Accounting outsourcing is ... Features, types, advantages and prices

It just so happened in this world that it is not the strongest, smartest, largest, but the fittest that survives. This biological pattern fully applies to the field of entrepreneurship. To gain a foothold in the market, it is necessary that the revenues received by the company exceed expenses. And in this matter, every moment and nuance is important. So what is accounting outsourcing? How does this affect the company?

Introductory information

Start here with the definition. Accounting outsourcing is a form of cooperation in which an individual specialist or an entire company assumes the functions of accounting, document management, and delivery of the required information to regulatory authorities. It is considered as a measure of administrative unloading of a company. With its help, you can quickly ensure the functioning of the accounting system. In addition, the cost of maintaining records is reduced, and proper support is provided for the entire process. At the same time, these types of services are distinguished:

1. Preparation and preparation of tax and / or financial statements.
2. Documentation processing.
3. Monitoring the implementation of existing legal norms.
4. Timely submission of the required information to the disposal of regulatory authorities.

There is an opinion that the use of third-party accounting services in the economic sense is beneficial only to small businesses. But with the competent organization of relationships, medium business can use it. Large enterprises prefer to do it on their own. Although there are some among them that use the services of transferring accounting functions to external partners.

What are the benefits of accounting outsourcing to companies that have taken this opportunity?

In general terms, these are:

1. Reducing the costs of maintaining a specialist. Using company services is much cheaper than hiring a qualified employee. After all, you do not need to pay a monthly wage, vacation pay, provide a social package. There is also no need to purchase accounting journals, install and maintain specialized reference and legal systems, organize a workplace and much more.
2. No problem finding a qualified employee. Experienced accountants are expensive, not every company can afford them. Whereas beginning specialists, due to lack or insignificant experience, are guided by the method of errors and trials, which sometimes costs even more than attracting a qualified employee.
3. Consistency of service. A full-time accountant can go on vacation or on sick leave. As a rule, the remote specialist is not the only one working, and he will always find a replacement that can continue to work.
4. Competence of service. Since the work is usually carried out in a group, it is possible to solve even the most complex and unusual situations.
5. The opportunity to get advice from a qualified specialist, which allows you to concentrate on solving specialized tasks.

As a rule, high quality and strict confidentiality are ensured, as well as the services provided are insured.

Now consider this in detail

What is accounting outsourcing? This is a more complex question than it might seem at first glance. It can provide a complete process transfer or selective. The latter means that only certain accounting functions are sent for outsourcing: the preparation of statistical reporting, payroll, and the like. And here we come to what prices are made of.

Outsourcing of accounting services is not provided at a fixed rate. The cost is influenced by the tax system, the number of operations, the company's turnover. It should be borne in mind that if an error occurs, loss of documents, causing harm, then the responsibility is usually the service company that took the accounting outsourcing. But sometimes this does not make it easier. When choosing an organization, you should pay attention to work experience, earned reputation, availability of certificates and diplomas, as well as to the range of services provided. The transfer of part or even all accounting functions is a difficult step for any company. And before you decide on it, you need to deal with all the details. To better understand what accounting outsourcing is, keeping records at a distance, you can familiarize yourself with law No. 402-FZ. It was adopted about ten years after the appearance of the market in Russia, so that it was able to incorporate the experience of already quite active activities.

Small digression

Accounting outsourcing is an approach to optimizing business processes. It allows you to concentrate on your core business, lowering financial risks and costs. The first companies providing these services appeared in the Russian Federation at the beginning of the 2000s. Although in some other countries, the tradition of using such solutions is much more common. So, in Western Europe, 86 percent of small and medium-sized businesses use such services. And in the USA this indicator is generally equal to 92%. In the Russian Federation itself, the appearance and rapid development of this market is caused by the need for companies with foreign capital to keep accounts in accordance with international standards.

To date, accounting support (outsourcing) has gained wide popularity among various organizations of different ownership forms. So, in the year of adoption of the regulatory law, 44% of all cases of transfer of functions accounted for precisely this area. In financial terms, this indicator was estimated at between five and ten million dollars. Now this market is growing at 6-8% per year, and its volume is estimated in billions of rubles. And this is not surprising, because in a crisis many companies want to reduce financial costs and get high-quality accounting. Therefore, they switch to external service. Another significant factor that affects the popularity of services in the Russian Federation is the constant strengthening of state administration in the field of taxes. Regularly one can observe a complication of reporting and accounting, an increase in fines, even for minor errors.

What else is there in the Russian Federation?

Since the topic of the Russian Federation was touched upon, let's bring it to the end and fully consider what accounting support is. Outsourcing allows companies and individual entrepreneurs to lower risks and get reliable service providers. If we talk about the sectoral structure, then most of all it uses the sphere of trade. A quarter of the income of outsourcing companies falls on it. In second place is the oil and gas industry. The financial sector closes the trinity.

