Franchise operators: Three reasons to take accounting off your plate
Thinking there’s a better way to handle your franchise’s accounting? As the saying goes, small businesses should work on core competencies and outsource the rest. Unless you’re running an accounting franchise, we think it’s fair to say accounting and finance are probably not your core competencies, so why not hand over the task to an expert?
The pressures today of running a franchise — from increased labor and material costs to ensuring you’re properly positioned in an inflationary economy — are enough. Accounting outsourcing allows you to focus on the operations and growth of your business, while leaving the accounting to an expert.
Outsourced accounting eases your financial — and mental — burden
Franchise owners and operators often try to do it all — and that can be part of what it takes to get a business off the ground. But if you’ve ever spent a late night trying to figure out your accounting and finances, you know the headache it can bring and that it’s often not worth it to do it yourself. The good news is it doesn’t have to be that way. When you hire experts to take this one thing off your plate, you can put your focus back on your core business and stop worrying about accounting.
If you’re thinking of hiring someone to handle accounting internally, remember that hiring, equipping, and training staff also takes an immense amount of time and can be quite frustrating. Do you know how to pick the right accountant and accounting software? Outsourced accounting firms already have the tools, the staff, and the depth of knowledge to give you just what you need. Even better, when you engage a well-equipped professional services firm that has an entire team of people dedicated to franchise finance and accounting, you’ll have industry experts covering the right things — such as key sales and customer data or missing utility bills — to keep your business running smoothly.
The right franchise accounting partner can scale with you
Overseeing finance and accounting yourself is often unsustainable for a growing business. As your business grows, an outsourced firm with franchise expertise will simply allocate more of their staff to your account. And as your needs become more complicated — maybe you expand your business into another state or add new offerings — they’ll be able to call on their colleagues from other areas of their firm to address those needs.
There may also be times when you need to scale down. With an outsourced accounting firm, it’s a simple process to get started — there’s no cutting hours or staff. Rather, the firm will scale up or down to fit your needs. You may not even need a full-time person, so instead of trying to find someone to work an unpredictable schedule, the outsourced firm can adjust to your needs.
Accounting outsourcing can streamline your people, processes, and technology
Today more than ever, you need to move at the speed of business. If you feel like you can’t keep up, it likely means your people, processes, and technology may not be serving your current needs, or you’ve let important aspects fall to the wayside. Engaging an external firm to manage your accounting will help you reduce the amount of people, processes, and technology you need, letting you focus on the core of your business and saving you time and money. A firm with the tools to benchmark your operations against industry labor statistics, standardized processes that can scale to your needs, and leading cloud-based technologies can not only reduce administrative burden but give you a competitive edge in the marketplace.
The future state of your franchise business
Operating a business has become exponentially more complex, but it’s also pushing franchise owners and operators to get creative and find new ways to improve their operations, save time, and spend more efficiently. If your plate is piling up, give us a call and let’s talk through your options.
Contact us for more information on outsourced accounting and more for your franchise business.
