8 Things to Know While Choosing a Finance and Accounting BPO

From the early 1990s, the Finance and Accounting BPO market (Finance and Accounting outsourcing market) has been increasing. However, earlier, only the companies in the United States went to an F&A BPO company.

Now, as more companies realize the benefits of outsourcing F&A services, more people are looking for BPO companies.

What do you mean by finance and accounting outsourcing services?

Outsourcing F&A services means the company is handing over some of its finance & accounting functions to a specialized third-party provider.

Companies do this because they can save time and money by doing this. It also gives them more time to focus on their essential operations, ultimately improving efficiency.

Choosing your outsourcing partner is the most crucial decision you make for your Finance and Accounting (F&A) department. Generally, Finance and Accounting Business Process Outsourcing is considered a long-term relationship. But, choosing a trusted F&A BPO service provider is challenging. In this blog, you’ll learn how you can choose a reliable finance outsourcing company.

• CFOs in organizations across industries are constantly under pressure for value propositions driven by cost savings and efficiency. It compels them to search for an outsourcing partner. CFOs have been ready to outsource multi-process Finance and Accounting (F&A) functions for more complex processes as the business grows. These include treasury, tax strategy, and financial planning.
• Also, a sudden outbreak of the COVID has transformed business processing worldwide in function, scope, reach, and application. It has led more organizations to implement Finance and Accounting BPO services.

More and more organizations that are looking to expand prefer outsourcing mainly to access the vast range of its benefits.

BPO companies invest in capabilities and automation that reposition them from just a delivery model service for transactional activities. Finance and accounting outsourcing companies have numerous advantages. These are mainly: economies of scale, large volumes of transactional data, and global access to digital talent.

• Fast-track to future-ready finance operations
• A simplified and harmonized process with automation
• Cost-efficiency
• Improved productivity
• Greater focus with specialized teams
• Higher quality and standardization
• Competitive advantage

Following factors are the critical inclusions to the things that a company should consider while choosing an F&A BPO partner:

1. Quality of Resources
   An organization should look at the skillset and technology of the outsourcing company. Your BPO partner should have access to better talent and advanced technology so that F&A processes can be completed timely and more efficiently. BPO providers automate data entry to increase accuracy and efficiency. If you think that the partner can meet the quality you require, you should go ahead with it.
2. Security
   Outsourcing to a third-party service provider means you are sharing sensitive financial information of your company with the provider. So, you have make sure your financial records are safe with them. Any security breach can cost you hugely. So, the finance and accounting BPO company must have proper data security measures and compliance in place.
3. Agility of Team
   Changes are constant even in businesses. Your F&A BPO provider should be adaptable to changes promptly when you are scaling your business. It should continue providing high-quality services.
4. Stability and Continuity
   As outsourcing is considered a long-term relationship, companies should look at the stability of the outsourcing company. You may be apprehensive that your service provider might change management that affects the terms or duration of the contract. Most organizations prefer large BPO service providers with a large scale of operations as their scale and experience can offer them a better quality of services continually.
5. Cost-Effectiveness and Capability
   Cost-saving is the primary objective of an organization associated with finance and accounting outsourcing solutions. Cost-effectiveness is highly dependent on the efficiency of the services provided. Outsourcing F&A services can help a company reduce its overhead costs such as training, insurance, health cost, etc. This is because outsourcing helps to employ people from countries where the cost of living is low.
6. Government, Risk, Compliance
   Regulations, tax policies, and accounting rules can change with political disruptions or in order to meet the growth prospects in different outsourcing countries. Your F&A BPO partner, whether offshoring or nearshoring, should be able to make you compliant before alarming irregularity.
7. Experience
   An organization should look at the track record of the outsourcing provider. Look at the clients it has served, its current clients, and the success rate of its previous contracts. You can check if the former clients renewed their association with them.
8. Adherence to SLAs
   A service-level agreement (SLA) is a contract between a BPO service provider and its customers that states the service provider’s services and what service standards the provider has to meet.
   At some point in time, there might be disagreements between the BPO firm and the client. This could be due to misunderstandings in the requirements of the contract. So, it is very important that the client signs an SLA with the BPO firm so that both parties are aware of their roles and responsibilities.

For the finance and accounting BPO market, Gartner forecasts that 40% of finance organizations may outsource to a single BPO service provider for all F&A operations by 2023 (24% in 2019). The largest industry sectors for F&A outsourcing are:

• Telecom, software, and high tech
• Manufacturing
• Utilities and Energy
• Financial Services

To drive functional transformation, organizations consider a range of F&A processes, including:

P2P, O2C, R2R, FP&A are amongst the Finance and Accounting Digital outsourcing services that many organizations prefer for digitization and process improvement. One of the leading Finance and Accounting outsourcing companies is ARDEM enabling their clients to leverage technology for F&A processes.

ARDEM, is a popular finance and accounting BPO firm because of its technology-driven finance and accounting solutions. We help companies in many ways. These are:

• Improve Operational Efficiency and Reduce Costs: Provides finance and accounting outsourcing services to streamline operations and cut expenses. 
• Augment Finance Teams: Brings qualified finance and accounting staff to support or manage accounting processes. 
• Automate Financial Processes: Utilizes business process automation for invoice processing and accounts payable management. 
• Manage Various Accounting Tasks: Handles accounts payable, reconciliation, financial ratio analysis, accounts receivable, invoice processing, and payment reconciliations. 
• Accounts Payable Services: Automates the accounts payable services to streamline the vendor bills to payment cycle. 
• Accounts Receivable Services: Enhances checks received and bank reconciliation processes in accounts receivable services. 
• Bookkeeping Services: Increases financial visibility and reduces high accounting costs. 
• Invoice Processing Services: Automates data collection from vendor invoices. 
• Accounting Services: Increases accuracy and decreases cycle times through automation. 
• Financial Services: Provides greater visibility of financial data to support data-driven decisions and growth. 
• End-to-End Accounts Payable Solutions: Offers skilled team members and comprehensive accounts payable solutions. 
• Reduce Collection Costs: Manages accounts receivable needs, reducing cash cycle and bad debt. 
• Invoice Automation Platform: Utilizes advanced technology and robust processes to tackle in-house challenges. 
• QuickBooks Accounting Services: Provides qualified bookkeepers with QuickBooks experience to improve operational costs. 
• Finance and Accounting Automation: Implements automation solutions like robotic process automation or RPA to increase efficiency, accuracy, and productivity. 
• Digital Transformation: Helps businesses adopt digital approaches to streamline operations, improve compliance, and enhance efficiency. 
• Back-Office Optimization: Provides a dedicated project manager, full IT support, and highly qualified team members to boost efficiency and accuracy. 
• Streamline Processes: Applies automation technologies to reduce cycle times and simplify processes for continued growth.

Choosing the right finance and accounting BPO partner can transform your business operations. ARDEM offers comprehensive services to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Schedule a free consultation today to learn how our specialized team and advanced technology can streamline your finance and accounting processes, allowing you to focus on growth and innovation.