SMSF accounts continue to gain steam as a way for Australians to manage their own retirement-oriented funds. The Australian Tax Office’s year-end stats show that the Funds are also pushing age boundaries, appealing more and more to the younger set in their mid-30s. That means there is a lot of work to be picked up by your firm – but can you handle the sudden growth? If you’re not sure take a look at SMSF outsource solutions to see how they can work for you.

Selling SMSF to Your Client Base

First things first. How do you get your clients (and potential future clients) interested in SMSF accounts?

SMSFs give investors an amazing amount of control over how their retirement funds get invested. This means they are at the controls in the investments both from a purely financial perspective, and also in an ethical sense. If your clients don’t want their money going to companies whose practices they object to it’s as simple as saying “no.”

But now this is where your firm (and SMSF outsource solutions) comes in. First of all, any financial investment endeavour always benefits from some expert advice.

Second, there is tax work involved with SMSFs, just as there is with any other source of income. Your clients have you handle their tax-related affairs for all other sources of income, so this is just one more task to add to the list. You’re the firm that’s going to keep helping them get the most bang out of their bucks come tax season.

Third, SMSF taxation requirements are complicated. So your clients are going to need an expert to keep up with the ever-changing regulations. And so will you. SMSF outsource solutions helps you keep pace.

SMSF Outsource Benefits

SMSFs are still in their infancy. That’s reflected by the constant shifts in regulations as the government figures out how to shape the funds to everyone’s benefit.

It’s a lot to keep up with. Especially if your firm is A. handling a lot of other compliance work and B. putting time and effort into getting the word out that you’re ready to handle SMSFs.

But you’re in luck – your outsourced accountants are already up to speed and constantly updating their procedures to reflect real-time changes in SMSF rules. That means you don’t have to cram studying the regulations into your already busy schedule – your virtual team only requires you to collect the necessary data to get things started.

Once you’ve collected the data for your SMSF outsource solutions workers they will:

• Keep client records up-to-date and immediately accessible to you via cloud computing and SMSF software.
• Help you and your client optimise their tax configuration.
• Submit financial and member contribution statements and prepare the tax returns.
• Prepare all the forms necessary for an independent audit (as required by law).
• Keep you and you client up to speed on any changes in regulations.

That’s a lot of work and knowledge you don’t have to take a crash course in. SMSF outsource solutions allows you to spend more time with your clients (and potential clients), leaving you to get caught up on SMSF guidelines at your own speed.

The race is on. SMSF offerings are getting jumped on by Australians, meaning there’s an exploding market of SMSF compliance work for you to grab hold of. It’s a golden opportunity for you to expand an accounting of financial planning firm’s menu of services. But if money is tight it might seem like the price of expansion at this time is just too dear. Happily SMSF outsource solutions can take a lot of the sting out of helping your firm grow.

SMSF Outsource Set-up

BOSS’s overseas workers can help you right from set-up through to audits. Unlike SMSF specialty houses the virtual workers are in essence your employees meaning you’re never at risk of having your SMSF clients poached, cutting you out of the exchange.

Starting from the top, SMSF outsource solutions can aid you in setting up the SMSF company file including the creation of the particular funds’ account in your SMSF software of choice. (If you don’t know which software you’d like to use we can introduce you to the top choices in the field.)

If you opt for a dedicated accountant you’ll be able to set up checklists customized to your firm’s workflow processes and we’ll help you if you care to customize any of your work papers, be they paper or virtual.

You’ll also be able to quickly set up SMSF trust deeds, bank account applications, and set funds to rollover to the SMSF’s bank account.

Compliance

Your overseas workers are always up to date on current compliance regulations.  So if you’re just ramping up into SMSF outsource solutions and you’re not quite up to speed on all the compliance rules we’ll be happy to help you understand what you need to do to keep yourself from being exposed to compliance risks.

Taxes and Audits

Your virtual workers will prepare all income tax work statements, SMSF tax return forms, as well as all analyses of contributions.

At this point you’re ready to turn your SMSF outsource solutions’ work over to an independent SMSF auditor BOSS has a relationship with or we can forward prepared data to an auditor of your choice.

