Lee Sharman
Partner
Outsourced Finance Team
Our fully outsourced finance service is completely tailorable to suit your needs and budget.
Resource to suit your business with outsourced finance expertise
For many businesses, outsourcing financial roles offers significant benefits. It provides access to high-level expertise and skilled professionals without the commitment of hiring full-time staff, providing much needed flexibility to employers – paying only for the time they need a professional at the required level. By outsourcing, businesses can scale their support as needed, reduce overhead costs, and focus on other important areas while ensuring their financial operations are handled by experienced specialists.
Why is outsourcing so attractive to businesses?
Recent changes have made outsourcing an increasingly attractive option for many businesses. Rising employment costs, such as National Insurance (NI) increases, mean that hiring staff directly is becoming more expensive. At the same time, regulatory demands in the financial sector are continuing to grow, particularly in how financial information must be recorded – something that’s especially relevant for organisations preparing for audit.
For not for profit (NFP) organisations, governance is facing increased scrutiny, driven not by regulatory thresholds alone, but by trustees – due to the wider economic pressures. Even smaller NFPs are feeling the weight of this shift, needing to demonstrate robust governance practices. At the same time, the cost and challenge of recruiting experienced professionals who are familiar with the charity landscape, and can install governance, is rising.
Several key factors are driving the shift towards outsourcing:
- Rising employment costs: As the cost of employing staff increases, outsourcing provides a cost-effective alternative.
- Competitive recruitment market: With talent in high demand, businesses are finding it more difficult to recruit skilled financial professionals, making outsourcing a practical solution.
- Increased regulation: The ever changing and growing complexity of regulatory requirements, often means smaller organisations are unable to stay abreast of updates. The cost and challenge of recruiting quality CFOs is increasing, and combined with continuous regulatory developments, means that individuals in this role may struggle to keep up with developments.
- Rapid technological advancements: Significant developments in financial technology mean that businesses can quickly fall behind if they don’t adapt. Transitioning to new systems can be challenging, but outsourcing providers often have the expertise and systems to facilitate these changes quickly.
Roles Price Bailey outsource:
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Finance Director (FD)/Chief Financial Officer (CFO)/Head of Finance
This role is typically the most senior financial professional within an organisation. Their role is to interpret financial data to provide strategic oversight.
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Finance Manager/Controller
Typically handle the more complex financial tasks; month-end processes such as close-downs, reconciling the balance sheet, prepayments, and managing financial reporting. They often act as payment authoriser due to having a holistic view of the organisation’s finances.
Financial Managers/Controllers will often complete the operational financial tasks, including data entry, reconciliations, invoicing, payment processing, and other day-to-day financial operations. This role will also provide assurance, data verification and cleansing to ensure the financial information used in decision making is correct.
By outsourcing these roles, businesses gain flexibility and access to expertise not typically available in-house within an SME . These roles can be outsourced individually – outsourcing just part of the finance function – or the entire finance department can be outsourced.
Why choose Price Bailey for outsourced finance services?
- Part of your business: Our outsourced finance team operates as an extension of your business. We handle tasks like managing inboxes, chasing debtors, and more, so it feels like your finance function is based in-house. We manage tasks with a suitably qualified individual meaning you will have more than one point of contact with Price Bailey.
- Bespoke services: We don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach, and tailor every engagement to meet your specific requirements.
- Consistent team support: You’ll have a dedicated team of professionals assigned to your account. Even when our team members take annual leave, we will ensure continuity with internal cover from our team members who are already familiar with your organisation.
- Contact time: We want to encourage our team members to spend as much time as possible with clients getting to know you and understanding your ambitions and challenges. Only by spending this time with you, building up valuable relationships, can we truly be confident that we are providing the service you want. This is time we do not charge for.
- Access to expertise: Every member of our team is either training to be, or is a qualified, bookkeeper/accountant, ensuring you work with skilled professionals who understand your needs. Our CPD and expertise within Price Bailey mean that we are able to stay informed of regulatory changes – providing you with timely and forward-thinking support where appropriate.
- Flexible commitment: We offer complete flexibility, with no fixed-term contracts – just a simple one-month notice period.
- Transparent fees: Our pricing is fully reflective of the service we provide you, fixed fee, with no hidden costs, so you always know where you stand.
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Contact us today to find out more about how we can help you
How does an outsourced finance team integrate with your existing team?
Our approach to integration is entirely flexible and tailored to suit your business. We don’t dictate or impose restrictions on software or systems – our goal is to align with your existing systems and processes whilst providing advice on efficiencies and risk mitigation.
Whether you use Xero, Sage 200, AccountsIQ, SAP, Netsuite, or Intact – amongst many others – we can adapt to your needs. We often work with industry-specific operational tools, including stock management systems.
For businesses requiring short-term support, such as maternity or paternity cover, we are highly experienced in stepping in at short notice. Our team quickly learns your systems, integrates with your team, and ensures a smooth handover when the engagement concludes. This level of flexibility allows us to provide the right level of support without disrupting your operations.
