Looking to hire an accounting services provider who can free up your time and effort? As a business owner responsible for overseeing every aspect of your business—especially if you’re operating on a small-scale—can limit your attention toward financial management.

Which means it’s time to outsource.

Choose The Right Accounting Services Provider – A Simple Guide

However, not just any accounting service will do; you need to consider a few factors and look for a few characteristics that’ll help you determine whether your accountant is the best fit for your business.

1. Assess Location Convenience

Hybrid work culture, online meetings, cloud data services, and more—businesses operate in a very flexible way today, and so do outsourced services. That being said, you need to choose what method of working with an accounting service is best suited to your business.

Some small businesses prefer the traditional work culture and hire accountants from their area or region who primarily communicate face-to-face. Having a proper workspace does help with this.

On the other hand, other small businesses prefer leveraging online communication. Cloud accounting has benefits such as working with any accountant of your choice without location restrictions and receiving real-time data. Choose the right accounting service provider based on how they communicate.

2. Look For Relevant Experience

It’s best to work with accounting services for small businesses with considerable experience in the following:

• Employed by businesses in the same industry as yours. For instance, if you are a digital marketing business with clients present locally and abroad, you need an accounting service with experience in the digital marketing industry as well as with foreign currency earnings.
• Works with small businesses and helps them scale up. An accounting firm that has a history of working with startups and SMEs and the results to prove growth is the accounting firm for you if your business is still in the initial stages.
• Has an understanding of your revenue. For instance, accountants who excel in handling larger, more stable accounts may not specialize working in managing the revenue of a small business that is more likely to be affected by small changes. Your accountant should know how to save and manage your income and expenses.

3.     Check In-House Expertise

To choose the right accounting service provider, do check if any of the accounting services are further outsourced. It matters because:

• Further outsourced services may differ in quality,
• you will not be communicating with the accountant whom you already have a good working relationship with,
• and the costs for the said services may be higher.

For instance, if your chosen accounting service does have a bookkeeping services expert onboard and employs a CPA for you, it may be expensive as compared to their own services.

A full-service accounting firm is the way to go if you want to stick to one team and manage costs. As a small business, you need an accounting firm with in-house expertise in the basics, including bookkeeping, accounts reconciliation, payroll services, and tax preparation.

4. Compare Fees

When outsourcing accounting services as a small business, your first instinct may be to avail the lowest prices offered. While looking for affordable services is a considerate move, never compromise on quality and skill. You get what you pay for, which means skimping on a good accounting service may turn out to be expensive in the long run.

Make sure to get a clear picture of what accounting services you need as per your business goals. Also, check how much those services will cost you on an annual basis. Once you have agreed on a fee, make sure you get that agreement in writing, as you should for all kinds of services to avoid hidden costs.

5. Similar Technology

It helps to work with an accounting firm that has the same access and knowledge of technology as you do. If your firm is more tech-savvy, relying on digital data rather than physical one for every step of the financial transaction—then working with an accountant with an understanding of modern business technology helps.

Additionally, look out for matched software to choose the right accounting service provider. Working with an accounting firm using similar software as your business streamlines the data-sharing process and improves overall efficiency.

6. Align Your Goals

An accountant is more than just the expert who will manage your books and do your taxes. They also specialize in checking and predicting your cash flow and managing all financial transaction records for end-of-the-year review and tax season. They lend a helping hand when you’ve got audits to prep for and provide guidance during any fallbacks in business finances.

In short, work with an accountant who understands your goals and provides advice and services that align with these.

7. Availability & Connection

A great professional relationship relies on these two factors: steady availability and seamless connection.

Make sure that your accounting firm is available according to your expectations. Do you prefer contacting and working with your accountant at the end of the year only for an annual accounts assessment and taxation purposes? Or do you prefer working on an occasional basis, calling your accountant once or twice a month, or during an ongoing crisis?

Choose the right accounting service provider based on the method of availability. Find out if your accountant can be present shortly after you call them or if it takes a month-early scheduling to access their service.

As for connection, you need to be in sync with your accountant and vice versa. If you’re a small business, working with an outsourced service can be challenging. You need to feel comfortable with your accountant and communicate without hesitation to be able to work well together for your business’s success.

Full-Scale Small Business Accounting Services At KAM Consulting

We offer accounting services in Karachi to manage your company’s finances and help you grow. Call us and we’ll connect you to our expert accountant to create a personalized plan at affordable rates.

Reach out to KAM Consulting today.