Rather than dangerously DIY-ing their bookkeeping or hiring in-house, plenty of business owners opt for an outsourced bookkeeping service to maintain their records – and for good reason, too.
Outsourced bookkeeping is just as it sounds: a third-party bookkeeping service that acts as an extension of your business. With its streamlined nature and lower costs compared to in-house bookkeeping salaries, more and more small business owners are realizing its potential to open up bandwidth for more important matters, while offering the financial insights they need to grow their business.
NorthStar Bookkeeping has been delivering outsourced bookkeeping services for the past decade, acting as both bookkeeper and consultant to business owners who are crunched for time. Along with general bookkeeping duties, we regularly provide custom financial reporting and advisory services to a growing list of small business owners.
Learn more about the ins and outs of outsourced bookkeeping, including its benefits and included services, before approaching NorthStar with your record-keeping needs.
What is Outsourced Bookkeeping?
Outsourced bookkeeping refers to the use of an external, third-party bookkeeping service provider to handle your business’s financial record-keeping, rather than managing it in-house.
An established outsourced bookkeeping company handles the same tasks as an in-house bookkeeper, including accounts payable and receivable, bank reconciliations, payroll, financial reports, and analysis. As a busy small business owner with more important matters on your hands, this service allows you to focus on higher priorities while ensuring that your books are accurately maintained.
Benefits of Outsourcing Your Bookkeeping
Outsourced bookkeeping carries a handful of key advantages for today’s busy entrepreneurs and SMB owners:
Cost Savings
One of the biggest perks of outsourced bookkeeping is the cost savings, especially when compared to salaries for in-house bookkeepers. By outsourcing, you can avoid employee-related expenses such as benefits, payroll taxes, PTO, insurance, and training, and only pay for what your business needs.
Time Savings
Another invaluable asset you’ll save is time. Bookkeepers and their insights are critical for any business, as they enable smarter business decisions, but it’s an incredibly time-consuming process. By opting for outsourced bookkeeping, you can cut it from your workload and recover loads of time to focus on revenue-generating tasks.
What Services are Included in Outsourced Bookkeeping?
Most bookkeeping companies, including NorthStar, offer several bookkeeping services to help business owners maintain accurate records, streamline the reconciliation process, and glean insights from financial statements and reports:
General Bookkeeping Duties
Be it handling accounts payable and receivable, bank and credit card reconciliations, or fiscal year-end support, an outsourced bookkeeping service can sort out both your day-to-day and long-term needs. These back-office activities can seem mundane to most business owners, burning time that can be allocated to more pressing matters. At NorthStar, our outsourced bookkeeping services include:
- Reconciliations
- Payroll Processing
- Business Accounting
- Bookkeeping Clean-Up
- General Ledger Data Entry
- Accounts Payable & Receivable
- Month & Fiscal Year-End Support
Reporting & Insights
Business owners may not have the training to decipher actionable insights from financial numbers, which is where a bookkeeper comes into play. Based on precise financial reporting, bookkeepers can provide valuable insights for the future of your business and empower more informed decisions. The NorthStar team helps small business owners glean these insights in three ways:
- Financial Statements: Accurately documenting and reporting on your company’s financial health
- Customized Reports: Understanding what’s working, what’s not, and where hidden opportunities may exist
- Forecasting Data: Predicting cash flow, designing budgets, and planning for your business’s future
Advisory & Support Services
In tandem with general bookkeeping and the reporting that follows, outsourced bookkeeping services such as NorthStar can also help you determine which direction and actions to take based on those numbers. We do this in two ways:
- Financial Analysis: Custom reporting to review year-over-year trends, and uncover potential opportunities
- Risk Management: Providing detailed financial data and advising on major business purchases.
Seamless Outsourced Bookkeeping with NorthStar
Busy business owners don’t have the time or training to DIY their bookkeeping – and if you hire an in-house bookkeeper, you may find that you’re paying far more in employment expenses than you would if you outsourced those services.
Enter NorthStar: an outsourced bookkeeping service that has combined the power of technology with the personalized attention of a local partner for the past decade. We supply small business owners with comprehensive bookkeeping, reporting, and advisory services, arming them with the insights they need to make smarter business decisions while enabling significant time and cost savings.
Partner with NorthStar Bookkeeping for clarity and confidence in your financial records.