To adopt a highly functional accounting software, you do not need to have a multi-million dollar accounting business. For small CPA firms, with new clients and endless strenuous tasks on their plate, accounting software can become a breeze of ease. It is the businesses that offer better flexibility, efficiency, real-time collaboration, and error-free results, that thrive.
The world of accounting is all about crunching numbers, providing clients the ease of understanding about where they stand financially. Accounting software is known to make all these jobs easy.
Small CPA firms often turn to offshore partners to offload some volume of their work. With constantly changing tax regulations, the need to prevent employees from being burnt out, and making sure that the internal team does jobs that matter offshoring has become a business strategy that many small accounting firms abide by. And accounting software has made collaboration easier.
According to a survey, 58% of accountants agreed that automated accounting leads to increased efficiency. The study also found that 82% of small businesses and 58% of enterprises use cloud accounting. The cloud accounting market is expected to attain $4.25 billion by 2023.
Understanding accounting software the right way
The options available when it comes to picking accounting software for your business are plenty. But the main challenge here is that not everything is meant for everyone. This essentially means the number of clients you have, the kind of tasks that need to be completed, and the expectations from the software are some of the things that decide what is it you need.
Compliance, reporting and tracking are some of the common features that your accounting software should have. Besides, as a small CPA firm owner, keeping a close watch on the cash flow should be your priority. Only the right accounting software can play a role in ensuring that you are on the right track. Your software can become your assistant when conducting regular accounting duties like payments, monitoring, billing, and reconciliations. The accounting software should also play a key role in easing your job by helping create reports and evaluating the performance. Overall, the accounting software of your choice should help manage your company’s financial health better.
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Collaboration for accounting firms through the right software and offshoring:
Offshoring comes with a number of benefits for small CPA firms. Besides the advantages they pose, this business model is not devoid of challenges. Communication barriers, time zone differences, and security breaches are some of the concerns.
Modern accounting software is designed to tackle all of these issues and ensure that small CPA firms reap maximum benefits from their partnership with an offshore team.
Here are the features you should look for while choosing an accounting software for seamless collaboration:
FUNCTIONAL FEATURES:
- Cloud-based solutions: With cloud-based accounting software, you can ensure real-time coordination and access to a global team. Such platforms secure data, provide safe storage and backup, and ensure updates are rolled out on a regular basis. This helps teams across the world coordinate better and have information on ongoing tasks in real time.
- User-friendliness: The software you choose is going to be used by the internal team as well as the offshore partners. Make sure that the user can easily navigate, learn, and use it to streamline the day-to-day functions. Refrain from picking one that needs a lot of training and explanation. With teams working in different time zones, the process of acknowledging an issue with the software and providing resolutions to your offshore team can be challenging and time-consuming. Having a user-friendly interface goes a long way in saving the day.
- Access to multiple users: Having an offshore team is similar to working with multiple teams at the same time, which means everyone involved will also need access to the software simultaneously. Having a multiple-user feature is crucial for seamless collaboration. This reduces the loss of manhours and ensures optimum usage of the team’s time.
- Data security: In accounting, a lot of financial data is involved. Having robust encryption, secure backups, and access controls in the software ensures no loss of money and reputation due to data theft. Be mindful of what your client’s needs are in terms of compliance and regulations and make sure that the offshore team is aware and mindful of it.
- Integration capabilities: Accounting software can never work individually, especially when you have outsourced a part of your tasks. Picking software that integrates easily with other tools such as tax preparation software, CRM systems, and task management platforms can help achieve efficiency, productivity, and profitability from the partnership.
Besides the functional features, the right accounting software should also have a number of technical features, tailored to serve your business needs. While they will vary from business to business, here are some common ones, that will cater to most small CPA firms.
TECHNICAL FEATURES:
The base of seamless collaboration with your offshore partner lies in having a clear understanding of the tasks you need to deliver to your clients. As a small business, some of the functions that your accounting and bookkeeping software should have, include:
- Raising invoices: If your offshore partner manages the job of raising invoices, having the feature in the software can help your team raise an invoice and get paid sooner. The right accounting software will help you create customized invoices and keep track of customers who do not pay on time. This allows you to send reminders or take the necessary action. Using software for this purpose also prevents unnecessary back and forth about payment updates with the offshore team.
- Payroll: This is a lengthy process and your offshore teams need a lot of information and perform several functions. Having software that allows automation in payroll allows pre-programmed calculation of wages, tax deductions, and benefits. That way, you do not have to end up cross-checking for accuracy every now and then. All you need to do is feed the information into the system once. Based on your compliance policy and tax regulations, the rest can be handled. Incorporating such a system in place allows your offshore team to perform more functions in less time.
- Integration with accounts: Bank reconciliation is one of the most common tasks that you will outsource to your offshore partner. Getting software that integrates all bank accounts and cards seamlessly goes a long way in the comprehensive and easy functioning of all parties involved. It helps you and your offshore team gain access to updated data, track expenses, pay vendors, reconcile bank accounts, tally accounts payable and receivable and so much more.
- Financial reporting: Accounting is a process that has many steps involved and financial reporting is an important one. Financial reporting is the financial snapshot of the most vital aspect of your business. As a business owner, you will need these to make decisions and transform your business.
Choosing the Right Accounting Software: Final Words
Choosing the right accounting software will help you navigate through all turbulences with ease. With the right accounting software and investment in comprehensive training, small CPA firms can unlock the potential of offshoring.
When you collaborate with the right offshore partner like Finsmart Accounting, you get access to a pool of qualified professionals who are experts in using Quickbooks Online and Desktop, Xero, Netsuites, and bill.com. With the support of a competitive team, you can easily attract a variety of clients from different domains, using different software.
Have more questions? Write to us at connect@finsmartaccounting.com.
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Finsmart is renowned globally for these services:
Finance and accounting outsourcing
Outsource bookkeeping solutions
Accounts payable and accounts receivable services
India entry consulting for MNCs
Maanoj is Co-founder & Director of Growth at Finsmart Accounting. He is instrumental in developing “Accounting Seat” a revolutionary Accounting as a Service Model (AaaS) specially designed for Accounting and CPA firms. He is an Outsourcing Expert, a People Champion, and a Dynamic Leader with strong Business Strategy and Scaling-up experience. He has incubated businesses, sold & exited ventures; helped build strong enterprises in very diversified verticals like Fintech, HR & Consulting spaces in various CXO capacities over the last 20 years. Besides work, he also engages in a lot of social services and is a co-founder of Mission ICU a social initiative that won an award from the World Economic Forum for setting up critical care infrastructure in the remotest parts of the country. He follows a very active lifestyle been an avid Tennis player and a passionate Golfer.
