​The last decade has ushered in a digital revolution across all business areas. However, many businesses are still dragging their feet when it comes to automating their accounting and finance activities. In fact, 58% of finance teams surveyed indicated that they do not feel their finance back office is “sufficiently automated.”

​Despite a plethora of tools and platforms available to help streamline these critical business areas, it seems many businesses are stuck in the past, relying on manual processes for their daily accounting functions. But organizations can use automation to drive profitability if they understand its benefits and can identify areas where AI will help them the most. 

We talk to people every day that are looking for accountants for their companies. And being in the business of staffing organizations through both full-time hires and outsourced accounting services, we have noticed a trend in people’s thinking…

Business owners and hiring managers typically categorize their hiring intentions into one of two buckets: a part-time bookkeeper/bookkeeping service or a full-time accountant hire. But many business leaders overlook the value that a part-time accountant (or “fractional accountant” as they are referred to in the industry) can provide to their organization.

Whether the organization is for-profit or not-for-profit, a fractional accountant can be brought in for a variety of reasons to provide the same level of expertise of a full-time, dedicated accountant. While a fractional accountant from an accounting service provider may work on a less than full-time basis, their experience-level is as high (if not higher) than your average accountant.
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The reason a fractional accountant may bring a greater breadth of experience the role is because they work with a variety of companies across a different industries and lifecycles simultaneously, which requires that they be well versed in a wide variety of accounting topics and stay abreast of all the latest news. As a result, fractional accountants may offer more accounting acumen at a much lower cost than their full-time counterpart.

An article from our Accounting and Finance Recruiting Team
 
With our professional and personal lives becoming more blended than ever and younger members of the workforce feeling less of a need to compartmentalize the two, social media has become a territory ripe with both risk and opportunity.

These days everyone knows that what is posted on social media is fair game, and voicing unpopular opinions, sharing inappropriate content, or being hateful online can cost a job seeker the job. And while people posting or sharing those types of things may not be concerned with how they will be perceived, most job seekers do care what a prospective employer may think of them.

This is especially true in more buttoned-up industries like accounting, finance, banking, financial planning, and business consulting. Career-focused professionals looking for their next role will ask questions like:

• Where are recruiters and hiring managers looking for information about me online?
• What do they want to see? And what are they hoping not to see?
• What can I do clean up my social media profiles?
• How can I stand out from the crowd to get the job?

​Our accounting and finance recruiting team answers these questions regarding how your web presence affects hiring decisions:

Written in conjunction with our partners at CFO Selections

​A cash flow shortage is the number one reason why small businesses fail, but even mid-sized and large companies need smart cash flow management to survive and thrive.
Insufficient cash forces companies to make difficult decisions about who is going to get paid and when. Unfortunately, this can lead to vendors and suppliers being paid late, being overdue on rent, even employees waiting on paychecks.

It is not an exaggeration to say that cash is the lifeblood of any business. Not having enough money to pay for expenses can erode business credibility, which leads to:

• Suppliers refusing to do business
• Credit card companies increasing interest rates
• Vendors tightening payment terms
• Landlords evicting tenants
• Employees leaving

Ultimately, a company’s potential will be stifled if there is not enough capital to invest in the assets that facilitate growth, and its very existence can be threatened as well.
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So, are you ready to manage cash flow for the coming year? 

​This summer, the IRS began urging tax professionals to increase their security measures amid a storm of increased cyber-attacks. Through the first half of 2021, cyber-attacks against tax professionals had already outpaced the annual numbers for 2020 and 2019. And tax pros are not alone.
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Cyber security has become a hot topic among all financial professionals over the last year as security attacks against businesses and individuals soared during the pandemic. Michael Cohn explains the recent rise in security threats when he says, 

So, how do you keep your financial data secure? 

Are you paying for compliance accounting or advisory accounting? Do you know?

Compliance accounting is straightforward – it deals with day-to-day accounting, reporting, and tax preparation. But what about advisory accounting?
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The Intuit Tax Council defines accounting advisory services as, “Taking client challenges and applying strategies to create opportunities in service to their growth.” Accounting advisory interweaves technology, relationships, communication, and strategy to provide companies the fuel needed for profitable growth. 

When you think of teams that help build and sustain company culture, which teams come to mind? Human Resources? Marketing? Sales? Customer service maybe? These areas of the company are typically entrusted with developing and propagating a culture that encourages employees to do their best work, helps the organization achieve its objectives, and looks good to customers and key stakeholders.

But what about accounting and finance? These departments tend to be overlooked when a company is building its workplace culture. To understand why accounting and finance professionals get passed over when looking for a group to adopt and maintain the culture, it is important to understand what company culture is, why it is important, and how an accounting team is in a unique position to help support it.

As an accounting recruiting firm and financial services provider, we work with businesses everyday who ask, “Should we hire or outsource our accounting needs?”

This question is especially important for companies in the startup phase because they likely have significant cash flow concerns to consider. However, startups may also have other unique characteristics that make this question more challenging to answer, such as:

• Interest from outside investors
• Financing considerations
• New market development
• High growth market demands
• Scalability challenges
• Patenting needs
• Family ownership

​While every business will have their own unique needs and challenges, it is generally best for a startup to outsource their accounting activities initially and then hire internally as their needs change. Where does that shift happen? 

Whether your accounting team is employed in-house or outsourced to a third party, the question of whether it will return to the office or continue to work remotely is likely at the top of your mind. Nationwide many companies have returned the office, at least as part of a hybrid work model, but those changes have been the source of stress at various levels. With some workers wanting to go back, others desiring to stay home, and management tasked with keeping everyone happy and productive, this topic is causing friction across the board. But increasing employee satisfaction is not the only factor being considered.

More serious issues like financial integrity and risk management are also in jeopardy. Just like the concerns that arose when employees began working from home suddenly at the start of the pandemic, this transition to a permanent remote work pattern has many experts analyzing the implications for financial controls.

To understand how these internal controls can become compromised with remote workers, let’s examine the most important accounting controls in your business right now and discuss how you can strengthen them amid a remote work environment: