It’s not unusual for businesses of all sizes to outsource some of their administrative tasks, and when it comes to CPA firms, many of them take advantage of outsourced bookkeeping and accountingto help them cope better during year end and tax season.
But while this is usually a convenient and cost-effective option for a wide range of professionals within a wealth of industries, it all rests on finding the right outsourcing partner.
If you’re a CPA needing to lighten your workload, save money, or find flexible scalability, here are 8 steps to finding the right tax preparation outsourcing services:
- Identify your needs
Defining the goals of your business and your accounting needs, is essential if you’re to find an outsourced partner who can help you meet them effectively.
Take time to assess your business and its operations, to properly identify what outsourcing services your firm would most benefit from.
2. Check for industry experience
Choosing an outsourcing partner who doesn’t specialize in accounting and bookkeeping, is a recipe for disaster, no matter how cheap their services may be, or how much they may claim to be experienced ‘all-rounders.’ Look at their level of experience and qualifications, to assess whether they’ve got the skills and training to meet your needs.
3. Check their reputation
Nowadays, it’s common practice for customers to write reviews of every individual and company they happen to do business with, so checking online reviews for a potential outsourced partner, should yield results that you can check for suitability.
4. Assess their security protocols and measures
Your clients’ data must be kept secure at all times, so when researching outsourcing partners, be sure to check what measures they take to ensure client data security and confidentiality. If necessary, contact them directly for further assurance.
5. Ensure that they offer appropriate levels of flexibility for scaling
The need for you to scale your CPA firm up or down at any given time, may arise, and you need to be confident that your chosen outsourcing partner will support this.
6. Check whether they offer customized solutions
Your clients likely come to you with a wide array of accounting needs, and if you plan to have an outsourced partner help them with these, you need to beconfident that they are willing and able to do this.
7. Assess their cost structure
There are several different ways in which outsourced bookkeeping and accounting firms price their services, and you should check these against your needs; a) to make sure that you’re not paying over the odds for what they’re prepared to offer you, and b)to make sure that their prices are unambiguous and transparent.
8. Review their customer support
You must be able to communicate effectively with an outsourced accounting partner if the relationship is to be of benefit to you, and your clients. If you’ve reached out to them but weren’t satisfied with the level or manner of support you were given, you’re perfectly within your rights to challenge them over this, or walk away and start your search again.
With these 8 simple steps for corporate tax outsourcing, you could be well on your way to streamlined operations and satisfied customers, before the month is even out.