The word is out in accounting circles that SMSF work can make for a nice boost to a firm’s bottom line. But just as with any other attempt at service expansion, there are risks to both your time and your firm’s finances. If you’re considering SMSF outsourcing as a way to mitigate those risks (and you should be) there are a couple of points you should keep in mind.

Why Outsourcing?

SMSF work can be fairly complex so if you’re not already familiar with the processes involved you’re going to need some training or at least a solid chunk of time to get yourself up to speed. That of course means that you (or your chosen employee) are spending time where you’re not working on billable files.

An alternative to SMSF outsourcing is that you hire new talent in that is already up to speed on SMSF work. But here again you’re spending time and money, in this case head-hunting for that new employee. Plus you’re going to have to spend even more time and money ramping up to accommodate new workers – furniture, computers, benefit packages, training in your firm’s particular processes, SMSF software, and so on.

Alternative number two is to shuffle the work off to an SMSF specialist house. However this isn’t a great deal because while on the surface you can say you’re expanding your menu of services to include SMSF work a big portion of that new income is going to go to that specialty house. In effect you’re merely a middle party between the client and the house – and middle parties always run the risk of being cut out.

On the other hand SMSF outsourcing puts the profits of the new service right in your firm’s proverbial pocket. The outsourced workers – all of them already fully trained – work directly for you.

They are, in essence, your employees, not a specialty house.  But these are employees you do not have to house, and you won’t have to keep upping the offers to keep them with you if the competition comes sniffing for SMSF-knowledgeable talent.

What You Want From An SMSF Outsourcing Partner

You put out the word that your firm is now accepting SMSF work. The SMSF beneficiaries/members send you their data. You pass the data on to your outsourced talent.

Your overseas workers work the data and report back on whether or not the particular fund meets compliance requirements such as the minimum pension and the contribution cap.

Your outsourced worker makes sure you (acting as the auditor) have all the required boxes checked before you sign off on the audit report:

• Trustee Engagement Letter.
• Trustee Representation Letter.
• Ensure that the investment strategy is updated.
• Ensure that the Trust Deed is updated.
• Make sure that all of the current year’s copies of financials have been received.
• Make sure that the tax return has been entered correctly as per financials.
• Let you know if any documents or data is missing for compliance.

The SMSF outsourcing workers will then prepare the audit work papers for you and your clients.

There’s even an added sweetener – BOSS provides all of these services on a casual basis so you don’t have to pay for any sort of minimum hour requirement and you can send work whenever you have it.

That is an immense amount of grunt work off of your desk, all done for a fraction of the cost of working the file in-house.

The SMSF sector is blowing up and it’s looking like a very fine way to boost your firm’s bottom line. According to the ATO SMSFs now have total assets exceeding $505 billion. But as with any other expansion of your firm’s services you’re running into the usual roadblocks – time and the resources to either obtain new people to handle the SMSF accounts, or to train your existing talent. Which means it’s time to consider SMSF outsource solutions.

Possible SMSF expansion solutions

Hiring In-house Talent

Bringing in new in-house expertise is of course always an option. You’re going to need to put some time into finding available talent that’s up on SMSF set-ups, administration, taxes, auditing procedures, reporting, and any technical support that may be necessary.

So that’s a considerable chunk of your (or your HR section’s) time and money spent on the hunt instead of heading directly into SMSF outsource solutions.

And as with any other talent hired in you’re going to need to expand your infrastructure. You’re going to need new furniture, computers, you might need a new office for space (depending on how many people you bring in), added electric costs, and so on.

Since it’s looking like the demand for such expertise is going to remain strong for some time to come, you’re also going to have to keep upping your compensation game in order to keep your new talent from being poached by the competition.

Ditto for training up people you already have in-house. Once they have SMSF skills on their resume they’re going to jump up a few places on your competition’s “must-have” list. If they do get poached, you’re out all that training time and expense.

Partner With an SMSF Specialty House

Instead of going with SMSF outsource solutions you could look for a local specialised SMSF administration house. The problem here is that the expansion of your own firm is marginalized. A great deal of the effort you put into drawing new SMSF clientele doesn’t so much expand your firm as it does the specialty shop.

In essence you become a barker for the SMSF house. The benefits to your own firm are reduced. You’re not much more than a glorified middle-man or woman. You’ll have to put some care into your contract with the SMSF house to ensure that they can’t just cut you out of the deal entirely.

