Accountants aren't just for the year end

Many business owners have a 'once a year' relationship with their accountants. They do their own bookkeeping and VAT administration in house, maybe with a part-time bookkeeper and their accountant is engaged to prepare the year end accounts, possibly with a bit of payroll thrown in.

This arrangement can work fine, especially if you have a good and reliable bookkeeper. It may be more problematic if the in house bookkeeper is not very good or if they decide to move on. In the latter case, finding a replacement can be difficult and an overhead as the newbie learns the ropes and settles in.

So what about outsourcing as an alternative? Outsourcing all of your financial administration including booking and VAT to your accountants can have a number of benefits, including:

• Continuity - the firm you engage should have cover so that if there are staff changes, it's their problem, not yours
• Scalability - if you business grows or contracts they can adapt the level of resources (and costs) to suit your needs
• Synergy - as your accountants are dealing with your bookkeeping they should gain efficiencies on year end work, reducing costs
• Familiarity - with regular contact they get to know you and your business and what makes it tick. They can add value by preparing monthly or quarterly management accounts on the back of the bookkeeping work
• Certainty - you should be able to agree a fixed monthly fee for all the accountancy work so you can budget with certainty

For a small business, outsourcing can be a cost effective and attractive alternative to 'bookkeeper plus accountant'.

A high proportion of the accountancy support we provide at Base52 is as a comprehensive outsourcing package. We like it because we get to know our clients better and we think we can provide a more proactive service with regular contact with our clients.

Please see our website and video for more details

www.base52.co.uk/services/outsourced-accounts-and-tax