Whether you’re new to business or have run one for years, accounting can be stressful. Many owners worry about handing their financial data to an outside firm. But once you find the right provider, outsourcing quickly pays for itself in time saved and mistakes avoided.
This guide explains when to outsource your accounting and bookkeeping, and the main benefits for a small business.
Key takeaways
- Outsourcing saves time. You stop doing bookkeeping after hours and focus on growing the business.
- It reduces errors and fraud risk. Experienced accountants and internal controls catch mistakes early.
- You get a team, not one person. Specialists help you lower your tax bill and claim every deduction.
- You pay only for what you use. There is no salary, benefits, equipment, or training to cover.
- The support grows with you. An outsourced firm adds capacity as your business expands.
Who is this guide for?
This guide is for US small business owners, startup founders, and freelancers who currently do their own books or rely on one in-house bookkeeper.
Use it when you:
- Are deciding whether to hire an in-house bookkeeper or outsource
- Are spending evenings or weekends on bookkeeping
- Have books that are months behind
- Are starting a business, raising funds, or preparing for an audit
- Are growing faster than your current bookkeeping can keep up with
What do we see when small businesses switch to outsourced bookkeeping?
Every business that moves its books to ProfitsView starts with a review of its last 12 months of records. We run the same checks each time, so we can see what changes before and after the switch. In our experience, the pattern is consistent:
- Most businesses come to us behind. The most common starting point is several months of unreconciled bank and card accounts.
- Owners are doing the books after hours. Bookkeeping is usually squeezed into evenings and weekends, which is when errors creep in.
- Reports arrive late, or not at all. Many owners have no monthly profit and loss statement before they switch.
- After the switch, the rhythm changes. Once a monthly close is in place, owners receive their reports on a fixed schedule and stop doing reconciliations themselves.
What we’ve learned is that the biggest benefit is rarely the bookkeeping itself. It’s that owners finally get reliable numbers every month, without giving up their evenings.
When should you outsource accounting?
Outsourcing helps at any stage, but it’s especially useful in these four situations:
Are you writing a business plan?
An accountant can build realistic financial projections. They can also help you find the right financing or funding sources.
Are you setting up your company?
An accountant can help you choose the right legal structure, such as an LLC or S-Corp, and get the licenses and registrations you need.
Do you need help with taxes and compliance?
An outsourced team can run payroll, collect and file sales tax, and prepare 1099 forms for your contractors.
Are you preparing for an audit?
Clean, organized books make an audit faster and less stressful. An outsourced team keeps your records in order all year, so you’re always ready.
The ProfitsView team handles all of these, so you can focus on running your business.
What are the benefits of outsourcing accounting and bookkeeping?
How does outsourcing save you time?
Bookkeeping and compliance take hours every month. Outsourcing gives that time back, so you can focus on growth.
Juggling bookkeeping alongside everything else also costs more than it seems. Research summarized by the American Psychological Association found that switching between tasks can cost up to 40% of a person’s productive time (APA: Multitasking – switching costs).
How does outsourcing reduce fraud and errors?
When someone without accounting training handles taxes and financial statements, mistakes are more likely. Experienced accountants keep up with changing tax rules, so less gets missed.
An outside team also adds internal controls. A second set of eyes on every transaction makes errors and fraud easier to catch, and keeps your financial information accurate and on time.
Why is a professional team better than one person?
Instead of adding work to your current staff, you get a team of specialists. They look for ways to lower the tax you owe and claim every deduction you qualify for.
Many accountants also specialize by industry. A construction business, for example, benefits from someone who already understands job costing and work-in-progress accounting.
Is outsourcing cheaper than hiring in-house?
For most small businesses, yes. An in-house hire comes with five types of cost:
- Salary
- Benefits
- Equipment and software
- Training
- Management time
When you outsource, you pay only for the services you use. There’s no salary, benefits package, or training to cover.
How does outsourcing help your business grow?
Accurate numbers make growth planning possible. Instead of planning month to month, you can plan a full year ahead.
Regular reviews from your accountant show where to correct course. Clear numbers help you decide on pricing, control costs, and improve cash flow. They show where to cut back and where to invest more.
Can an outsourced accountant grow with your business?
Yes. One in-house accountant can become stretched as you grow. An outsourced firm can add capacity as your needs change.
Many businesses outsource at exactly this point, when managing finances internally becomes overwhelming and errors start to rise. Costs stay manageable, and money that would go to another salary can go back into the business.
What tools do you get access to?
Good accounting software can be expensive for a small business. Outsourced firms already invest in it, so you benefit without buying it yourself. These tools include:
- Cloud accounting applications
- Web-based business intelligence systems
- Real-time financial reporting
With these, you can check performance daily, receive regular financial reports, and access your records from any device. You also deal with far less paperwork.
How did outsourcing change things for a growing services firm? (Example from our work)
This is a representative scenario based on the bookkeeping clients we support. Details are generalized to protect client confidentiality.
Situation: A small marketing agency with about 10 employees had grown quickly. The owner was doing the books on weekends. Bank accounts were about 4 months behind, contractor payments weren’t tracked for 1099s, and the owner had no monthly profit report.
What we did:
- Reconciled the 4 months of backlog, one month at a time.
- Set up contractor tracking so 1099s are ready at year-end.
- Moved the agency to cloud accounting with receipt capture.
- Started a monthly close with a profit and loss report for the owner.
What changed: The owner stopped doing bookkeeping on weekends. Monthly reports now arrive on a fixed schedule. With clear numbers, the owner could see which clients were most profitable and price new projects with confidence. Year-end 1099s were ready on time.
In our experience, this is the most common outcome. Owners stop working on their books and start working with their numbers.
Should your small business outsource accounting?
For most small businesses, outsourcing accounting and bookkeeping is the most efficient way to keep accurate books. You save time, reduce errors, get a team of specialists, and pay only for what you use. As you grow, the support grows with you.
To see how outsourced bookkeeping could work for your business, contact the ProfitsView team.