SMSF Outsource Solutions

Here’s where you get to make the most out of your expansion efforts. On your end of the equation you set up an account with BOSS and then spread the word that you now offer SMSF administration as part of your services. You collect the SMSF info… and that’s just about it.

You pass that info on and the rest is up to us (aside from the audits which are done by an independent Australian auditor). Since the outsourced workers are in effect your employees the SMSF services offered by your firm are indeed yours – you’re no longer a middleman or woman.

You can get a fuller picture of how SMSF work is handled between you and BOSS here.

It’s time to get your slice of the SMSF pie. BOSS wants to help you get the biggest slice possible.

You can’t get your team to gel. You can’t expand because you can’t keep enough surplus cash in the bank. There aren’t enough hours in the day. These are all really big speed bumps on the road to expanding your firm. But you can get over them – and we’d like to show you how using an outsourced accountant can help.

The first step is to switch metaphors – let’s go from the road to the woods. If you’re having trouble overcoming the 3 big problems mentioned above then it’s possible you’re having trouble seeing the trees for the forest.

In other words, they’re not 3 big overwhelming problems – they’re 3 collections of much smaller problems. And those smaller problems are all manageable.

You can’t get your team to gel.

You’ve got a vision for your firm that you’d like everybody to be working toward. But you find you’re failing to get that vision across. Maybe you’re not a people person, maybe you’ve failed to recognize that your people have visions of their own they want to follow, or maybe you’ve just plain hired the wrong people.

An outsourced accountant is all about servicing your very particular demands. When you partner with BOSS to bring in remote talent you’re not hiring on people who are just looking at your firm as a stepping stone in their own career path; think of it instead as you’re buffing up the muscles that do the actual compliance work, leaving you as the head, the sole source of vision within your firm.

There’s really no such thing as “hiring the wrong people” when you call in an outsourced accountant through BOSS; you’re hiring a service as a whole and not individual members.

This means that your pool of in-house talent can remain smaller so you can spend a lot more personal one-on-one time with them, getting to know what they need in order to get them on board with boosting your own short and long-term plans.

You can’t keep enough expansion cash in the bank.

Growing your firm is going to take a significant chunk of change. You’re going to have to find and then train new people. You’re going to have to find space and equipment for them. You’re going to have to pay benefits. As you come to rely on them you’re going to have to do more and more to keep them in your firm instead of heading down the street to your competition.

But if you choose instead to use an outsourced accountant you won’t have to find people, and you won’t have to spend time and money training them.

You won’t need to find and rent new office space to make room for all of those extra chairs and computer desks.

You’ll never have to worry about boosting the enticements to keep your talent from wandering away.

That’s a whole mess of little problems swept away with one big broom.

There aren’t enough hours in the day.

Your firm’s other big expansion expenditure aside from money is time. It takes so much time finding each individual to bring on as in-house talent. And then there’s getting them up to speed on where they fit in your firm’s systems.

All of the little problems mentioned in the sections above are time-sucks unto themselves. Add them all together and you’re left with so little time to get to work on your awesome expansion ideas.

Hiring on an outsourced accountant partner is going to be your saviour here too. Just as outsourcing sweeps away a whole host of money problems, at the very same moment you’re getting rid of all those time-sucks in one easy action.

While BOSS works hard to make integrating your outsourced accountants as easy and painless as possible, it’s not quite so simple as flipping a light switch. There are two main items you’ll want to prepare your business for – the virtual accountants themselves, and the growth that comes with them.

Luckily prepping your firm for your overseas accountants can automatically prep you for growth. In both cases, your main concern is going to revolve around your processes – the systems you use to get work done.

The reason why we suggest codifying your processes ahead of time is twofold. First, if your work doesn’t have a system as such, any workflow blockages you have now are going to be magnified tenfold when you add your outsourced accountants to the mix.

The second reason to set up systems is that, while your overseas workers are going to be of benefit in just about every aspect of your services, you’ll be able to identify where they’ll help you the most.

Set Up Your Systems

Here are the steps we suggest you take to get your systems set up and running smoothly.

• Chart a File’s Progress.

