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Service Spotlight: Outsourced Accounting

Accountfully Service Spotlight: Outsourced Accounting

You’ve met our people, our clients, and learned more about the teams that support our services, but how about the services, themselves?  Welcome to the Accountfully service spotlight series, where we share the details on each outsourced accounting service.  Find out what we offer, how it can help, and see if it is a good fit for your business.

Accountfully’s core service offering is outsourced accounting.  This service represents some of the most important aspects of business management and can heavily influence the outcome of a company in a positive way. 

When a client engages our outsourced accounting services, they get a dedicated accounting team designed to become a seamless part of the company.  Acting as their full service accounting department, they provide the timely insight required to make big forward-moving business decisions with confidence.  With a team dedicated to the ins and outs of accounting, that business owner is now free to focus on the parts they love and excel in.  The end result? More time spent growing the business.  All of this is accomplished with an accounting team whose services and pricing levels are designed to scale alongside the company as its needs evolve.  Win Win.

For those in need of a scaled-back option, our Intro Outsourced Accounting may be a better fit.

Why Outsourced Accounting Beats Out the More “Classic” Solutions:

The trap we see many business owners fall into is taking on an important aspect of their business with zero passion or skill.  They think that they can “DIY it until they make it”.  This robs them of the time they need to focus on the core parts of their business, and typically results in delayed and shoddy results.  On the other hand, many small businesses opt for a part time bookkeeper who may be affordable, but is likely not providing timely data.  All of the bookkeeping is done after the fact, and not providing a current look into the financial health of the business.  

Failing that, some more ambitious business owners will attempt to hire an in-house accountant or CFO.  Typically, they can’t truly afford one, and they don’t have the amount of work to keep said hire busy or motivated.  These common scenarios are why a small business needs an outsourced solution that can provide what they truly need to scale their business:  timely financial data that allows those big decisions to be made to grow, not just survive.

Once this baseline of consistent, accurate accounting is established, it allows a business to seamlessly engage additional Accountfully services like finance and advisory, income tax prep and planning, and any other tax compliance needs–1099s, for example.  We already have all of the information at hand, and can easily get any additional, critical accounting support up and running quickly.

What Is It?

We manage your books, reconcile banking and credit card statements, post information to your accounting system, invoice clients, assist with collections, and pay your vendors. We also run payroll, and process payroll taxes so you can rest easy knowing that your employees are taken care of, and there are no surprises at tax time. If you have sales tax for your business, we also can file that for you. Month end financial statements such as profit and loss and balance sheet preparation are also a part of our ongoing work with our clients.

When Do I Need It?

Any business who needs regular accounting support and insight into their business finances will benefit from outsourced accounting.  Typical benchmarks that point toward the need for outsourcing your accounting are:

  • you need more visibility to short term cash and the upcoming outflows and inflows
  • you have employees on payroll
  • you are failing to keep up on basics, like invoicing clients, paying bills, applying payments, or following up on late payments

On the more complex side, are things inventory based businesses will experience.  Buying, managing, and selling inventory, selling and holding inventory in multiple locations, and more.  

How Much Does It Cost?

Keep in mind, the most accurate pricing depends on your specific situation and/or current service level with Accountfully. Here is a general overview of what to expect: 

MONTHLY RETAINER

Generally speaking, clients can expect a monthly retainer ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 per month based on the complexity of their needs.  Pricing can vary depending on the complexity of your business model, service level requested, volume of transactions and accounts, level of segmentation in reporting (P&L by customer, class, etc.).

MONTHLY SYSTEMS FEE

You will have a monthly systems fee that includes essential subscriptions to tools like Quickbooks Online, Bill, and Fathom.

ONBOARDING

Onboarding a new client typically takes 20-60 hours, depending on the scope of work to be completed. We will bill an initial deposit for the first 15 hours of work at $2,250. Services beyond the first 15 hours are billed at $150 per hour. 

Set up includes the time it takes to handle the following tasks:
  • Meetings with clients, including kickoff call, process discussions, etc.
  • Project management time executed by Accountfully team members
  • Internal Accountfully team meetings to discuss onboarding related items
  • Set up and implementation of systems to be used on your account
  • Time spent obtaining request list items
  • Clean up of financial records to date, including reconciliations of all balance sheet accounts, and review of the profit and loss statement
  • Time spent on implementing and performing the month-end close process
For those seeking a more ad-hoc, or hourly/project-based option, we can provide you with custom service levels.  Tell us about your needs and we will chat through a solution.  

What Do I Get?

  • A dedicated accounting team
  • Access to real-time financial data
  • Customizable service levels
  • Monthly fixed retainer fees
  • Scalable support that grows with your business
  • Weekly bookkeeping support
  • Monthly financial reports

Each new client will start with a thorough onboarding process, where our Client Onboarding Team will establish the foundation from which to make informed decisions and scale your business.

ONBOARDING PHASE

Our Client Onboarding Team is a dedicated resource that works with each new client to get their books up to date and systems in sync.  During the Onboarding Phase, the team establishes a communication protocol, learns the ins and outs of the business, and begins taking over the execution of your bookkeeping and accounting tasks.

This typically takes about eight weeks and is organized into four phases:
PHASE ONE:
  • Kickoff call and request items
  • Systems setup and configuration
  • Process discussions with client
  • Chart of Accounts review and update
  • Begin in-scope bookkeeping tasks (per SLA)
PHASE TWO:
  • Financial and accounting record clean up begins
  • Inventory and Supply Chain discovery (if applicable)
  • Transfer bookkeeping work to account team
PHASE THREE:
  • Wrap up Financial and Accounting record clean up
  • Month End Close process preparation
PHASE FOUR:
  • Month End Financial close completion
  • Submission of reporting package to the client
  • Financial review meeting with client
  • Close the onboarding process
THE RECURRING TEAM

Once the Onboarding phase has finished, you will be transferred over to your regular, recurring account team.  These are your go-to pros, keeping the accounting side of your business working inline with your business goals.  

They include:

An Accounting Manager

Your CFO leads your financial review meetings, and is the final layer of quality control over all deliverables submitted to clients.

A Senior Accountant

Your Controller who supports the staff accountant, ensures your work is getting done accurately and on-time, and the point person to close the books each month.

A Staff Accountant

Your Bookkeeper who handles the weekly execution related tasks, including managing the accounting email inbox.

What Do Your Clients Think?

After over a decade of business, Accountfully clients have a lot to say about the classic offering we provide.  

Here are a few testimonials:

"What I appreciate most about Accountfully is their consistency. They have all the accounting expertise we could ask for and routinely see and solve complexities before they get to us. But the big win is their reliability with timeliness of monthly processes and the financial accuracy that all businesses need.  Our partnership with the Accountfully team is a great strength in the challenging startup world."
Chris Crowe, CFO of Recess
"Accounting is a component of your business that needs to be accurate and thorough from day one. Accountfully brings a team approach and a team's worth of experience to your organization. Brad and co bring a lot to the table at a very reasonable price."
David Crooch, CEO of Ritual Beverage Company

How Do I Get Started?

For new clients, we will start by learning about your business and addressing the service level that meets your needs.  You can start by sharing the basic details of your business and scheduling a call on our contact page.

Once you are ready to move forward, you can prepare for the following:

  • Initial phone call to assess your unique business needs
  • You will share any documentation or details of the business with us
  • We send a customized proposal including timing and pricing details
  • Once you have signed your engagement letter and custom Service Level Agreement (SLA), we will begin the onboarding phase
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