For any business, big or small, trust is always important, especially when it comes to finances.
Most businesses seek some kind of professional help with their accounting and bookkeeping tasks, and outsourcing is still a popular choice. But, as beneficial as this usually is, it’s still important to keep your own eyes on your own books. Even if you have every confidence in your accounting firm in Fort Lauderdale, making the time for regular reviews, putting protocols in place for safe access, and building checks and balances into your schedule, is a sensible idea if you want to truly safeguard your finances.
Here are a few basic financial safeguarding tips for your small business when outsourcing:
· Set up check-ins on a regular basis
It can be incredibly beneficial to businesses of all shapes and sizes to work with an accounting firm, but it still pays to make yourself a small part of the proceedings. Setting up a monthly review of your finances with your accountant or bookkeeper, can help identify any issues that might be building up and stop them in time, as well as keep you in the loop when it comes to important things like invoicing, spending and trends in revenue.
To be honest, a good accounting firm, even one who doesn’t operate in your area or even your country, will request monthly (or in some cases, weekly) meetings with their clients anyway, but if they don’t, it’s definitely something you should set up yourself. They don’t have to be lengthy, but they must happen consistently.
· Create checks and balances that are clear
It’s not usually a good idea for one person alone to have total control over your businesses finances, even if they are a professional like an accountant. As such, try to divide the responsibilities so that duties such as reconciling bank accounts and handling payments, are kept separate.
· Keep shared access of essential accounts
No business should ever allow one person alone to access such things as your payroll system, accounting software, or dashboards for bank accounts. When outsourcing, ensure that shared credentials are securely stored in a password manager, and that if you use two-factor authentication, it isn’t tied to someone’s personal email or phone number; it must be tied directly to the business.
· Review access
Whether an employee has left but still has access to business logins, or if your existing team are using their personal emails to manage logins, instigating a clean-up at this juncture, is a sensible idea. Access should be restricted to only those who really need it, and when staffing changes, a review of permissions should be promptly carried out.
Connected to this point, is the matter of passwords. As the owner of the business, you should always be able to access your own systems, even if you don’t necessarily need to login on a regular basis. You may of course give passwords to your chosen tax preparation service in Miami, but make sure they aren’t the only ones with access.
Use password managers to organize credentials, make sure that when access is shared, it’s done so securely, and make it easy when needed, to update passwords.
There’s usually nothing risky when outsourcing your accounting, bookkeeping and tax prep requirements (provided you carry out due diligence when hiring), but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t remain vigilant, and that you should hand over the reins to one person or one company, alone. Safeguarding your financial information should always be a priority, and thankfully, there are plenty of easy ways to do exactly that.