To run a business successfully, it’s absolutely essential to have accurate AP (Accounts Payable) systems and processes in place. Of course, to facilitate this, organizations require access to qualified accounting professionals and business solutions.
However, managing an AP team in-house isn’t without its challenges, especially when it comes to budget. Thankfully, many organizations are finding significant advantages regarding affordability and scalability by outsourcing many of their accounting processes, including their AP responsibilities.
And some businesses are finding even more cost effective solutions like hiring Philippines based accountants who work directly for the business, instead of being outsourced.
We’ll walk through all the options below!
Benefits of Accounts Payable Outsourcing
There are a variety of benefits organizations can experience when outsourcing their accounts payable processes. Some of these include:
- Added Efficiency and Automation: Opening up your business to work with outsourced professionals often gives you access to more streamlined invoicing processes and payment reconciliation efforts. Most outsourced accounting professionals already utilize advanced accounting technologies, ensuring your business can minimize errors and accelerate timelines.
- Real-Time Insights and Improved Cash Flow: Outsourced accounting professionals can allow your business to dedicate specific resources to detailed reporting and analytics. This helps you to make smarter, data-driven decisions about cash flow management and capital optimization.
- Risk Mitigation and Compliance: Qualified outsourcing providers can help your business locate accounting professionals well-versed in the regulatory requirements of the industry you represent. This helps ensure all of your AP processes support best practices and will ensure you avoid costly non-compliance penalties.
- Cost Reduction and Scalability: Outsourcing part or all of your accounting department can lead to significant cost savings while allowing you to apply your savings to other critical elements of the business. Without the need to house in-house staff, you’ll be in a better position to scale your accounting needs as necessary while getting maximum value from your employee resourcing.
Cons of Accounts Payable Outsourcing
Although outsourcing AP processes comes with various advantages, there are particular challenges that businesses need to be aware of. These can be especially evident when deciding to work with an outsourcing partner that might not have the same resources or capabilities as other providers:
Loss of Control
When companies decide to outsource their workforce, they give up some control over certain AP processes. This is primarily due to a lack of visibility and direct oversight.
Flexibility
Not all outsourcing partners offer unlimited flexibility regarding the type of working format you can have with certain outsourced professionals. Businesses may find relationships like this more disruptive than helpful.
Dependency on Vendor
Working with an outsourcing partner means your business can start to become overly reliant on third-parties. This is why it’s critical to work with a partner you know you can trust.
A Better Alternative to Outsourcing
While many traditional outsourcing solutions have advantages and challenges for businesses, there is also a better alternative available.
Philippines Accountant offers a much different approach to outsourcing AP processes. Using a proprietary matchmaking service, we can access a highly skilled pool of accounting and tax professionals at a fraction of the cost of traditional hiring while connecting businesses with specialized individuals relevant to their industry and organizational needs.
This specialized service helps to create a much more accurate and efficient method for providing businesses with the accounting support they need, significantly improving the following activities:
- Invoice Receipt, Indexing, and Coding: Matching with qualified accountants helps businesses to more efficiently organize, index, and code their invoices and receipts. This helps to maximize the accuracy of AP processes throughout the year and makes it much easier to process transactions as they come through.
- Audits and Quality Assurance: When working with professional outsourced CPAs and CFOs, businesses are better prepared to handle internal and external audits while providing peace of mind that they’ll be able to meet all regulatory and tax compliance laws.
- Travel and Expense (T&E) Administration: Being able to rely on accountants to manage their T&E expenses is critical to ensure the business can maximize its deductions each year and lower its tax liabilities. By being matched with T&E experts, organizations can have a dependable system to review all expense reports while ensuring all departments follow company policies and address inconsistencies if and when they occur.
- Vendor Master Data Management: Ensuring timely and accurate payment processing is important to help the business maintain healthy relationships with providers while also helping to manage its finances. Accurately matched accounts can help your business stay on top of its financial commitments to avoiding costly late fees and penalties with partners.
- Exception Handling and Statement Reconciliation: Quickly identifying discrepancies in AP and reconciling vendor statements requires careful planning and organization. When you work with outsourced accounting professionals uniquely matched for your business, you can trust that you find discrepancies as soon as they happen, enabling the company to quickly address situations before they become significant issues.
Working with Philippines Accountant
At Philippines Accountant we approach outsourcing for businesses differently than other staffing firms. We take the time to make sure your business is matched with qualified professionals to help you achieve all of your accounting objectives.
Depending on your organization's needs, we’ll ensure that all of the staff you receive hold the certification of Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or equivalent credentials to ensure your AP processes are handled accurately and efficiently. All of this is done while costing your business nearly 70% less than hiring a dedicated in-house accounting team.
About Our Values
At Philippines Accountant, we keep our core values as a part of everything we do. This allows us to give our customers the very best outsourcing experience by prioritizing the following:
- Honesty: We are committed to delivering on all of our promises while ensuring our relationships are built on honesty and integrity.
- Social Responsibility: We believe in the power of community and support all of the individuals and organizations who contribute to our success.
- Professionalism: We work wholeheartedly as employing skilled professionals who want to excel in their roles while embodying our own core values.
- Credibility: We’re committed to becoming the most trusted platform for sourcing accounting professionals for businesses of sizes and industries.
If you’re ready to hire your own team of accounting professionals, contact us today for a free 15-minute consultation.