be long-term cooperation to support your business.
Operating under Finnish values; over 20 years’ experience in challenging markets; presence in 12 countries and the local know-how there; high-quality group service standards; small enough to care, big enough to deliver.
Client confidentiality is essential to us, as we are sure you can appreciate. Still, we are confident that if you wish, we can ask for permission and deliver the necessary references.
The structure of pricing depends on the nature of requested services and its volumes. Some pricing can be as a fixed fee, some on an hourly rate. One thing you can be sure of is that we have a fair and transparent structure of pricing that you can understand. We can provide you with most suitably tailored pricing once you have returned the Offer Questionnaire or have met with us.
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