In today’s tight employment market, it can take months to replace an accountant. Meantime, look for ways to delegate, upgrade technologies, and outsource.
My Accountant Left. Now What?
There’s an incredible amount of movement in today’s job market, as people leave their existing positions to take time off or accept other job offers. It can be especially unsettling for businesses if one of the employees who choose to move on fills an essential function like accounting.
If your accountant has left or might leave soon, now’s the time to take a hard look at changes you can make to ensure that your day-to-day accounting functions continue to be performed accurately and on time.
Delegate if you can
The first step is to assess the position that’s been left behind to understand what exactly the employee has been doing as part of their job. Most of the responsibilities should be laid out in their job description, but often those basic descriptions are altered over time by the employee.
You can then start to determine which of the former employee’s tasks can be delegated to other team members. With luck, many essential functions can continue to be performed well by others, at least in the short term. In the long term, burdening existing staff with added responsibilities may not be a recipe for success.
Upgrade your technology
An experienced accountant may have been accustomed to spreadsheet-based accounting and other manual, “old-school” processes that are difficult for others to perform accurately and efficiently.
Upgrading to the latest cloud-based accounting solutions is one way to overcome those challenges. Integrated software can help streamline everyday processes like billing and invoicing, improve collaboration across the business, and reduce overall costs as less time needs to be spent on manual entry and other tasks.
Outsource to trusted professionals
Businesses are increasingly outsourcing some or all of their accounting responsibilities, in part because of the difficulty of finding, hiring, training, and retaining internal accounting staff.
Outsourced accounting firms also offer the latest technology platforms and software, so businesses can take advantage of better technology without having to buy and maintain it in-house.
Once you find an experienced consulting firm, you can outsource whichever back-office responsibilities you want, without having to pay benefits, without fear that they’ll leave for another job, and without needing to purchase your own state-of-the-art accounting solutions.
Get the support you need
BST offers a broad portfolio of accounting and auditing, tax, consulting, and wealth management services, as well as valuation, forensic accounting, and litigation support. Our Virtual Accounting Solutions include everything from managing daily accounting operations to producing reports and collaborating on strategic planning and budgeting. Whether your accountant has left or needs additional support, we are here to serve as your trusted advisors, providing continuous consulting to support every step of your journey.
