As accountants gain experience in a range of functions or a niche, some realize that they can do much better financially by striking it out on their own. That’s when they become an entrepreneur besides being an accountant.

The first reason why they wish to do so, is to attain financial freedom. However, it takes more than being just an accountant to be an entrepreneur; so, to be one and to empathize with its plight are two very different things, which sadly not all accountants achieve even though they desire to do so.

When you own a firm, your thinking process is just not limited to doing the job at hand, but also towards growth, managing the employees, taking care of the infrastructure, building reputation and reach, structuring offerings, marketing decisions, staffing challenges, and a host of other things. Even after they start off their own firms, not many accounting firm owners experience the freedom they desire; instead they feel overwhelmed, and are bound in their practice. This actually happens because of the accountants’ approach in adapting the mindset of an entrepreneur.

Here are a few things, we believe that every accountant must realize in the course of being an entrepreneurial accountant, and follow them for a push towards their goals.

1. Focus on solutions: While most accountants typically give more emphasis on text-book procedures, entrepreneurs focus on solutions the world needs, and how they can deliver those solutions. As an entrepreneurial accountant, the focus should grow more towards the solution that drives customer experience and success. Therefore, it is important to invest more time into research, surveys, and studies so that one is always focused on higher customer engagement and expansions. Sometimes, even if an issue is not related to one of your own clients, it would still be advisable to prepare for every conceivable circumstance. That often leads to discovering your own unique solution, and make you stand a class apart.
2. Introducing innovation: Developing new or improved business models, restructuring manpower and skill sets for achieving goals are entrepreneurs’ key characteristics, and the defining characteristics that separate the successful ones from ‘others’. While conventionally most accountants are more of old school thinking, and like to see the things only where they belong, entrepreneurs are more dedicated towards introducing innovation, and never stop themselves from experimenting with something new. In order to keep the risks in check, it can also be a series of small, incremental changes but in the long term, this approach pays its dividends of growth.
3. More oriented towards growing business: If you look at things with spectrum of business, entrepreneurs can identify opportunities for business growth by adapting their services to the way their marketplace is changing. One who understands the markets, will always remain competitive. One way to stay ahead of the game is to offer something different to clients. Sometimes, all it takes is just a tiny element that sets you apart. People would often pay higher when they feel what they are getting in return is worth it all.
4. Focused towards latest technology and updates: Introducing new technology, techniques, or better working practices — perhaps using better processes to give a more consistent quality of services is something all entrepreneurial accountants embrace better than most accountants. Improving or replacing business processes enable most practices to extend the range or quality of existing services, and also makes for an efficient workplace.
5. Staying relevant is profitable: Entrepreneurial accountants emphasize on creating an excellent model for running their enterprise. This allows their firms to be organic, flexible, and ever-evolving for allowing changes in its environment. By virtue of that, entrepreneurs can remain relevant by accommodating the winds of change in the company. The ability to identify opportunities, for business growth by adapting to the way their marketplace is changing, is a key thing that helps them remain profitable, and in demand for longer term.
6. Creating new services setting apart from competitions: Doing taxes and managing payroll is not enough anymore; the customer demands and needs are changing rapidly. Clients often need more assistance, even if, they just turn to you for accounting and taxes. Entrepreneurial accountants often think about their current client base, as well as other target clients: what kind of services do they need? In the past, have clients ever asked for help in other functions? Accordingly, more services can be added to lay new foundation for the strategic growth of your accounting firms. It is the need of the hour.
7. Be Prouder of Your Work & Knowledge than Your Certification/Qualification: Of course your qualification sets you apart from others but professionally your knowledge and work accomplishments must be able to outshine your peers. Fortunately, if you wish to showcase your accomplishments and gain better recognition today, there are more means than ever. Linkedin and Facebook are perhaps the best ways to engage your target audience by building you online presence.
8. Be an Optimist: It’s always easy to find mistakes in other’s work and audit it rather than doing things yourself. Here’s where an entrepreneurial accountant stands apart from an accountant. Typically Accountants are characterized as being skeptical and negative. They do not embrace the tides of change so easily. So any new technology and systems take time to sync in with most accountants. Even while new technology takes over, the business and accounting principles remain the same but it largely simplifies and organizes the work. Entrepreneurial accountants adopt the latest technology and gain from it but, for others, being averse to the latest technology and trends leads to going nowhere but getting obsolete.

