Accounting hasn’t changed much since the beginning of time. Expenses are still expenses and income is still income. The bottom line is still a pretty good indicator of your company’s overall financial health.
But just because accounting is an art and science that has been established since the first goods and services were traded doesn’t mean that all accounting firms are the same. Some companies are much better at staying up to date on accounting trends, leveraging today’s technology to provide superior accounting services, and delivering greater value to their clients.
Let’s look at some of the accounting trends how they affect rapidly growing businesses with revenue between $1 and $25 million a year.
Cloud-Based Accounting Services
Organizations have been talking about “the cloud” for several years now, and, frankly, accounting firms who are not using cloud-based accounting services are doing their clients a dis-service.
Rather than lumping all cloud-based accounting services into one category, though, let’s talk about the type of services the best accounting firms should be using.
When you outsource bookkeeping services, the cloud-based accounting software employed should follow national standards for security within a data center, meaning that the data is stored and encrypted through SSL (secure socket layers) technology. The data should be backed up continuously, with back-ups stored remotely so that they are accessible even if the data center experiences a natural catastrophe.
In short, your data should be more secure and better protected than it would be if you were to host it locally on your own business servers.
Accounting And Bookkeeping Software Integration
Not only has bookkeeping software moved to the cloud, providing better security, better access, more data protection and scalability than business owners have with locally hosted software solutions, but bookkeeping should integrate seamlessly with other business processes. Enterprise-level bookkeeping software should be able to work with inventory management software, customer relations software, marketing software and payroll, giving business owners an eagle’s eye view of the overall state of their company at any time, if desired. When you outsource bookkeeping services, today, you may get much more than just virtual bookkeeping.
More Companies Outsource Bookkeeping
With all the added capabilities accounting firms can provide with cloud-based accounting software, there’s very little need for today’s accountants and bookkeepers to work within your office, or even visit your office.
Many business owners looking to outsource bookkeeping realize they don’t need a full-time, in-house bookkeeper. Top virtual accounting firms provide full-charge bookkeeping services, as well as financial controllership services and a software specialist, for about the same amount of money, or less, than businesses traditionally paid for an in-house bookkeeper.
When you factor in the office space, benefits and other overhead associated with in-house employees, you’ll see the greater value virtual accounting firms provide.
