One of the benefits the outsourced accountant receives when they sign on with us is that they’re given the opportunity to go paperless thanks to our secured servers. The immediate benefits are pretty obvious – you save on time (physical filing and searches), space, and money. But there are some additional benefits you might not have thought of.
Your firm will be easier to sell
Off in the distant future when you’ve built your multi-million dollar firm and the financial world lies at your feet you may want to sell it off to pay for your retirement. The outsourced accountant is going to be able to bump up that figure if their business’ files are all nicely digitised.
Digitised systems make the transition so much easier for the new owners. Searches for individual files are instantaneous instead of requiring physical searches (which, depending on the size of the firm, may require the cost of additional personnel).
You can become a worldwide team
This one is pretty obvious (considering where you’re reading this article). You’re going to be able to outsource, to tap into top-of-the-line expertise found in countries worldwide. The shipping of files is no longer a cost or a security concern.
And of course, for the outsourced accountant to be able to use his or her overseas teams effectively, he or she needs to get files moved as quickly as possible. Near-instantaneous is pretty darn quick.
Enhanced security
First, using the cloud for your file storage negates any sort of physical disaster at your office. For example, if your office suffers a fire or a flood, you could be in a lot of trouble if your files are all stored on-site and are in paper form.
But the outsourced accountant can breathe easy in the face of such an event (beyond the damage to their offices of course). All that important information is still there waiting for you once you’re able to get back on line.
The shipping of critical information can also be a major concern in a physical world. It can be damaged or misplaced.
And of course, aside from the above, going paperless provides the more obvious benefits:
You save space
Want to pay less rent? Get rid of those filing cabinets. How much space are they taking up? All of that space can be converted into a gigabyte or two of information that is far easier to search.
That means you don’t need as big an office, which in turn means less rent flowing out of the outsourced accountant’s pocket each month. Or you could use the space for another in-house employee, a pinball machine, a place to hide the interns when clients drop by for a visit… it’s up to you.
You save time
If you’re still working in a paper office, how much time do you figure you or your people spend in searches per year? You’re paying wages for all those hours spent searching that could be better spent actually working on the files.
Remember, you also have to factor in the time spent addressing, collating, storing, and mailing files. All of that time also costs you money, plus it’s time not spent on bettering your clients’ finances.
You save money
The outsourced accountant who goes paperless is saving money on filing cabinets, wages lost in info searches, rent on space for the filing cabinets, reams of paper, printer ink, postage or couriers, envelopes, copier ink, and maintenance on printers and copiers. Add all of that up over the number of years your firm is up and running. It’s a pretty big number, don’t you think?