With all the tools of innovation, technology, relevance, great services, a progressive accounting entrepreneur always tends to keep their clients well served, engaged, and well-informed about latest activities to give them a sense of belonging.

Accounting is a stable industry, so it can be tempting to sit on your laurels. But, if you want to grow your business, and broaden the value you bring to your small business clients, it’s time to adopt a paradigm shift. In this age, aspiring accountants must change their approach, and enhance their skills; more towards becoming entrepreneurial accountants than just being accountants.

Read More: 10 BEST PRACTICES OF WORKING WITH REMOTE STAFF

Today’s world demands staying in-step with the times; considering the speed at which new avenues for business operations and marketing arenas are opening up globally. It becomes more than relevant to ride the flow and make the very best out of the Information Revolution. More so, especially for the Accounting industry, since majority of the accountants or accounting firms provide very specific nature of services.

It’s not surprising to see many small and mid- sized accounting firms adapting to new technologies and business operations structure nowadays. The growing pressures of stiff competition, increasing costs of capital investment, demanding higher pay scales, complicated legalities, among a lot of challenges are now affecting revenue and target achievements. Through all of this, you have to maintain accurate bookkeeping and produce timely reports and financial filings. The accounting industry is evolving quickly but not everywhere can the changes to be seen. What can you do if your firm isn’t making the most of new technology? How would your accounting practice sustain its course of operations if it doesn’t stand to anticipate and face the days of future?

In this article, we’ll look at how building a Global Team can be of help.

What is a Global Team?

Hiring a Global team for your accounting practice mostly involves having employees who are aptly qualified and have relevant experience of software. Primarily, a majority of such workforce is recruited and deployed overseas. With various skill sets and professional experiences, each employee in your global team contributes significantly to your operations and leverages the core values, garnering higher growth and greater achievements for your firm. The big four got this idea about two decades ago and have successfully established their offshore offices, primarily in India. On the same lines, many big firms too done the same and now that visionary step is reaping them fair amount of profits.

Why Need a Remotely Located, Global Team?

A much precise question would be, “Do you actually need a team of just local employees?” Well, it’s not easy to find and maintain an in-house accounting staff whom you can trust, while many capable candidates are expensive and not instantly available when the need for staffing arises. Additionally, you are liable for providing all kinds of benefits. Not to forget, increasing local team size also brings with it the need for office space, equipment, infrastructure, etc. for each local employee. At the same time, hassles of the staffing process such as conducting personal interviews, technical skills evaluations of the suitable candidate within your work environment rise too. Considering all the procedures and methods for acquiring and retaining any local employee, it becomes a cumbersome task every time you need to recruit some work force for your business organization.

All these troubles lead to a majority of industries finding an alternative for having work force at their disposal at the drop of a hat! Global Teams, through remote staffing. Today, remote staffing has solved problems long faced since the advent of organized industry and business sector all around the world. Let us see, how better the benefits are, of having a global team, enabling your firms to meet future developments and requirements of your industry.

Benefits of a Global Team

Global Teams through Remote/cloud software, are the new age mantra, with many small and mid-size accounting firms as well as businesses now opting for it. Here are the key abilities and benefits of remote staff in a global team:

• Reduced office infrastructure expenses
• Access to a readily available large global talent pool
• Eliminates local compliance and liabilities hassles
• Streamlined recruitment and HR processes
• Get maximum benefits of paid accounting software
• Create and manage simple work flow process
• Convenient communication and collaboration facilitated by latest information technology
• Easy time-work tracking and day to day reporting.
• Helps you to focus more on business growth

Acquiring a Skilled Workforce

With global teams, one of the most impending challenges, acquiring the right talent, becomes far easier as there are more options to shortlist and select after having thoroughly tested and screened.

