Does your company need an in-house accountant?

A good accountant may come at a high cost, but as business owners often quickly discover, the return on investment is far greater. Beyond managing your business's taxes, a good accountant closes the monthly books, generates monthly financial statements and drives weekly and monthly financial management.

Unfortunately, many business owners put off their financials until tax time, which may put them at a significant deficit in achieving strong financial performance. That's why it's crucial to hire an accountant—and to decide if bringing one in-house is right for your company.

What is an in-house accountant?

An in-house accountant is a part-time or full-time employee who performs accounting and bookkeeping tasks solely for your business. They perform many of the same tasks as outsourced accountants, including:

• Routine bookkeeping
• Account reconciliations
• Balance sheet accruals
• Filing income taxes, sales taxes and payroll taxes
• Entering vendor bills, routing for approval and paying as appropriate
• Managing and accounting for payroll
• Enforcing controls to prevent fraud

When having an in-house accountant makes sense

One advantage of having an internal accountant is that you'll always have a professional to turn to when you have questions about statements or reports. They can easily train other employees on how to create invoices and report expenses effectively. Plus, you'll be able to keep a better eye on activities, ensuring that your company's financial management practices closely align with the company's needs and culture.

In-house accountants and bookkeepers cost more, but this may not be true if you need a large team. Generally, by the time you need three full-time accountants, the markup an agency charges may outweigh the costs of hiring your own team.

The benefits of outsourcing accounting

The primary benefit of outsourcing accounting is the cost savings for smaller companies. When your accountant doesn't work in-house, you don't need to provide a physical space, hardware or software for them—or train them, pay taxes on them and provide benefits you give to full-time employees. Most staff at accounting agencies will be highly experienced and up to date with the latest laws and regulations. In addition, many are able to provide specialized expertise that may be harder to find with an in-house accountant.

Outsourcing also allows you to easily scale your accounting needs as your business changes. But you may also have to contend with the challenges of working with a person who isn't in your office and who supports multiple businesses—and who may not even be located in your time zone. You'll also have to accept the possibility of less control over your financial data.

How to decide which option is right for your company

Whether your company will benefit from having an in-house accountant depends on the reasons you need an accountant, as well as several other factors. Here are a few to consider.

• Business size: Businesses with less than $50 million in annual revenues will typically outsource, while larger companies are more likely to hire a full-time internal team.
• Customer invoicing: In-house staff who understand your contract terms, sales processes and client relationships are best suited for this role.
• Manufacturing accounts payable: Manufacturing businesses need to perform a three-way match on vendor bills. This is usually easiest when they're in the same building as the material receiving department.
• General accounts payable: General accounts payables services can easily be offshored to low-cost countries.
• Controller services and managers: Controllers and finance managers provide a critical layer of support and control. But controllers are usually expensive and don't need to spend a lot of time focused on one business, unless the business is large and complex. The role can typically be outsourced for less. Sometimes the same is true for managers.
• Bookkeeping: In-house bookkeeping can help manage daily transactions, but your company has to be large enough to pay someone well. Otherwise, you may end up with a person who's underqualified.

Once you've considered your operational needs, financial strategies and the size of your operations, you'll have a better idea of whether it's cost effective for your company to hire an in-house accounting team or to let outside professionals handle your accounting and bookkeeping needs.