As businesses scale up in size, the administration, accounting and financial requirements grow exponentially, and this may not be within the abilities or, more importantly, the interests of business management.
The common solution is to employ a bookkeeper, financial manager or CFO, possibly even a whole team of individuals performing various accounting and finance functions.
As a result, internal resources are allocated to interviewing and considering candidates, training and onboarding staff to integrate them into the business, ongoing performance management and reliance on continuity of employment – all of which create a drain on resources better spent elsewhere.
A more prudent solution is to outsource some or all your accounting and finance requirements to an external (i.e. Virtual) accounting team – such as Walker Wayland Advantage (WWA).
Walker Wayland Advantage has a wealth of experience managing various internal functions for clients – the advantages of engaging our Virtual CFO Services include:
- WWA provides access to an accounting team – depending on your requirements may include:
- CFO Advisory – performing an internal CFO role for your business to provide accounting and finance guidance
- Senior accountants – direct support for your internal accounting processes & team
- Bookkeeping services, as required
For the cost of employing a full-time individual, a business could enjoy a team supporting and advising management and staff.
- Generate tailored reporting to suit your needs, including but not limited to:
- Dashboard reporting – utilising live cloud accounting data to provide a real-time snapshot of the health of your business
- Cash-flow Forecasting
- Budget preparation & budget vs. actual results analysis
- Management reports – tailored to your needs & frequency required to manage your business effectively
- Divisional reporting
- Project reports
- Provision of ongoing training and support for the internal team, as required
- Scheduled meetings with experienced advisors to discuss ongoing performance and other business metrics
- Save your time and resources by removing the need to recruit, train and performance-manage
- External accounting fees do not attract employment on-costs such as Workcover, Superannuation, Payroll Tax, Leave accrual & pay-out
- Development of processes, including segregation of duties to mitigate ongoing fraud and other ‘scam’ activities
- There is an inherent benefit of having an external accounting team assisting with the business’s internal accounting function, including:
- Efficient preparation of year-end and ongoing tax and other compliance requirements, such as payroll tax, workcover, FBT, corporate compliance, GST and payroll reporting.
- Ongoing review of tax minimisation strategies
- Identification of business risks in real-time, allowing for timely and proactive advice
- WWA has access to an extensive network that includes internal colleagues, an Australia-wide Walker Wayland accounting network & worldwide BKR accounting network – all of which are continuously sharing resources and innovation
- Continuous review of cutting-edge accounting solutions, such as integration of your accounting systems with (for example) your front-of-house software and other non-financial data to better understand & report on the performance metrics that drive your business
At the core of our Internal Accounting & CFO offering is to provide businesses with the support and guidance they need, as and when required.
An example of this is a client who had an unexpected resignation of their Finance Manager, which put a huge strain on their remaining bookkeeper within the business.
WWA successfully provided an internal manager who had knowledge of the business function to perform reporting to the board, complete the monthly reconciliations & compliance reporting usually performed by outgoing finance managers and help on-board and train their replacement.
As a result of this project, WWA was also able to identify the opportunity to remove manual accounting functions within the business, which improved the timeliness of reporting and mitigated the risk of data-entry errors.
Consider whether an external accounting team may be the solution your business needs, and reach out to one of our advisors to discuss further.
Written By Matt Dawson