Coordination With Local Team

Interestingly, all global team employees are also presumed trained in software and procedures of accounting industry. Furthermore, they also meet the necessary requirement of verbal and oral English communication skills. Coupled with the latest audio-visual means of communicating through the internet, all remote employees maintain communication with the local staff in your organization. This ensures that all instructions and work criteria is defined, explained and thoroughly executed and completed in timely manner, and exceeds your performance expectations.

Being More Tech Friendly

Evidently, most of the all work nowadays is carried out with the help computing technology. Be it desktop or laptop computers, or even smart handheld devices such as tablet or mobile phones, all staff in a global team is quite familiar with most gadgets.

Today, the fast paced work environment with the ever increasing demanding for higher performance and higher output in terms of quality and quantity, asks for a work force enough capable for handling such challenges efficiently, effectively, effortlessly. Global teams comprising remote staff today, is trained and geared up for facing all such challenges, resulting in a strong accounting work force, which is future proof for your business organization for years to follow!

Read E-Book: 10 BEST PRACTICES OF WORKING WITH REMOTE STAFF

CPA firms are required to work extremely hard to build and retain a well-managed core accounting team with expertise and experienced ample to implement accounting and bookkeeping practices. But this is the time that CPA firms can avoid to build an In-house team, and instead can focus on growing their business. Ever evolving accounting and bookkeeping industry has become competitive more than ever for CPA firms.  So as to keep pace with the competition, while handling client demands at reasonable rates and regulatory compliances of IRS; they are likewise required to be adaptable in their work routines.

It should not come as a surprise that CPAs get overworked with routine tasks including bookkeeping, payroll accounting, and filing tax returns, which are time-consuming and not at all profitable and productive.

So in such a scenario, should CPAs build the virtual team, in order to manage everything effectively and efficiently? – YES, CPA firms should hire remote staff for bookkeeping and accounting task.

Bookkeeping is a basically time-consuming task, and though simple but not that rewarding, it needs exceptional expertise and experience to be done correctly. This makes it more than vital that CPA firms should take support from a reliable virtual accounting professional to save time and money both. Remote staffing is now onboard for a small and mid-sized accounting firm to serve remote staff as per business needs. Their onboard best accounting and bookkeeping professionals, understand the importance of paying due attention to details. Remote staffing ultimately empowers CPAs to invest their time and efforts more efficiently and focus on several other activities such as investments, wealth planning, financial disclosures, tax planning, canvassing for themselves and increase the number of clients.

Let’s check out some more benefits of hiring virtual/remote staff from staffing company for CPAs:

• Initial capital investment for infrastructure, staff expenses and a lot more is not required to be done by CPA firms.
• This gives you the levy as a CPA firm to take up clients who manage their accounting and bookkeeping with help of software, which you do not use – but remote staffing have trained team, who capable of working on various software including QuickBooks, XERO, ManageMart, Clear Books, SlickPie, SAGE Accounting, IRIS, LedgerLite, etc.
• The accuracy and proficiency of accounting and bookkeeping tasks increase significantly and decreases the chances of errors, as remote staffing allows you to interview and test candidate skill level at the time of hiring.
• Reduce overheads cost: Office space, electricity, software/hardware, employee benefits, food & drink allowances etc.
• Hiring a virtual bookkeeper provides you with the same level of expertise and service but without the employment burden costs such as benefits, training costs and more.
• Remote staff/Virtual Employee will save anything from 60% to 70% of the overall cost if compared to hiring in-house accountants and bookkeepers.

Remote staffing is very differing from an outsourcing company. In outsourcing, you will never know who is working on your stuff. While hiring remote staff you actually get connected with the employee who will only be dedicated to you, same as an in-house local staff. Remote Staffing allows you to hire an accountant, bookkeeper, Sr. tax preparer, data entry expert for full time, part time or temporary basis, depends on your staffing needs.

However, the count of small and mid-sized accounting & CPA firms hire remote/virtual staff from staffing agency is increasing consistently as a remote staff is the best option.

