In many areas of business, sourcing is the means of choice and established. Which company still has its own cleaners or affords its own payroll accounting? In German accounting, in contrast to North America, business process outsourcing is still a niche topic.
According to surveys, there are three main reasons for the CFO to be critical of outsourcing accounting:
- Trust in the experience and competence of the provider in difficult and company-specific issues
- no longer have your “own” accounting team
- Engaging with “digital” processes with the outsourcer
These concerns are absolutely valid. BPO in accounting is a matter of trust. Nevertheless, the shortage of skilled workers and the variety and speed of change create a pressure to act. Let’s just think of the burden that the current VAT reduction will place on the merchants in the companies. The necessary focus on the important and correct tasks of the company requires timely solutions. Also in your company!
So what to do?
The answer is to start small and then expand in a planned way. What does that mean in concrete terms? One possibility is to start with the outsourcing of subtasks and processes; to start the so-called outtasking. Topics such as travel expenses, accounts payable or invoicing are suitable here.
Start a test drive into accounting outsourcing with Outtasking
When it comes to outtasking, companies hold the reins firmly in their hands. With this approach, decision-makers weigh up very granularly which functions should remain under in-house control and which should be outsourced to specialized BPO partners. This allows the internal accounting team to focus on its own main competencies. Tasks and projects can be realized without building up personnel resources. At the same time, there is a high degree of variability on the cost side. The company’s own performance is retained while at the same time having the opportunity to check the competence of the external service partner. Not only cost efficiency, but above all competence is the central success factor of this model.
Start with Accounting Outsourcing for Deferred Entities
The second way is to first test sourcing for subsidiaries or individual business areas.
In most cases, the switch to outsourcing brings a digitalization boost, as the service providers bring correspondingly optimized processes as part of the business model.
Both approaches offer the opportunity to start a longer collaboration.
Once the processes and interfaces with the BPO service provider have been established and hardened and trust has been established, it is possible to gradually switch completely to outsourcing. Further processes are gradually outsourced or other business units are transferred to the external provider for support.
Result
The trend towards BPO in accounting is unstoppable due to the external conditions in the German economy. The corporate function is critical and sourcing requires sustainable trust. The way to get there is through the release of sub-processes or functional areas.
What objections have you dealt with with regard to accounting outsourcing? Could outtasking be a way for you to approach BPO projects in accounting? We look forward to your comments.
Image Credit: unsplash, Photographer: Lindsay Henwood
Interesting topics:
Employee as a Cost Factor – Outsourcing as an Alternative to Internal Resource Development
Is RPA the new business process outsourcing?
Goodbye resource problem! – No more personnel bottlenecks in accounting
