As a business owner, when was the last time you reviewed the structure of your accounting and finance staff to evaluate if it makes financial sense?
For most businesses, having a controller and/or a chief financial officer on your payroll as a full-time employee may not be the best financial decision for your business.
Evaluating the cost/benefit of a full-time employee in a senior accounting or finance role is a case-by-case analysis. As you review your team, identify the costs of the senior leaders in accounting and finance, including salary, benefits, and associated overhead costs.
Next, consider the business need you have for this level of expertise. Does the need warrant having a full-time employee? Are you overpaying to have this expertise readily accessible even though the need is periodic?
A Smart Alternative – Managed Accounting Services
Managed accounting services is an alternative means to secure the accounting and finance expertise you and your business need, at a fraction of the cost of hiring. Specifically, having a fractional Chief Financial Officer (CFO) may make more financial sense for your business so you have the benefit of a senior-level experienced financial professional as needed without the salary, benefits, and overhead of having that individual on your payroll.
A fractional CFO or an Outsourced CFO, provides you as the business owner with a proven senior financial leader to work with you and your team for strategic and financial planning and with any additional specific needs your business may have.
With inflation up, you may have the opportunity to significantly reduce business expenses and overhead while still having the senior accounting and financial knowledge your business needs but does not need full-time. Our experience has been that for most of our business clients, having a full-time controller or CFO does not make sense. There are not sufficient day-to-day responsibilities for this level of experience and expertise and at the end of the day, you are overpaying.
Recently, a client’s controller retired. Since we are their accountants, we cannot also provide outsourced services due to the conflict of interest, so we referred them to outsource their need to another accounting firm, reducing their expenses while not compromising the needs of the business.
Learn more about Managed Accounting Services and our Outsourced CFO services here.
Are you hiring?
If you are trying to hire to fill a void or expand your accounting and finance team, you have experienced how challenging attracting talent is in today’s labor market. Additionally, hiring is time consuming and for most, a frustrating process when candidates do not show up for interviews or commit and then opt out at the last minute. Managed accounting services including Outsourced CFO services may be the answer to avoid hiring and adding expenses.
We encourage you to review your accounting and finance team structure to assess if it makes financial sense. Renting or outsourcing responsibilities that you do not need full-time is a smart way to reduce expenses, secure the expertise needed and pay only for the services you need.
At LCW CPAs, we are committed to helping you protect your hard-earned money and to assist you in making sound financial decisions for your business.