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What to Look for in an Outsourced Accounting Relationship

What to Look for in an Outsourced Accounting Relationship

  • May 6, 2022
  • Executive Series

Handing over your company’s financial books and records to a firm can sometimes be intimidating. You’ll want to make sure the outsourced accounting firm is trustworthy and dependable. Plus, there are other qualities that you’ll want to identify beforehand. To help you get the most out of your outsourced accounting relationship, we’ve put together some tips and tricks that we’ve learned over the years.

Set Clear Expectations

Identify your company’s top priorities before you take the plunge that can ensure you’re partnering with a financial provider that will meet and exceed your requirements. To do so, you will need to be clear and upfront about your expectations. When you are building this relationship, make your priorities clear. Discuss your company’s business strategy, roadmap, and what role you would like the accounting team to support those goals. Also, describe your company’s top priorities and what needs improvement. Don’t be scared to share details of your business’s financial health. The more background and accurate information you provide, the better they understand how to help.

Communication is Key for Outsourced Accounting

To be successful with an outsourcing accounting firm, you will need to build a strong line of communication and be sure to check in on a regular basis. Clear and direct communication is essential for any strong business relationship. Make sure to schedule routine conversations for you to stay up-to-date on all operations. Don’t hesitate to reach out any time you have any questions or concerns. Furthermore, make sure the outsourced provider is providing clear check-ins and lines of communication for you to utilize.

Protecting Sensitive Information

Another key aspect of a strong accounting relationship is security and dependability. During your vetting process, try to identify if they are reliable and how they will protect your information. Before you hire an outsourced accounting firm, check their references to help see if they meet your standards. You’ll also want to investigate their network security and data monitoring to ensure that they can keep your company’s financial data secure.

Outsourced Accounting Data

Accurate, reliable data will enable you to properly make decisions regarding your organization’s future plans. Outsourced accounting firms should be able to provide and explain the information you need to make informed decisions. This data is crucial so you can understand how your company is doing and make projections. This will also help you identify opportunities for improvement to further your business and meet your goals.

Next Level Now: Your Trusted Partner

Next Level Now is a trusted partner that will go above and beyond for your company. We serve as a reliable resource for business owners to lean on in times of uncertainty. We will outline a road map for your upcoming year and work with you to hit your company’s target goals. Let us provide a personalized business plan that supports your management team.

Choose Next Level Now for all your outsourced accounting needs and let us help your business SOAR. Our knowledgeable, experienced team can help your business grow and improve profitability. We would be happy to answer your questions and help you with your needs. Contact us today to see how Next Level Now can help get you on track to financial success.

4 Important Tips for Managing a Business

4 Important Tips for Managing a Business

  • September 16, 2021
  • CFO TipsExecutive Series

A little while back, we were working with a client that had to close its doors. It sucked for us, it sucked for management, it sucked for the employees, and it sucked for the board and the investors. As we collectively and individually went through the various stages of grief associated with the death of this company and what it meant to each of us, we considered our own individual roles in the closure and thought about what we could have done differently when managing this business.

This one was like the little train that could—until it couldn’t. A facility design flaw proved too much to overcome without major changes to the floorplan. A lot of people gave a lot to try to make it work, but in the end, it was not enough. Some lost money, some lost jobs, others lost dreams. It might seem odd that we are sharing this story as, obviously, failure is never the goal when building a new venture or taking an existing one in a different direction. Of course, we anticipate a certain number of defeats and setbacks along the journey—and we should.

How to Avoid Failure When Managing a Business

In an ongoing entity, good management—financial management a subset—is about making sure you can make mistakes if they are not catastrophic. In a startup environment, however, you may not have as much room for errors because they usually don’t have the inertia and resources that up-and-running companies do. Startups can be set up to allow failure if that one failure doesn’t jeopardize the supporting organizations or individuals. However, we forget that sometimes failure might be the result of all our efforts which, in turn, makes it is easy to ignore the warning signs or not perform the necessary reality checks.

When these catastrophic failures happen, we must learn and grow from them. But, perhaps more importantly, we also must be realists in assessing where we are at any given time. That means not believing our own press clippings, having a healthy level of paranoia about what is around the corner, digging into the numbers and listening when they have a contrary story to tell. Over the years we have seen just about anything and everything across companies we have worked with. While we, too, are always learning, our decades of experience have given us some insight into how to avoid this fate. Review the four tips below for managing a business.

Business Strategy: Know Where You are Going

Work with your management team to identify where the company is headed. So often we get caught up in doing the same things over and over—and trying to get better at them—that we don’t pick our head up to look at how our business landscape has changed or how our company should be changing. As leaders we need to challenge each other about why we are in business, what we can be great at, what we don’t want to do and what needs to change. From that, we can develop a clear set of goals.

Business Tactics: Have a Plan When Managing a Business

Have a dynamic, often-referenced business plan. Not one that sits on a shelf and collects dust. A one page business plan to create clarity around your goals. Have a set of projections with monthly balance sheet, income statements and cash flow that identify the resources needed and support those goals. Make your mistakes in a spreadsheet before you commit dollars and hours to unsustainable plans. Then every month, every quarter update them to reflect your new reality.

Business Execution: Carrying Your Plan Through

Back when I used to do a lot of scuba diving, the saying was “plan your dive, dive your plan”. Have KPI’s (key performance indicators) in place that measure your progress against your plans—just a handful at the top level. They are called “key” for a reason. Think along the lines of, “if I don’t do X, then my business will fail”. Measure your key indicators every week. Don’t wait until the end of the month. You need time to react if things are not going as you expected. If you execute on them, you will execute on the plan.

Business Evaluation: Adjust When Needed

The value of going through the above exercises is understanding the drivers, revenues, costs, and cash flows of your business. Every day we get one day smarter. When things are not aligned with your plan, dig into the numbers and identify why you are not getting the results you expect. Then, change what you need to get back on course. Believe the numbers even when they are not telling you what you want to hear. If your systems are good, your numbers are right, so trust them. Having the discipline to follow these four tips for managing a business will significantly increase your chances of success.

Moral of the Story for Managing a Business

Pay attention; don’t just go through the motions of management. Good leadership and management are hard work (or anyone could do it). We were entrusted with people’s lives and hard-earned money. We owe it to them to actively drive for success and look for the signs of success or failure and react when we recognize them. Fail, as long as it is not catastrophic. Fail again and again. Learn. Don’t let it hold you back from your next project, endeavor, or opportunity. As far as the company that we mentioned at the beginning, there is a chance that this company will be resurrected again under different ownership, or the assets sold to take on a new life. It’s the circle of entrepreneurial life.

Contact Us to Learn More Business Tips

Are you struggling to get your business on the right track to success? Are you finding it difficult to juggle the important financial responsibilities of your business, while fulfilling your sales and visionary duties as a business owner? Contact us to get the help you need. Our experienced, dedicated team of financial experts can offer the assistance needed to help your business thrive.

Filling Your Sales Pipeline After the COVID-19 Pandemic

Filling Your Sales Pipeline After the COVID-19 Pandemic

  • May 21, 2021
  • Executive Series

The COVID-19 pandemic caused many businesses’ sales pipelines to dry up. So, our CEO Ken Peterson spoke with John Barrows, CEO of JBarrows Sales training about how businesses can get back on track in a post-pandemic world.

Restocking Your Business’ Sales Pipeline

The conversation below discusses:

  • How ideal customer profiles have changed
  • How persona priorities have changed
  • Ways to craft your messaging to drive results

Watch Ken and John’s conversation now, then contact us to learn more about how we can help you.

 

Book Recommendations for Entrepreneurs

  • May 21, 2021
  • Executive Series

The leaders at Next Level Now enjoy reading and recommending books to our clients. Browse our ever-growing list of favorites below. As Peter Drucker once said, “Knowledge is Power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement.”

 

Next Level Now Reading List

The Daily Drucker, Peter F. Drucker

The Ecological Vision, Peter F. Drucker

Good to Great, Jim Collins

Great by Choice, Jim Collins & Morten T. Hansen

Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, Jim Collins & Jerry Porras

The Advantage, Patrick Lencioni

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni

The Four Obsessions of Extraordinary Executive, Patrick Lencioni

Death by Meeting, Patrick Lencioni

Getting Naked, Patrick Lencioni

Tribe, Seth Godin

The Icarus Deception, Seth Godin

Fierce Conversations, Susan Scott

Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, Verne Harnish

Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t (Rockefeller Habits 2.0), Verne Harnish

Selling the Invisible, Harry Beckwith

The Invisible Touch, Harry Beckwith

Execution, The Discipline of Getting Things Done, Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan

Speak Like A CEO, Suzanne Bates

Motivate Like A CEO, Suzanne Bates

jack – Straight from the Gut, Jack Welch

The 8th Habit – From Effectiveness to Greatness, Stephen R. Covey

Thinking for a Change (11 ways highly successful people approach life & work), John C. Maxwell

Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell

Business Brilliant, Lewis Schiff

First, Break All the Rules, Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman

The Tao of Coaching, Max Landsberg

In Search Of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies, Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr.

Originals, Adam Grant

The Great Game of Business, Jack Stack

The Talent Delusion, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play, Mahan Khalsa & Randy Illig

The E-Myth Revisted: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It, Michael Gerber

The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done, Peter Drucker

The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization, Peter Senge

First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently, Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman

How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie

Key Management Ratios, Ciaran Walsh

CEO Tools, Kraig Kramers

Keeping Score, Mark Graham Brown

No Excuses Management, T.J. Rodgers

Use our Contact Us page to message us about any books we should know about!

The Inaugural Executive Series Event – A Big Success!

  • February 6, 2020
  • Executive Series

The first event of 2020 kicked off on January 29 at Grill 28/Pease Golf Course. The Executive Series Moderator/CFO, Matt Towse welcomed our guest panel of Brandi Bonds, CFO at Next Level Now, John-Michael Girald, Founder of Peloton Advisory, Julie Morse and Peter Burger, Business Attorneys with Orr & Reno. The topic was M&A and we explored the different stages and opened up the discussion to an engaged room of business owners, finance professionals, and investment partners.

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