5 Effective Ways to Save On Bookkeeping Without Losing Quality
The crisis is forcing business owners to look for ways to optimize costs and survive in new conditions. Everyone understands that the consequences of the pandemic and the new possible restrictions that they scare us with will affect the economy for a long time to come.
Today we want to talk about how to optimize the work of accounting in such a way as not to lose the quality of service, but at the same time save the company's money. Here is a list of five effective ways to save on bookkeeping without losing quality
1. Control of employees and certification
This is not the most pleasant way from a psychological point of view, but the most effective for closing such expense items as “lost profits” and “fines and penalties”. Unfortunately, the lack of qualifications of employees or indulgences on the part of management cost the company too much: fines and late payments are half the trouble.
They are at least visible, but the lost profit often passes by the owner of the company, they simply do not know that their accounting departments do not use legislative opportunities to reduce taxes or apply an unfavorable taxation scheme. Therefore, establishing a schedule for the appraisal of employees and clearly fixing the responsibility of accountants in the contract can be beneficial. You can also resort to the auditor's consultation once a year or quarter to control the correctness of accounting.
2. Savings on additional software and subscriptions
The first task of an accountant is to keep track of up-to-date information, every change in legislation, and every new opportunity to simplify accounting. This information, alas, is not loaded to the heads of accountants automatically, so they subscribe to professional magazines and reference books, use professional software, and other expensive ways to keep their fingers on the pulse. The trick is that all this can be done for free.
We live in the 21st century and all departments have websites and their own press services, whose job is to promptly convey information to the population. Indeed, this approach will take time for a one-time “setup”: find all the sources and subscribe to them in the browser or on social networks, but later it will pay off more than once.
3. Complete transition to electronic document management
If you have already seen in the list of expenses the amount for stationery and printing, then you probably have time to think about electronic document management. The capabilities services also allow you to complete this task: you can exchange documents with a counterparty and banks, submit reports, generate price lists, and conduct a bunch of paperwork straight from the program.
4. Savings on taxes and contributions
As mentioned above, accountants often don’t have enough knowledge or time to study all the legal possibilities to reduce the cost of taxes and benefits. You can solve the problem this way:
- Set a task for the accountant. Let them double-check whether new savings opportunities have appeared and whether old ones have been missed
- Take your time and also delve into the topic. No one is as interested in minimizing taxes as you are. There is a lot of information in the public domain
- If you still have no time, then contact an external specialist. This could be an auditor, a high-class accountant in private practice, or an outsourcing agency. In any case, one paid analysis can help you save hundreds of thousands of dollars
5. Give part of work to outsourcing
If you have the lion's share of the company's expenses is the cost of employees, then you will have to think about how to reduce their number. In this case, a good solution would be to outsource some of the accounting to an outsourcing accounting firm.
On the one hand, you reduce the number of jobs and transfer the turnover/routine to external specialists. On the other hand, you still have your own accountant (or several) in the company, who is deeply in the subject and continues to be responsible for his work.
