If you are a small or mid-sized business and you have been looking into purchasing accounting services, there are three main categories of assistance you are likely looking at. Just imagine how much less time and money your business will have to put into these non-revenue generating activities once you decide to outsource them to qualified accounting professionals! So, what are the three broad categories?
1. Payroll – For some reason, payroll continues to top the charts as to the service most business owners wish they didn’t have to perform. You’ll avoid having to hassle with the IRS since payroll providers typically offer a tax guarantee. You’ll also save an immense amount of time, and you won’t need to bear the in-house costs of maintaining a professional bookkeeper to perform payroll either.
2. Bookkeeping – Speaking of bookkeeping, this is the second broad category of accounting services many businesses look at, for many of the same reasons. Taking care of accounts payable and receivable, bank reconciliation, government remittance for sales tax, and financial reporting are all tasks which don’t add any particular value for your own customers, and instead eat up a lot of time and resources.
3. Corporate Tax Returns – The last service commonly sought after is the preparation of corporate tax returns. Time spent on tax compliance again can be a drain to your bottom line, and the intermittent nature of tax payments makes the arguments in favor of keeping a full time staffer around to deal with these challenges sound a bit hollow.
If you have looked into accounting services for your business, you have likely thought about buying one or more of these services. Outsourcing any of your accounting practices usually makes sense, once you have engaged in a thorough cost benefit analysis. Speak to a qualified CPA if you have questions about services, and don’t forget that accountants can help you in other ways as well; this is hardly a conclusive list of the many valuable services they provide.