An Accountant’s Guide to Outsourcing Payroll in Post-COVID-19 World

 Those living on congested lands have been forced to enjoy free island living. Coronavirus pandemic has transformed the world into patches of habitable land with occasional free movement complying with strict SOPs. This restricted movement has forced many to change their business model and handling as far as payroll is concerned.

Handling payroll of a firm or company is a tedious job. It requires a lot of time, money, effort and human resources. But even having all these essential components things may not go as they were planned. The only solution is getting technical insight. Outsourcing accounting is a solution but requires extreme vigilance in opting right people for the job. 

Following are the things that should be kept in mind before cherry-picking a bookkeeping service provider:

➢ Right People for The Right Job

Before the payroll activities are outsourced to an accounting firm, their background in this domain must be thoroughly analyzed. It is completely possible that amateur and unprofessional people may offer services at clumsy prices. Particularly small business bookkeeping requires more in-depth knowledge as they are easily swayed away by cheaper rates. These bookkeeping services must be limited to experts. 

Payroll management is an intensive care work that should only be given to professional accountants and auditors.

➢ Robust Cybersecurity

By outsourcing accounting and payroll, you are indirectly presenting your financial records to the outsourced accountants. These records are a hot meal for hackers and scammers. The rise in online fraud and spy-ware attacks also points toward a robust cybersecurity plan. All the financial records of your company must be safe and secure from any kind of spyware attack. 

Both the hardware and software support of the external provider must be checked, and it must be ensured that all your money is safe from manipulation of any kind.

➢ Past and present reputation:

It is midsummer madness to pick a firm for bookkeeping service that has a bad reputation. Bad name or reputation arises due to torpidity in work, excessive complaints, compromised technology and general negligence. The constant delay in salaries can create general resentment among employees, decrease their working capacity, loss of valuable human resource and finally put your records vulnerable to theft due to an insecure network.

On the other hand, it can also place you against tax authorities. This can lead to long petitions in court that can shift focus from real business.

Only those providers must be selected, who have a record of improving productivity, efficiency and minimizing the loss.

 What Should You Outsource?

You must be absolutely clear about the extent of your accounting that you want to outsource. This is very important to some large companies that want to keep some of their records confidential or smaller businesses that can handle some work without multiplying cost. It is possible that you can either outsource all the payroll procedures or you can handle certain tasks. 

If you don’t have expertise in accountancy whatsoever it is better not to tangle. But if you have sufficiently invested in HR, hardware and software, then it is better not to give all the tasks to the bookkeeping service firm as it would only cause an increase in financial burden on your company. But if you can afford it, great, outsourcing bookkeeping and accounting is the best choice. 

Experts of Accounting and Law:

These external providers must have diverse panels and both legal and financial prudence. In the case of any discrepancy, they must be able to defend you in court or should at least save the reputation of the company. You must not waste any extra money of your company on more accountants or lawyers in the case of conflict.

Conclusion:

The above article points out some key areas that you might face in your voyage of outsourcing the entire payroll procedure. It is important that you select the best bookkeeping service providers for saving time and money.

You also need to keep them on a tight leash. Any negligence or mistake can cost you dearly. In any such scenario you will be the biggest losers. Your financial records must be transparent in case you have hired an external provider. So, you need to constantly oversee their work, should receive feedback from employees and take up matters with the service provider in case of any problem.

Covid has changed the entire spectrum of thinking. Outsourcing bookkeeping has emerged as the “new normal”. It has not only resolved the old problems of payroll handling but has produced a new market for the investors and innovators to tap.