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Article | Client accounting services

How outsourced accounting can fuel your business's growth

Mar 06, 2024

In today's business environment, many small to midsize business leaders are looking for more from their accounting function. Traditional accounting can be a labor-intensive, backward-looking process that, while essential to track your company's finances and maintain basic bookkeeping, is not a core function of most businesses. It provides a basic amount of financial information but has limited use as a tool to give companies a competitive advantage.

Instead, business leaders need data that can help support critical business decisions and fuel growth. That's where a client accounting services provider can help.

What are client accounting services?

Simply put, client accounting services (CAS) is synonymous with outsourced accounting. It's leveraging an experienced external team to handle your business's financial needs, from basic tasks to more complex business decisions.

Whether you want to outsource your entire back-office accounting department or need help with basic accounting needs, our CAS team can work with you to create a customized solution for your business. By leveraging industry-leading cloud technology platforms, we can simplify your financial reporting processes – through real-time reporting, easy-to-use dashboards and automated processes – and improve your day-to-day efficiencies.

What accounting needs can CAS help address?

Baker Tilly’s outsourced CAS team can handle all your back-office accounting functions, including all transactional services, accounts payable and receivable, or bank transactions. Furthermore, our CAS team can transform the way your business accesses and uses financial data to make proactive and strategic decisions. We achieve this by automating standard accounting tasks, providing real-time information on key performance indicators (KPIs), offering targeted insight on specific industry trends and granting access to top-level accounting talent to support your business.

Learn more about our services on our Outsourced Accounting page.

When should I consider CAS to support my business?

There are several reasons a business may consider outsourcing to a dedicated CAS team, including:

A need for better systems: Having access to the most up-to-date accounting systems as well as advisors means businesses will have better data.
A need for better data: Businesses can get visibility into data they didn't have before, such as key ratios, trends and industry comparisons.
Lack of timely information from current in-house staff: If a business cannot readily access basic financial information, it may miss opportunities to make necessary adjustments.

Books are messy or inaccurate: If essential accounting data is entered manually, by bookkeepers who are not accounting experts, a business may discover it cannot trust its financial information. It may make sense to hire an outside team with more training, credentials and experience to manage the books.
Labor costs: Businesses may grow tired of needing to hire, train and maintain an internal accounting team, or they may grow to a point of needing professional financial advice that an internal team cannot provide. With an outsourced CAS team, a business can leverage advisors’ expertise and resources to receive the appropriate level of accounting, operational, strategic and transactional support it requires. This helps a business focus in-house staff efforts on core business and revenue-generating functions.

What are the main benefits of outsourcing my accounting needs?

Automated and streamlined processes: Improve internal controls and reduce risk, all while providing flexibility for your evolving business needs
Real-time data access: View the information you need – when and where you need it – to make business decisions that drive results
Industry specialists: Access experienced industry advisors who know you and your business’s goals and can identify trends to help plan for the future
Actionable insights: Gain a 360-degree view of your business to help you gain clarity and drive proactive, strategic financial and operational decisions
Increased efficiency and reduced costs: Spend less time managing your books and maintaining an internal accounting team; shift your focus to core operations and driving growth

How do I get started with CAS for my business?

Connect with Baker Tilly’s outsourced CAS team – we’re here to serve as an extension of your business and address all your accounting needs. In order to improve the value of the accounting information you use to run your business, we will work to fully understand your current processes, pain points and outputs. Then, we will design and implement solutions that transform your financial management systems into business tools that help drive results.

For more information or to get started, contact our team.

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