HSA June 21

invest training and ongoing development at their own
expense. This means that you should no longer have to
worry about bearing the ongoing internal costs of hiring,
training and managing (and paying) bookkeeping staff
because your provider will have it covered.
4. Scalability
An experienced bookkeeping supplier should be
equipped to work with you in any number of ways -
whether it be the full outsourcing of your accounts
and bookkeeping functions, or taking care of a single
component of the bookkeeping function; whatever
suits your overall needs. And if your needs change, your
bookkeeping partner should have the ability to scale
accordingly and in a timely fashion.
5. Easier collaboration
The strength of your team working towards the
common goal of your business is key. Regardless of
whether you use outsourcing to complement your
internal team, a well-established external bookkeeping
team should act as an extension of your team. They
should be able to provide tangible examples and
referees that can attest to how they have helped
alleviate time, divided focus and reduced burden from
the internal staff of other organisations.
It is also critical that your operational bookkeeping
translates seamlessly into the information that your
Accounting Partner requires to meet your business’
compliance and reporting needs. Regardless of
whether your accounting partner sits on the other
side of the country, or next door to your bookkeeping
partner, having your processes and information welldocumented
and organised into an accessible, multiuser,
cloud-based environment means less time spent
(and billed) sorting through the information.
6. More security
The nightmare of all operators is the impact of a
fatal hardware/software/server crash. With so many
businesses storing key information on spreadsheets
and on desktops, the vulnerability to an unforeseen
computer crash is fodder for business nightmares.
Informed, modern, outsourced bookkeeping teams help
to alleviate these fears. Supported through a cloudbased
environment, your day-to-day financial operations
are run and backed up in the cloud. Goodbye local
hardware, software (or personnel) crashes!
Check that the credentials and listed partners of your
bookkeeping team match your expectations of a
supplier that is constantly evolving, staying on top of
the changing technology and qualified to assist your
business get the most out of the available tech and
software. Is your provider a Xero Platinum Partner?
Are they well-versed with MYOB, Quickbooks and
other legacy systems? Without proven experience
with a variety of systems, it might be questionable as
to whether they will be equipped to ensure that your
everyday bookkeeping information is accessible at the
touch of a button.
7. Specialised expertise
If you are going to outsource a function of your
business, you will want to ensure that you have
access to a talent pool of highly skilled bookkeeping
professionals whose key focus is delivering accurate
and timely results for your business. The following
should be queried when looking into a supplier:
• How often their Team Members actively participate
in ongoing professional up-skilling.
• How the organisation ensures that their knowledge
base is up-to-the-minute.
• What are the rigorous standards that they adhere to.
• Who oversees that their standards are assessed and
met, ongoing?
8. Free up your headspace
Finally, no plan for success is complete without a
roadmap to get there. Ensuring that your bookkeeping
processes match your businesses’ needs are critical
in enabling your operation to run as efficiently and
effectively as possible. Experienced bookkeeping
providers should be able to articulate how they
would go about assessing, discussing, designing,
and onboarding processes to (better) support your
business, if needed.
A great bookkeeping team will ensure adherence to
your approved processes, making sure that the right
people are responsible for the right approvals and that
the information they provide gets to the bookkeeping
team in a fast and accurate manner. And the all-critical
on-boarding process should allow for minimal to no
downtime, so that your day-to-day operations are
uninterrupted, and efficiencies felt from day one.
Pat Hodby
Pat Hodby and Tom Paine are Directors at Perks , South Australia’s leading
privately-owned accounting and private wealth firm. They are the driving force behind
the Perks Hospitality specialisation team and have both provided key advisory and
operational support to a number of owner-operators in the sector, ranging from the
structuring of their business, to back-of-house bookkeeping, to the streamlining
and digitization of their support systems. Pat is also an active industry advocate for
publicans and the hospitality industry and owns a successful pub in the Adelaide Hills.
Tom Paine
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