Outsourcing Bookkeeping - An Effective Way to Increase Profitability    by Amitaabh Saboo

in Finance / Accounting    (submitted 2010-02-24)

Bookkeeping outsourcing for your business may at first seem awkward. Handing over your financial data to outside sources is quite uncomfortable knowing that this information is essential to your business. But looking at the brighter side, these service providers are actually helping out your business. How? Bookkeeping outsourcing trims down your real-time costs by almost 50% from the cost of employing an in-house bookkeeper.

Why Choose to Outsource Bookkeeping?
The reason you chose to have a business is definitely not to consume your time doing the bookkeeping functions. But without it, you are at a loss. You cannot run your business efficiently and effectively. By outsourcing bookkeeping, you free yourself from this task and you divert your attention to managing your business. You cut overhead costs by as much as 50%.
Bookkeeping outsourcing, likewise, ensures that financial reports are accurate so that top decision makers are not misled into making the wrong decisions and put your business at stake. Bookkeepers are highly trained and supervised and are backed with support systems and tools that make their work error-free.
How Is It Done?
There are two options available:
- Server Based Bookkeeping Outsourcing. You just send your financial source documents. You may either fax them or upload them to the server. The service provider then updates your book of accounts, you choose which software to use, whether it is QuickBooks, Quicken, Peachtree, Creative Solutions, or MyOB. You get the updated books which is stored in a 128-bit encrypted server which you may download.
- Remote Desktop Based Bookkeeping Outsourcing. This option follows similar steps. You first send through fax financial data or by uploading them to the outsourcing companies' server. Their bookkeeper would now connect to your computer through internet securely via a remote desktop access service such as Secure VPN or GoToMyPC.com and voila you have an updated book of accounts the next day.
How Secure Would My Data Be with Bookkeeping Outsourcing?
If security of data is a top concern for most businesses, financial data is protected. They are transferred through the internet with the use of 128-bit encryption of Secured Socket layer and is then stored in a secure server. It cannot easily be accessed by anyone except the authorized bookkeeper in the bookkeeping outsourcing service provider and with the use of biometric scanners. Significant data security is therefore attained and breach of private information is taken care of.
The real purpose of bookkeeping outsourcing is only achieved when all the services required by the client are provided by the service provider. Some would only provide you with the basic bookkeeping functions, while others extend a little bit further by providing you more accounting services to the extent of preparing financial reports for further decision-making. This allows you to control your business by being able to come up with a considerable decision. Bookkeeping outsourcing is definitely a good choice to make.