Efficient bookkeeping isn’t just fundamental for accounting firms to keep clients’ financials conforming to state and government laws and tax directions, but also a way to comprehend some of activities in a well-recorded manner so that financial conclusions can be settled without a hitch. Poor or inconsistent bookkeeping increases the headaches and keeps on being a standout amongst the most widely recognized reasons for business failure (which no client would be happy about)- but it’s also completely avoidable. So it’s not at all a petty job, instead, it is something that needs great focus and expert hands at work.

Accounting firms should reach out to their local or remote bookkeeper to offer professional bookkeeping services, holding existing client base as well as drawing new leads.

Why you need a Bookkeeper?

Let’s first understand what do you mean by bookkeeping? And, what it means for you and your business to have a right bookkeeper. As an accountant, managing your client’s day to day transactions is quite time-consuming and extensive task. Having a bookkeeper is like having an individual that can record and keep track of those financial activities and not be letting the client bother much about it.

There are a few things need to consider when choosing the right virtual bookkeeper to partner with your firm. Check out some points below:

1. Trustworthy

More than qualifications and skills, the most important thing is being reliable. A bookkeeper should be honest and transparent. Whether you hired an in-house or Virtual bookkeeper, they should be easy to reach via phone or email. Also, ask for references they can speak with to assist them in their decision-making process.

2. Good Communicator

Make sure your bookkeeper is a good listener and explains things that makes sense to you. Many CPAs and Accounting firms always look for a right bookkeeper to perform day to day accounting tasks. Whether your bookkeeper is working from your office or remotely. Find out what method of communication works best for a client i.e. email, telephone, text messaging, Skype etc

3. Accounting Education background

Having knowledge of accounting principles and specially tested capabilities are essential to be a bookkeeping proficient. Employers are resistant to hire a bookkeeper with lacks suitable qualification, as well as a lack of professional experience.

4. Make Sure to use current Technology

There are many accounting software available in the market to maintain your financials online such as Xero, Quickbooks or Clearbooks; it is also very important that they are good with using the latest software. Using outmoded software is going to slow down your work. Use of these software makes work easier, accurate and easily reviewable between the bookkeepers, accountants and your clients effectively.

5. Choose the Right Company/Remote Staffing Agency

If you don’t want to outsource your bookkeeping work. Not to worry about it. Remote staffing is the best solution for you. Remote staffing usually have access to a large number of candidates and allow you to choose from, expediting the process. After selecting the candidate you can take personal interviews, technical skills evaluations, soft skills reviews, the same process just like you hire an employee as local staff.

Using cloud technology, utilizing a virtual team for your bookkeeping and accounting gives you access to a full team with years of experience that specializes in your exact business for less than the cost of a full time or part-time in-house employee. You can manage your remote staff using communication tools include face time as well; using Skype and similar apps for team meetings can bring a remote-based employee into the loop.

Today’s accounting industry is becoming more competitive day by day. Most of the CPA firms would like to stretch their wings in terms of business to obtain more clients. In this competitive market era, CPAs main focus is compliance requirements of the IRS, banks, and investors – taxes, audits, financial planning and advisory services rather than bookkeeping or payroll accounting.

Every accounting firm should understand what they need and what to look for as they search for the best bookkeeper for their day to day accounting stuff. But, the concern is finding and train bookkeeper while still focusing on core CPA services – tax and attest functions.

It takes a lot of effort to build and keep a well-managed in-house accounting team capable of executing best practices for your firm.  Don’t be surprised that CPAs get over-controlled with routine tasks including bookkeeping, payroll, and filing tax returns, which are time-consuming and not profitable or productive. So in such a scenario, CPAs & Accounting firms looking for remote staff in order to manage everything effectively and professionally.

How about Remote Staffing concept?

Remote staffing allows CPAs to hire virtual bookkeeper or accountant and focus on value-added services such as tax planning, investments, wealth management, Insurance, financial disclosures, and advising clients.

With remote staffing services, utilizing a virtual team for your bookkeeping gives you access to an experienced team that specializes in accounting related stuff for less than the cost of an n-house employee.

