Is Payroll Outsourcing Right for Your Business? - 5 reasons Why it May Make Sense

The payroll function is a task every business performs, whether it is a small or a mid-sized company. Smaller firms that maintain a solid, predictable revenue stream, may manage their books internally with assistance from an independent accountant. The accountant is devoted to processing payroll for a limited number of staff members, but is that where your accountant's time is best spent? There are most likely other functions that require accounting level expertise, especially as your company grows.

As you acquire new clients and increase business, a single independent accountant may not be enough to manage your accounting and bookkeeping functions, and you may need to hire additional staff to manage the increased workload.

Outsourcing your payroll function can alleviate some of this increased workload while providing the following benefits:

Cost Savings: A dedicated in-house payroll department can be very expensive for a small business, as it requires skilled, experienced, manpower to process the payroll, maintain accurate records for various withholdings, and manage timely cash disbursements. By outsourcing the payroll function, you eliminate the need to hire a permanent employee to fulfill these duties, while still having access to the expertise required.

Reliability: Payroll errors are taken very seriously by authorities. Irrespective of previous, impressive financial record keeping, payroll errors can escalate into significant issues, creating long term problems for your company. When you outsource your payroll function, this responsibility shifts to the vendor to ensure accurate, error free payroll processing.

Optimized Manpower: By outsourcing the payroll function, your in-house staff is free to focus on other functions which are more critical to your customer relationships and business development. You can also save money on salaries that would have been distributed to hire a permanent employee with payroll expertise or reallocate funds that would have been earmarked for an accountant to perform these tasks to other more meaningful accounting functions.

Timely Payroll: An in-house payroll department is also responsible for tracking staff changes and new employee hires, as well as the associated paperwork. Performing these tasks diminishes in-house staff productivity due to significant administrative follow-up. However, outsourcing the payroll function assigns these duties to the payroll service provider. A payroll provider takes into consideration staff changes and various changes in withholdings as a result, factoring these into planning so that payroll processing occurs on-time.

Increased Security: When payroll is managed in-house, business owners must closely monitor the processing or have complete confidence and assurance that the employee performing this function is trustworthy and incapable of fraud. By outsourcing the payroll, this burden is placed on the payroll processing provider. As a business owner, you save time and financial resources otherwise spent on monitoring employees responsible for this function.

Ask yourself if outsourcing payroll is right for your business.

Satish Patel, CPA
President, Analytix Solutions
Satish Patel, Founder-CEO of Analytix Solutions, has more than two decades of experience as a CPA. He has also advised small and mid-sized businesses on diverse matters such as valuation, accounting, and finance. His experience extends to raising capital and arranging for finance from angel investors.

Profitability Is Not Just "Luck o'The Irish"

In March, even those of non- Irish descent tend to hope for a little St. Patrick's Day luck. After all, who wouldn't want to find that proverbial "pot of gold" at the end of the rainbow? For small to mid-sized businesses, even minor fluctuations in cash flow can have a larger scale impact. That "pot of gold" is easier to come by if you are closely monitoring your operating reports and have a clear understanding of the levers and indicators that impact profitability and cash flow generation. Disciplined analysis of your operating reports will help you determine how well your company accomplishes these things, an important practice for small to mid-sized businesses.

1. Revenue and Sales - Perhaps the most obvious driver of increased profitability is increased revenue or sales. However, almost as important as producing the revenue is monitoring your company's revenue generating trend. Small to mid-sized businesses should have a solid understanding of their daily sales and annual sales-to-date to ensure they are on target with revenue projections and goals. By not paying attention to these indicators, small to mid-sized businesses run the risk of falling short of their goals and finding themselves strapped for cash.

2. Operating Income and EBITDA - Operating income is the profit generated by a company after all operating expenses have been deducted from total revenue. Operating income is an essential metric, as it is a clear indicator of how well a business may be managing expenses as a function of revenue. Another indicator to monitor, which is similar to operating income, is EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization). EBITDA is a better measure of cash flow because it accounts for non-cash expenses, such as depreciation and amortization, which may be included on an operating report even though the cash outlay may have occurred several years prior.

3. Cash Flow - Cash flow is the amount of cash available for use by your business at various points in time. It is the manner in which cash flows in and out of your company. As a small to mid-sized business owner, you should have a solid understanding  of at what point cash is flowing into your business (via revenue and receivables), as well as how much and at what point cash is flowing out of your business in the form of monthly and annual expenses. Monitoring and maintaining healthy cash flow makes the difference between launching a business and staying in business.

4. Comparables - Monitoring all of the above indicators is critical to small and mid-sized companies. However, just as important to monitoring these items is comparing them to prior periods as a gauge to determine if your company is headed in the right direction. As a basis point, companies should evaluate these metrics as they compare to the week prior, month prior, and same quarter/ year prior. Are fluctuations in any of this data due to seasonal or economic changes, or are they isolated to your business? Analyze these figures as percentages as opposed to dollars to provide you with a better comparable.

5. Fixed vs. Variable Costs - Small and mid-sized businesses must also carefully consider both their fixed and variable costs. Fixed costs are predictable, set costs per item during a time period. Variable costs are costs that could increase as a result of increased business-cost of goods, increase in volume of materials, etc. If revenue levels remain consistent but variable costs are increasing, profit margins will erode. Although it that appears obvious, this is why business owners must closely monitor these indicators.

As a small business owner, having a clear understanding of each of these categories can help you self-generate your own "pot of gold". We are currently offering a free analysis of your business processes and accounting system. If you would like to learn more on how Analytix Solutions can help you gain a better understanding of how these things can help move your business forward, please call me directly at 781.503.9004 or email me at snpatel@aixsol.com

Satish Patel, CPA
President, Analytix Solutions
Satish Patel, Founder-CEO of Analytix Solutions, has more than two decades of experience as a CPA. He has also advised small and mid-sized businesses on diverse matters such as valuation, accounting, and finance. His experience extends to raising capital and arranging for finance from angel investors.

Reading Accounting and Bookkeeping Reports

Accounting and bookkeeping functions play a large role in deciding the financial viability of a business.

In the case of the small or mid-size companies, this holds all the more true. When every little decision and operation is determined based on budget, it makes sense to understand whether all your hard-earned money is allocated correctly.

In a typical small-sized business, the focus is concentrated on fulfilling client requirements and meeting deliverables. Manpower is often limited, with one individual managing multiple responsibilities. Opportunities for error in such situations increases, and therefore so does the significance of understanding your finances and correctly reading reports. Financial reports have a significant bearing on the future of your company. The golden rule for all small businesses remains constant: if you are not adept at financial reporting or uncertain about how to read them, hire professionals for conducting accounting-related work instead of trying to do it yourself.

However, if you do choose to review them yourself, there are several key elements that you should evaluate when reading them.

Income Statement

Your income statement will reflect your profits and losses. This is performed via columns on revenue and expenses. A summary of your revenue compared against the expenses incurred will indicate whether your business is performing well or not. The income statement typically reflects the growth or reduction in a company's assets over the accounting period which could be a single month, several months, or one year.

The income statement is also a comparative document for evaluating how your company has fared previously. It contains other factors such as net sales, gross income, operating income, operating expense, taxes, etc. When you read income statements for consecutive years side by side, you can calculate the percentage change in your company’s net sales, operating expenses, and operating income. This helps you establish a budget and to decide where you need to reduce expenses and allocate additional funding.

Balance Sheet

The balance sheet lists the company's assets, liabilities, and owner's equity. The owner's equity is the difference between the assets and the liabilities. The balance sheet is also an indicator of your company's financial health. When you evaluate a balance sheet, you should be able to assess whether your debt is in control.

Elements of a balance sheet include:

Assets: Assets are what the company owns, which may include movable and immovable properties, such as land or machinery equipment. There are two kinds of assets- current and fixed. Current assets are converted into money within a period of one year, while fixed assets refer to property that generates income and are not expected to be sold within a year.

Liabilities: Balance sheets also list liabilities which are debts owned by the company. These are categorized into current liabilities, those that need to be paid off within one year, and long-term liabilities, those that are not bound by the 1-year limit.

Owner's Equity: Once there are funds invested into a business, it is viewed as a sum of assets and liabilities. A business must be funded to make it operational before it can start acquiring assets. The owner's equity is the value that remains in a business after removing the liabilities from the assets.

Statement of Cash Flow

How does your company use its cash? Your cash flow statement will provide you the answer to this question. Cash flow statements assign cash expenses within a specified accounting period to one of three categories-, Operations, Financing, and Investing. These are then added to determine a figure which is further tallied with cash reserves in the beginning of the accounting period. Examples of elements within a statement of cash flow can include cash given to employees (operative expense), cash allocated to purchasing machinery or equipment (investing), and cash provided by owner (financing).

All business owners should have a thorough understanding of what these statements mean in determining the success of their company.

Satish Patel, CPA
President, Analytix Solutions
Satish Patel, Founder-CEO of Analytix Solutions, has more than two decades of experience as a CPA. He has also advised small and mid-sized businesses on diverse matters such as valuation, accounting, and finance. His experience extends to raising capital and arranging for finance from angel investors.