  Get your team together and have everyone who touches a file in a particular process (for example, company tax returns) to identify how they participate in that file’s progress. Ideally you want the best person for any one section to do this for you – the right people for the right job.

  A key point to remember about writing down your processes is that none of this is absolutely set in stone. It’s important to remain flexible so you can react to opportunities to fine tune as they emerge.

  Once you and your team have all contributed their part in the progress of any one type of filing document the process.

  Now you’ll have a clear method to both teach new talent (including your outsourced accountants) how your system works and you’ll be able to see at a glance how far along any one file has come.

• Clarify the Links in Your Chain.

  Now that you have your systems set down, you can go a step further and clarify the process of any one part of a system.

  You can write this process in a document, or better yet, grab yourself some screen capture software (e.g. the Snipping tool in Windows or Jing) and/or video capture software (like Jing) and have your star talent in that area do a run-through on a file to show how they get things done.

  You’ll now have a visual record of how individual pieces of your overall processes work that you can use to train both new in-house staff and your outsourced accountants.

• Have an Administrator Help.

  While this step isn’t strictly necessary, once your business starts to grow we find it really helps to have someone in-house gather data and be a point of contact for things an in-house accountant isn’t required for. This can be a Receptionist or current Administrator (For more detailed info see this article)

Set Yourself Up For Growth

Even if you’re not prepping your business for the growth that comes with shifting your services to outsourced accountants, the above steps are going to help you identify spots in your systems that tend to get bogged down and hold up work.

And if you’re making the leap to utilizing outsourced accountants you’re going to find documenting your processes makes the changeover a breeze.

You’ve either made the leap into accounting outsourcing, or you’re putting some serious thought into it anyway. Good move! Your business is going to love you for it. But we would like to humbly suggest that there’s a good chance you’re not milking outsourced accountant services for all their worth.

First, you should be clear on the fact that outsourcing is not only about reduction – a reduction in in-house staff (and their computers, furniture, etc…) and in overhead. That jump up to 42% in profits is very nice, but that’s only the first step.

The second step is understanding that outsourcing accounting is fundamentally about growth. It’s about pruning away any wasted money, effort, and time at your end in order to allow you to expand your business and what it has to offer.

Firms that understand the growth factor of Outsourced accountant services can still fall short in using its full potential. They’ll outsource components of their business where they find themselves thin in in-house talent or positions that they’ve had a hard time keeping filled. But chances are there’s still more pruning to be done.

Get More Out of Outsourced Accounting

How do you know where there’s still waste that can be cut away? Investigate your business as it is today, and then take a look at where you want it to be a year from now, then five years, then ten.

Many of the firms that are the most successful at Outsourced accountant services are the ones that envisage themselves as lean-mean client-pleasing machines. In other words, everything about their business that does not involve direct liaisons with the client can be shipped overseas.

What they retain in-house in Australia or New Zealand is their version of you (of course), the face of your firm, the one the clients get to know the best and rely on for financial advice.

They’ll also have an in-house administrator who is the funnel through which flows all the information from you (and your clients) through the cloud to your Outsourced accountants, and then back again in the form of queries and returns.

Additional in-house staff does quality control checks.

And that’s pretty much it. All of the number-crunching is done overseas at a very competitive rate when you consider BOSS removes all you training costs, HR woes and other on-costs!

What Can BOSS Do for You?

BOSS outsourced accountant services have a wide range of talented, experienced and licensed accountants ready to help you expand on your menu of services. Possible expansions to your firm’s offerings include:

• New business set-ups.
• Business tax returns.
• Tax lodgements.
• Bookkeeping.
• Compliance.
• Self-managed Super Fund compliance and taxes.

By sending the numbers work offshore you’re freed up to get proactive in guiding your clients’ personal and business affairs. In essence you become the face of their healthier and more robust financial well being… not a bad relationship to have with a client.

In the immediate future, take a look at your work flow. Where are clients’ files getting bogged down? Do you have any points where you have people doing work that they’re not suited for, that you didn’t hire them to do?

After that’s done it’s time to start figuring out where you want your firm to go. How many accounting services do you want to offer? How many clients do you want to have? What role do you personally want to play?

And now it’s time to bring outsourced accountant services into the mix to help you prune away the waste, shaping your agency’s future in the direction you want it to grow.