What can the remote staff candle?

• Journal entries
• Write-ups
• Accounts payables and receivables
• Payroll processing
• Invoicing
• Bank reconciliation
• Prepare management reports
• Taxation preparation

Benefits of remote staffing for your CPA firm:

• No staff management
• Faster turn-around time of work.
• Work is done by remote staff with CPA Firm/Tax experienced
• Save office space, extra workstations costs, and staffing expenses.
• No infrastructure overheads
• 100% IRS compliant bookkeeping
• Scalable up or down depending on your needs with no minimums
• Use of cloud-based software for real-time access for you and your clients
• No dedicated partner required to hire, train and monitor quality within the bookkeeping department

It is becoming significantly difficult for accounting firms to find skilled and dedicated staff. And, if you find the right one. They keep looking for more opportunities elsewhere and jump jobs. So, it’s hard to plan for the growth of your accounting firm and managing the in-house team parallel.

However, by choosing remote staff you can undoubtedly plan for the growth of your business for the long term. Having a virtual remote team not only brings the flexibility to your business, but it also gives you a cost savings of 50% or increasingly and consequently you can essentially expand your net revenues.

About Entigrity:

Entigrity Remote Staffing exclusively works with Small and Mid-size Accounting Firms, CPA, EA and Tax Professional. Today, we serve 500+ Accounting firms Nationwide, providing them with qualified and experienced accounting and tax professionals starting at $8/hour. With Entigrity you can Hire Staff Accountants, Bookkeepers, Tax Associates or any other staff position, having the required skills and knowledge for 75% less salaries than in-office staff.

Read E-Book: 10 BEST PRACTICES OF WORKING WITH REMOTE STAFF

Are running a small accounting firm?  Do you need a bookkeeper? Do you think you have a time, space, or income to justify a new hire?

It might be time for you to look into a virtual bookkeeper: somebody who can work with you remotely to keep track or monitor of your finances day-to-day. With a QuickBooks of accounting and bookkeeping software options, plus video conferencing and document/file sharing technology, it’s easier to get virtual support from someone outside the physical bounds of your workplace. Take a look at the pros and cons of hiring a virtual bookkeeper/accountant for your business.

Virtual Bookkeeper Pros

Save Money and Space

Hiring a full-time employee can be expensive and comes with costs beyond their salary – like a tax, medical benefits and the office space and equipment required to get the job done – that really start to add up.

Hiring a virtual bookkeeper means that you don’t need to find a physical space for an employee, and since they’re a remote employee, you’re not responsible for providing any type of benefits like Medical insurance, or tax benefit that an employer would be required to furnish.

A staffing firm also helps save you money because it can handle all aspects of the staffing process: personal interviews, technical skills evaluations, soft skills reviews and determination of the suitability of a candidate’s fit with your work environment.

Add an Expert to Your Team

Sometimes it’s quite hard to find talent near your area. Through the virtual team, you will have an expert team with extensive knowledge in a specific area. You can get the benefit of a learning curve using a virtual employee. Top-tier staffing agencies typically have access to a large network of candidates and can swiftly pull together a set of resumes for you to choose from, expediting the process. A remote staffing agency can give advice on what mix of workers you need, including full-time, part-time or temporary staff.

The Latest and Greatest Tools

Any time you take on a new responsibility in-house at your company, there’s also the need to bring on the requisite tools and technology to get the job done.

When you hire a remote team/virtual bookkeeper, they’re responsible for providing the necessary software and for keeping everything up to date. This means one less set of systems and processes for you to worry about internally. Hiring a virtual bookkeeper through remote staffing you will have an expert with extensive knowledge of software and tools used for bookkeeping. The remote staffing agency will bear all expenses for tool and software required for accounting and bookkeeping.

Pro: Access to a Team

If you hire a traditional bookkeeper, there’s the challenge of finding someone who’s the right fit: you don’t want to overpay for someone too senior, but you also want to find someone who’ll be able to manage the necessary tasks as your business continues to grow.

