Offering an outsourced finance function is a cost-effective and efficient way to help your clients to manage their financial operations. We've already covered the best apps for your virtual finance service, but what services should you include?
Here we break down the key areas you should cover with your virtual finance function, and we’ve added one more that can take your service to the next level!
Including key bookkeeping tasks such as regular purchase invoice processing and bank reconciliations in your offering means you’ll be able to deliver all other services that use this data more effectively. Maintaining good account hygiene will give you the most accurate starting point for tasks such as chasing and making payments and allows you to make business decisions with up-to-date information.
Using bank transfers to make payroll and supplier payments is time-consuming and any errors could be costly, as such more and more clients are looking to outsource this part of the finance function. Having a service in place to ensure payments are made accurately and on time can help your clients to maintain good employee and vendor relationships (including international suppliers). When using software to speed up and de-risk the payment process, this becomes much more cost-effective for your firm and delivers more value to your clients, making it an excellent addition to your outsourced finance service.
Having access to accurate financial information to guide strategic decision-making is key for any finance function. By taking this on for clients you can provide them with essential insight into the health of their business and ensure that they have the information needed to make informed decisions about the future.
One of the most important aspects of any finance function is ensuring compliance with HMRC. Providing clients with preparation and management of VAT can ensure they stay on the right side of the law, whilst saving them time, effort, and no doubt tax-related headaches.
Adding cash flow forecasting to your outsourced finance function can elevate related services such as credit control and payments to the next level. When looking at the cash inflows and outflows as a whole, you’re able to determine which invoices you should chase for payment (and when) to ensure your client has enough cash to pay upcoming bills and make payroll. If your client doesn’t have enough cash coming in to meet their financial obligations, you can help them identify additional sources of funding. And if your client is project-based (such as a construction firm or an agency) optimising cash flow is no longer a nice to have, but a need to have.
By offering these key outsourced financial services to your clients, you can help them save time and resources while giving them access to financial expertise. This means your clients can focus on their core competencies and growth, while still ensuring that their financial operations are managed effectively.
We've put together a guide to launching and growing a virtual finance function your clients will love, you can download your copy for free here.
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