In addition, accounting advice should be noted . Even if there are no problems taking into account, it is useful to periodically communicate with experienced specialists in order to know the nuances of the constantly changing tax legislation. After all, perhaps a certain benefit was introduced. Accounting outsourcing of entrepreneurs and small enterprises is especially needed when the content of an additional specialist does not make sense due to a small turnover or low workload. The same can be said about companies that want to free their employees from routine work in the presence of a large number of operations of the same type. In addition, outsourcing expenses can be attributed to expenses. In this case, VAT will be deductible. On average, the use of outsourcing can reduce costs by 25-30 percent!

How to know that everything will be done efficiently?

Lack of good execution is the scourge of modern entrepreneurship. How to know that the work will be done efficiently? As the market operates here, the companies themselves are interested in ensuring compliance with high standards. And since all ongoing business processes, as a rule, have already been worked out for a long time, the solution of both complex and simple routine issues is carried out very quickly. Moreover, very often the client is additionally offered the support of several specialists at the same time: lawyers, experts in labor and tax legislation. In addition, they themselves are interested in promptly responding to changes in the regulatory framework and adjusting to changing conditions to maintain their own market share and increase it.

Responsibility Responsibility

When an accounting outsourcing agreement is concluded, a sample of which can usually be found on the company's website, each party has certain obligations. For enterprises using external services, the responsibility for the result is of greatest interest here. According to the current legislation, it is the service company that is responsible for causing harm during the provision of accounting support as a result of errors, omissions, loss and damage to documents, unintentional violation of applicable law. You should study this point in more detail, but usually the outsourcer takes all the risks and compensates for the fines and penalties that the tax inspectorate imposes. Thanks to this, a situation is achieved when he is extremely interested in eliminating any possibility of their occurrence. Whereas, if a staff accountant makes a mistake, then the company itself has to pay fines and sanctions.

About privacy

The outsourcer and his client are full-fledged business partners. Their interests coincide. Therefore, an agreement must be concluded between them to keep secret any information that will be obtained through the execution of an outsourcing contract for accounting services. This is done in order to avoid possible losses and damage to the interests of the served customer. The example of reliability in this case is a large and well-known British Petroleum company. She entered into a service agreement back in 2002. And no losses in this regard have been received to this day. To ensure confidentiality, various options are used to minimize possible data leakage.

About the risks

Mostly the conversation was about the benefits. But there are not only them. As with any activity, there are certain risks that can affect the ongoing processes. And you need to know about them and always keep in mind, and not blindly extol accounting outsourcing. The escort agreement must take them into account so that later there are no disappointments. So, a short list:

1. Risk of loss of reputation. It is usually associated with the unsatisfactory provision of services by an outsourcer. For example, the loss of a good reputation with the tax service.
2. Information leakage risk. When accounting functions are transferred to a third-party organization, there is always a security problem. It is especially relevant in terms of loss of confidentiality.
3. Operational risk. It arises from the use of imperfect technologies or through incompetence.
4. Risk of decreased responsiveness. He expressed himself in a somewhat belated response to the occurrence of certain problems.
5. HR risk. It is legitimate now to use exclusively classical accounting outsourcing. Borrowed labor is prohibited, and outstaffing is substantially limited. Since such a restriction was introduced relatively recently (in 2016), there is, albeit a small, but a chance to meet with a company whose activities in the field of accounting are not licensed.

How much does it cost?

Now let's look at the price issue. Outsourcing of accounting services is evaluated depending on many different parameters. The most important and common are the tax system, the number of personnel, as well as completed business operations in the period. It is difficult to say exactly how much accounting services outsourcing costs in Moscow. Prices in the approximate range look something like this:

Although this is not the whole cost at which accounting outsourcing is offered. Prices in Moscow can vary in a significant range. Let's look at another system. Only at its core will the company’s turnover be already. The approximate cost in this case is:

Moreover, when the price is negotiated, it is necessary to clarify what is included in the basic package. The most common and requested points should include 1C support, current accounting in accordance with all registers, preparation of advance reports, generation of books of purchases, sales and cash, HR management, payroll, other remuneration, protection of the interests of the partner in the tax office, payment orders and surrender to supervisory services.

Conclusion

As you can see, outsourcing of accounting services is a profitable business. The contract allows you to display all the risks and consolidate the relationship in the legal plane. This approach can significantly reduce costs (which is extremely beneficial for small companies), provides timely submission of all information and avoids fines and other sanctions that may be imposed by tax authorities. But one should not forget about attention and caution when choosing a company. Indeed, a lot depends on this. If you approach this business through the sleeves, then you can get a lot of problems. Moreover, violation of confidentiality and providing data to competitors is not the worst problem. Indeed, for accounting outsourcing you do not need to get a special license. And no one can give a guarantee of the quality of services, as well as work.

You can focus only on the experience of the commercial structure, its existing reputation, diplomas and certificates, as well as on the range of services provided. Fortunately, in the age of the Internet to learn all this is not difficult. You can visit the sites of outsourcers or even special organizations that monitor their activities. In this case, you should pay attention to how many companies are in their charge, because too many of them negatively affect the quality of services. It is advisable to study the contract for outsourcing of accounting services long before signing, a sample of which should be on the website of the company or specialist that has attracted you.