10 Reasons to Outsource your Finance Function

From SMEs looking for support with payroll and VAT returns, through to US companies seeking to outsource entire UK subsidiary financial accounting functions, the demand to outsource finance functions is increasing and here are 10 reasons why it might be a good option for your business:

1. Continuity

Many businesses can become reliant on one key finance individual which means absence through sickness/holidays/leavers can cause significant continuity issues resulting in cover being required. The pandemic has also added to these problems, with home working highlighting IT issues and perhaps requiring significant investment. The flexibility of outsourcing means your business will always have the continuity it requires as you will have access to a team of mobile people that can work from home or the office so your financial needs will always be met.

2. Scalability

Outsourcing to Armstrong Watson can be like turning a tap on and off, if you have a period of growth we can put more resource into the assignment and withdraw it as you require rather than you having to employ an additional person who may well be underutilised until you scale up to fill their day.

3. Access to in-house experts

When using Armstrong Watson, you have access to our entire team of experts including Tax specialists that cover VAT, capital allowances, capital gains tax, research & development tax relief, patent box tax relief and many other areas. We also have specialists in finance raising, acquisition and disposals, restructuring and many others. This knowledge is available on a project by project basis so no need to recruit this in-house.

4. Reduce recruitment

Time spent recruiting along with cost saving from not having to pay recruitment firms (as much as 30% of salary) can be a big saving if you don’t have to continually recruit new staff to fill expanding roles or those that leave.

5. Reduce overheads

Outsourcing the finance function can reduce the office space required and therefore potentially avoid the need to rent additional space. Less IT equipment and software licences will need to be purchased and other associated costs of having employees.

6. Data Access

All businesses at some time or other will be challenged by HMRC and the costs of defending the challenge can be quite expensive, when outsourcing with Armstrong Watson we can provide for the cost of enquiries from HMRC over corporation tax, VAT and PAYE within the assignment costs.

7. Reduce employee costs

Employee costs can be quite high, when factoring in National insurance and pension costs, together with having to pay holiday entitlement and sick leave plus other statutory leaves such as maternity/paternity leave, outsourcing can eliminate these costs.

8. Reduce staff training costs

No need to pay for expensive training to keep your accounts team up to speed with all the technical updates they require.

9. Financial systems manual

When we take on an outsourcing assignment we prepare an accounting systems manual that documents every stage of the accounting system. Clients are able to use this if they ever decide to take the accounting function back in house and provide it to their new team.

10. Focus on the business

Most importantly leaves you to focus on the core business whilst we provide all the major financial KPI’s that will help you make the right decisions.

If you want to see how outsourcing your accounting needs to Armstrong Watson can help your business, please do get in touch.