Post-pandemic hiring and employee retention are critical components affecting a wide range of industries. Across the board, organizations are facing trickle-down challenges to creatively adjust their employee retention and hiring strategies, as well as adapt their operational processes to meet changing attitudes and trends among the current workforce.
This is especially relevant for a business’s accounting functions. As your organization considers whether it should expand its accounting teams or outsource functions to allow for continued growth, it is imperative to weigh various factors such as workforce needs, depth of expertise, and technology utilization to help you choose the best option.
In this article, we share insights on these three areas and how the outsourced accounting team at Forvis Mazars may help your business.
Workforce Needs
To start, many organizations are struggling to find qualified individuals, as evidenced in our 2024 State of the Nonprofit Sector Report. In fact, inflationary pressures and staffing issues top the list of concerns for nonprofit leaders, along with budget cuts and workforce shortages.1 Similar concerns also affect the accounting world.
In addition, there is a smaller overall pool of qualified applicants with fewer accounting graduates searching for jobs. Since these individuals are few and far between, competition to attract and hire has increased, along with company salary offerings and benefit packages that meet new market standards.
As noted in our FORsights™ article, “Confronting the Workforce Crisis: Part One – The Pandemic,” nonprofits are meeting workforce demands by offering flexible scheduling, encouraging remote work, and creating childcare assistance opportunities for their employees. These offerings may not be economically or strategically feasible for all industries—and that is where outsourcing comes into play.
Outsourcing your accounting function to a trusted provider can help create a greater return on investment (ROI) compared to hiring, training, and updating education for current or future employees. Based on your organization’s size and abilities, the cost and time savings from outsourcing may be more beneficial than hiring and providing total compensation/benefits packages.
Note that outsourced accountants are typically not on site full time. Thus, your organization can help mitigate risks by prioritizing communication with your outsourcing team and setting expectations on a regular basis.
Depth of Expertise
Businesses rely on diversity of thought to achieve their goals and maintain success. Sometimes, that can be curtailed when relying only on in-house teams. Looking outside of your people and collaborating with an outsourced accounting firm can help pool more resources and bring a group of diversified backgrounds and skill sets to the table.
Moreover, the team at Forvis Mazars has a breadth of advisory services at their fingertips and staff (such as tax, audit, forensics, and business valuation) that can help meet your unique business needs and tailor offerings to suit your organization. Our accounting professionals also receive continuous education for the latest issuance of new accounting standards and regulatory changes. Our services also may help free your time and resources that were previously used for accounting and allow you to focus on other operations.
Furthermore, any outsourced accounting services may result in additional fees or costs to the client. It is important to consider the annual accounting cycle and outline your organization’s needs before making the change to outsourcing.
Technology Utilization
Whether outsourced or in-house, accounting teams use software for parts of their work and tasks. It is critical for businesses to gauge if their current accounting system is meeting their needs and have leadership forge a path for next steps.
If decision making lands on outsourcing, then the opportunity to use third-party software and integrations may increase when a firm is brought in.
When working with the team at Forvis Mazars, clients gain access to integrations such as Bill, Expensify, and Excel add-in tools that help create more efficiencies and improve automation.
Keep in mind that engaging a firm for outsourced accounting involves sharing oversight of the accounting function. Thus, the company or client has less direct control and can potentially take on more software security risks. To help mitigate this, your organization should find a firm that best fits your needs, upholds trust, and clearly defines its security and quality control processes.
Conclusion
Overall, outsourcing with the right firm can help your organization create value and save time, allowing you to do more with less. For more information regarding outsourced accounting or for any questions, please reach out to a professional at Forvis Mazars.
- 1“2024 State of the Nonprofit Sector Report,” forvismazars.us, February 21, 2024.