Virtual Finance and Management Accounting Assistance – what is it?
If you would like to have a better understanding and control over your accounting information but can’t afford the full time services of a finance manager, then it’s possible that you could benefit from our virtual Finance and Management Accounting assistance.
With the high level accounting skills of a management accountant, finance manager or chief financial officer, a virtual accountant refers to someone who can be a trusted advisor operating in or outside of your business and premises, but who is not on your books as an employee.
What are the key services offered?
Compliance
A virtual accountant can provide valuable support to your business. They can oversee your current bookkeeping and finance staff to ensure all procedures have a series of checks and balances, which will strengthen the accuracy and reliability of your businesses’ accounts. A virtual accountant can also provide coaching and training to your team, which will assist in establishing strong accounting processes and reduce the risk of leakages of revenue or cash. Other areas a virtual accountant can aid your business include:
- Providing, or assisting with, managing bookkeeping and payroll services;
- Providing, or managing, debtor and creditor management;
- Developing financial reporting systems (including ‘Profit & Loss’ and ‘Balance Sheets’); and
- Assisting you to adhere to statutory obligations.
Planning
It is quite common for business owners to be absorbed in their day to day operations, putting important matters such as planning and forecasting into the ‘when I have time basket’. Incorporating virtual accounting services into your business will enable a a trusted and trained professional to either take these tasks off your hands or support you and your team to complete them. The types of tasks offered can include:
- Developing and/or managing budget processes;
- Developing and/or managing 3-way forecasting and planning tools, including Profit & Loss, Balance Sheets, and Cashflow (including full year or rolling 12 months);
- Conducting ongoing cost variance analysis;
- Completing ongoing reviews of risk exposures; and
- Completing either short term (12 weeks) or long term (6-12 months) Cash Flow forecasts.
Decision Support
Whether you are working alone in your business, or you would just like an advisor to bounce ideas off, having a trusted professional by your side allows you to quickly ask for advice and have confusing questions explained to you in ‘plain English’ so you understand what is affecting your business. A virtual accountant can support you by:
- Providing input on strategies;
- Sharing feedback on your business performance;
- Evaluating potential growth opportunities; and
- Offering advice regarding restructuring, M&A and succession planning.
How does a virtual accountant add value to your business?
1. Management Reporting
It is often underutilised in small to medium businesses, yet effective Management Reporting can provide valuable internal feedback that should provide you clarity on how your business is performing. A virtual accountant provides a layer of dynamic oversight, by reviewing reports and commentary adding to the reliability of the information being produced.
2. Peace of Mind
A virtual accountant can help reduce the number of tasks on your plate, and allow you to relax knowing that a trusted advisor is overseeing your books, your team, and your numbers and providing valuable feedback and assistance along the way.
3. Focus on Operations
One of the keys to success is surrounding yourself with the right people and having them in the right jobs. A virtual accountant could free you and your team to focus on business operations and growth whilst having a trained professional focusing on your accounting systems.
4. Trust and Continuity
Having a trusted advisor on hand allows someone who knows your business to “step in” and roll up their sleeves to ensure business continuity if someone gets “run over by a bus”.
5. Cost Effective
A virtual Finance and Management Accountant is very efficient and more affordable than you probably imagine.
The on-demand nature of our services means a virtual accountant can match your needs and requirements to their input without the hidden employee costs (such as entitlements, payroll on-costs, staff turnover and idleness).
The scope of work and level of sophistication can easily be adapted to suit your needs, while simultaneously maintaining the continuity that comes with working with trusted advisors over the long term. This is at a fraction of the cost of a full time trained accounting professional overseeing your accounting processes.
How we can help
Whether you need one of the services listed above or all of them, we can provide you with virtual Finance and Management Accountant assistance. The scalability of these services allows our expertise to expand with your business needs, so let us scale a solution to suit your needs.
To enquire about our virtual Finance and Management Accounting Assistance services, call us on 03 5221 6399 or email us at info@davidsons.com.au.
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This article was written by Davidsons Manager of Cloud and Business Advisory Paul Sutton.
Disclaimer: This information is of a general nature and should not be viewed as representing financial advice. Users of this information are encouraged to seek further advice if they are unclear as to the meaning of anything contained in this article. Davidsons accepts no responsibility for any loss suffered as a result of any party using or relying on this article.