Accounting outsourcing means relying on third-party service providers to handle discrete finance functions, such as payroll or bookkeeping, on behalf of your accounting firm.
You won’t be surprised to hear that we’re big advocates of this approach.
Diamond Outsourcing grew out of our own accountancy practice, Diamond Accounts, and outsourcing helped us build that business which now has offices in both Essex and Sussex. And we still rely on outsourcing to deliver efficient, cost-effective services to our clients day in, day out.
Through Diamond Outsourcing, we want to give our peers in the accounting industry the same opportunity.
Among its many benefits, the key fact is outsourcing allows your accountancy practice or business finance function to deliver more with fewer resources.
For example, let’s say you want to offer a VAT return service to your clients without taking on any new team members just yet. Outsourcing that service can help you gauge demand and deliver quality results without committing too much time or money.
Your clients don’t need to know how you’re doing, as long as they get excellent results, and meanwhile, you get to increase your average income per customer. Win-win.
Or let’s say you’re a finance director in a small company who wants to get payroll off your to-do list so you can focus more on strategic work. Outsourcing it is a great solution to that specific problem and means your valuable time can be used more efficiently.
The Meaning of Outsourcing
The term outsourcing emerged in the 1970s and really took off in the 1990s – the golden age of business jargon!
It’s similar to some other concepts, such as contracting and freelancing. Both of those are also ways of getting someone else to deliver work on your behalf.
The difference is that where you might hire contractors or freelancers for a specific project, outsourcing tends to be an ongoing arrangement for as long as it’s needed.
Some of the accountancy practices we work with use outsourcing for a relatively short time, to help them get through busy periods or tide them over until they’re ready to hire more staff.
Others use our outsourced accounting for years, happy to let us handle it as long as we’re delivering results, saving them time and reducing their stress levels.
Another difference is where the work is done – the ‘out’ in outsourcing generally means way out, in another country, not just down the road.
Our overseas team is very much part of the family and we’re proud to work with some amazing professionals in India – not that you’d believe it from their knowledge of the UK tax system.
How our Outsourcing Service Works
For us, accounting outsourcing always starts with a conversation here in the UK.
Dealing with the management in Sittingbourne, Kent, you’ll get a chance to set out how you want to operate and agree on all the processes and systems. The UK team also sorts out all the IT integrations and tech setup.
Then we hand things over to the people who’ll actually be delivering on your behalf.
You’ll get to know them as you work together, and they’ll always make sure you have the opportunity to feedback on both deliverables and processes all along the way.
Get in touch to discuss how outsourcing accounting could work for your business.