Lee Sharman, Head of Outsourcing
We can work remotely or on-site, depending on your preferences. While most clients choose remote engagements, we are able to work in-house if required. Access arrangements can be tailored to your security policies, whether it’s direct access to your systems, using Citrix type environments, or remote tools. For file management, we adapt to all platforms including iManage, SharePoint, and Google Drive.
Areas often outsourced:
- International and domestic day-to-day data input/bookeeping
- Specific roles e.g. FD, FM and FC
- Short term cover for maternity/paternity leave
- Management accounts
- Reconciliations
- Accounts payable reviews
- Sales invoicing and credit control
- Budgeting and forecasting
- Cash flow forecasting
- VAT compliance
- Tax compliance
- Strategy and business planning
What is our onboarding process?
1. Initial meeting to understand the scope of work and fee indication
We begin by discussing the key elements that matter most to you, such as the systems you use, your preferred protocols, and what aspects of your finance operations you’d like to outsource. Following this, we provide a clear outline of our understanding of the work, including estimated timeframes and costs. This is a collaborative process, so you have the opportunity to adjust the scope of work if your requirements change or evolve.
2. Introductory meeting with your relationship holder
Next, we arrange a call with your dedicated relationship holder to ensure a smooth transition. From here, we’ll complete the onboarding process, which is conducted electronically and typically finalised within a week.
3. On-site visit to review systems and processes
We generally visit your premises to conduct a comprehensive review of your current systems and processes. This helps us determine how best to gain access and implement efficient workflows. During this review, we may also identify opportunities for greater efficiency or recommend systems that better support governance, offering insights into the benefits of each option.
4. Roles and responsibilities document
A key part of the onboarding is creating a roles and responsibilities document. This will clearly outline the tasks your team will continue to manage in-house, the tasks we will take on, the frequency of each (e.g. weekly, fortnightly, monthly) and the associated timelines. If there are specific reporting requirements and deadlines, we ensure these are documented. Once the document is agreed upon, we gain access to your systems and confirm a handover date.
5. Implementation and ongoing review
Once we take on the work, the results usually speak for themselves. However, after three months, we conduct a review of the scope and costings to ensure that everything is running as expected and aligned with your initial objectives.
What are the challenges of outsourcing financial roles, and how do we overcome them?
When businesses transition to an outsourced finance team, there are some potential challenges they may feel arise. One of the most common is the realisation that internal finance teams often handle a wider variety of tasks than initially expected. During the process of defining roles and responsibilities, we sometimes discover that internal finance teams are involved in administration duties too. In addition to defining roles, this process allows for a reallocation of tasks to less expensive/administrative staff. We also often surprise prospect clients with what tasks we can take on as an outsourced provider.
Another concern, particularly for businesses that have never outsourced before, is a sense of scepticism around the offering – questions like, “will they be flexible?” and “will the outsourced team understand our business and make the right decisions?” It’s understandable to have these concerns, however, we allow the time as part of our onboarding to truly understand your organisation, its challenges and ambitions.
For high-growth businesses, there can sometimes be a concern that outsourcing will lead to rapidly increasing costs. Our fees are designed to grow with the business in a variable nature. We have a transparent approach to pricing, with fees directly impacted by involvement and volume, both tangible variables.
Integration and continuity; when it comes to integration, we have extensive experience of onboarding finance teams of all structure and size. We understand how different teams operate, and are able to integrate quickly, no matter the complexity of your organisation. We work through a structured onboarding process, and as standard produce a roles and responsibilities document that clearly defines the outsourced provider and in-house team’s involvement.
We understand the importance of security and invest heavily in safeguarding your data. We implement automation where possible to reduce manual intervention and ensure that your information is handled securely. Our IT security budget and policies are extensive, and we work to specific standards.
Additionally, by partnering with us, you’ll benefit from exclusive reductions on software, as we pass on the cost savings from our supplier relationships – something many outsourcing providers do not offer.
What are some frequently asked questions our team are asked?
How do you structure fees?
We provide an annual cost, fixed fee so long as the scope of work does not materially change, and issue monthly bills paid via direct debit, ensuring that clients don’t face large payments at the year-end. This provides a smooth, predictable payment structure.
How much does outsourcing cost?
As our services are fully tailored to meet the specific needs of each client, the cost varies depending on the scope and services provided. We don’t offer ‘standard’ pricing, as each engagement is bespoke.
Who is your ideal client?
Our services are not the lowest-cost option, and our ideal client is someone who:
- Requires a bespoke service tailored to their needs.
- Values sector expertise and specialised advice.
- Embraces forward-thinking technology and software.
- Seeks flexibility and adaptability from their outsourced finance supplier.
- Wants a provider to become a true extension of their organisation, aligned with their goals and ambitions and offering clever insight.
Do you provide maternity/paternity leave cover?
Yes, we specialise in providing maternity and paternity leave cover. Our team is well-equipped to step in and provide support during these periods, ensuring continuity and minimal disruption. Our service includes a full handover before the person leaves the business, and a full hand back upon their return.
We can help
Contact us today to find out more about how we can help you