When you hire a virtual bookkeeping remote team, you’ll be supported by individuals who each represent different areas of expertise and levels of experience, meaning that they will identify which of their team members is best suited to the work you need done and assign them to your account. Hiring virtual team through remote staffing avails you the benefit of direct supervision of the onsite staff with an option for you to control, direct, and restrict your remote staff for the task.

Cons of Virtual Bookkeepers

Logistics of Being Offsite

While there are advantages to having someone work virtually, there are also logistical drawbacks that come along with having someone outside of your physical office location. Communication isn’t as effortless as if you’re sitting right down from someone, and it’s easier for wires to get crossed in terms of desires and expectations.

When you expedite on a virtual bookkeeper, create a concrete schedule and implement month- month check-ins from beginning to stay away from any miscommunication.

Weakened Data Security

When your bookkeeper is from another location, it’s essential to use tools to share sensitive financial information with that individual. While most technology companies take security seriously and have safeguards in place, there’s always the chance that someone can access your financial data as its being shifted beyond the bounds of your company’s internal network.

When looking into virtual bookkeeping, be sure to ask what safety measures they take to protect against information breaches.

Lack of Insider Knowledge

While a virtual bookkeeper will be highly experienced with the skills they have, they’re being a part of your company but as they are not working in your office. They’re never going to have the level of understanding about your customers and vendors that someone inside your business would have.

To avoid any issues on this obverse, it’s probably best to introduce an approval process whereby you can have the absolute before your bookkeeper sends out documents to your customers or vendors directly.

Is a virtual bookkeeper right for you?

If you’re the owner of a small or mid-sized accounting firm, and required bookkeeping support but might not yet be able to bring someone on in-house, a bookkeeper might be the best solution for you. This is rising in demand, so be sure to do your research and ask considerate questions of your potential remote bookkeeping team, and you’ll be sure to find the one that’s the best fit for your company’s needs.

Read E-Book: TASK THAT CAN BE DONE BY REMOTE TEAM

Over the past few years, new innovation and tools have emerged and transformed just about every aspect of a business, including promotion, management, IT and Finance. It’s easy to feel like accounting and bookkeeping have been overlooked. Until recently, the industry was stuck in the dark ages. But with the rise of powerful new technologies innovation over the years, it’s finally beginning to look like an industry that’s ready for an interruption.
Before delving into the particulars of the Finance or accounting industry and the impending disruption, let’s take a look at some of the collective drivers behind general disruption.
1. Clients need better connectivity
Take a look at any service-based business, and you can identify ways in which developments have become more customer-centric. Well, with the Internet, cloud innovation and remote tools, accountants have the ability to connect with customers in significant ways. Furthermore, it would seem that they may be finally taking advantage of these aptitudes.

2. Automated data entry
Automation is the key driving component in accounting and bookkeeping interruption. Thanks to things like automatic imports, E-documents and robust software, some businesses are even able to exclude data entry completely. This prompts more proficiency and enables organizations to better use human capital.

3. Growth of the DIY tactic.
One trend that we’ve been keeping an eye on for years is the growth of accounting software. And now that cloud solutions – such as QuickBooks, Clearbooks, workday etc. entered the marketplace, we’re seeing a lot of small & mid-sized businesses are trying the DIY approach.
4. Machine learning and great insights.
Accountants are usually able to sort through data and distribute analytical insights based on past info. However, as technology advancement, things like machine learning and AI (artificial intelligence) are making it feasible for accountants to get real-time insights that can be utilized at the moment to increase the value of organizations and customers.
 5. Demand for specialization
All Businesses are getting a taste of specialization, and they’ve now come to expect it in every product or service they use. Specialization is one of the driving features of disruption in every industry. In terms of accounting Industry, this is boiling over and generating a demand for specialization over bundled packages. Businesses are only want to pay for the services they need. This is eventually pushing added pressure on the marketplace. As a result, accounting software providers are modifying their product offerings and pricing structures therefor.
Read E-Book: REMOTE STAFFING IS BETTER THAN OUTSOURCING