Accounting: Do It Yourself Or Outsource?

While there are thousands of business owners in Malta, they all share the same general objectives. They need to grow their business and increase their margins, and usually, this includes reducing costs. Representing a significant cost to an enterprise, outsourced accounting is usually one of the costs to face the chop.

If running a business was as easy as differentiating between black and white, many more people would be in business. The truth is, operating a business successfully is incredibly challenging, and any decision, including one to cut costs, can impact your operations now or in the near future.

What’s the fuss with doing your own accounting anyway?

From the outside looking in, accounting is an easy numbers game that you can handle on your own with today’s technologies. It looks like just a matter of entering invoices and costs and working out the difference. You could say, it’s just as simple as putting one brick onto another and building a house.

Beyond the obvious profits and losses, cash flow records, and balance sheets, there is an entire study of accounting that truly deserves a degree. As a small business with minimal revenue, you may not require this expertise, but if you’ve got big ambitions, then having a skilled accounting professional is invaluable.

You could hire someone, but should you risk paying a full-time professional salary when you don’t need such an individual for 40 hours a week? Moreover, what if you need different sets of skills and expertise? How likely is it that you’d be able to find such a multi-skilled individual and also be able to afford them?

Doing your own accounting: what could go wrong?

If you’re building a shed on your own and it collapses, the damage would be contained and easy to deal with. Similarly, doing your own accounting for your side hustle or small business is a reasonable risk. However, for a growing or larger business, the potential consequences of incorrect accounting could be as devastating as a roof collapsing.

Any business in Malta must adhere to local, and in some cases regional regulations. Missing deadlines or submitting returns or documents that are filled incorrectly can lead to legal troubles and fines. Other errors or omissions may not lead to legal difficulties but could result in your business missing out on credits or incentives.

You also have to consider the time taken to do your own accounting. Every moment spent crunching the numbers is a moment lost from working on your business. If you’re doing the accountant’s work, who’s doing yours?

What changes when you partner with a reliable outsourced accountant?

Before we delve into the benefits of outsourced accounting, it is important to highlight the fact that not all accountants are the same. There are, believe it or not, accountants that are not too fond of their work, and are generally not very creative.

On the flip side, there are skilled and motivated professionals that are continually looking at how to use technologies to automate the boring parts of accounting and use their knowledge to focus on the fun elements of accountancy. Yes, we have used fun and accountancy in the same sentence!

Every decent accountant or accountancy firm will ensure that your business respects important deadlines and fills in tax returns and other documents in an accurate and proper manner. Whoever they are will have the responsibility to inform you of all your administrative and financial compliance obligations and guide you towards meeting them.

With such a professional, or team of professionals, you will be able to dedicate more time towards moving your business forward, knowing that your accounts are in reliable hands. You would also probably benefit from tax optimisation and other accountancy benefits. In many cases, you’ll also be able to scale your outsourced accountancy according to your needs.

Is there something better than a reliable outsourced accountant?

We’d like to think so, and our clients seem to agree. At NM Group, our focus shifts from the numbers, from the team, and from the deadlines, and is directly centred on your business. Our goal each day is to provide you with value-added services, which is why we’ve embedded this mission into our day-to-day operations.

Your journey at NM Group begins with a meeting with one of our trusted advisors. These advisors will take the time needed to understand your business and use their experience and network to support you.

Working closely with their colleagues in various departments, they identify opportunities for tax savings and, basing themselves on the numbers, suggest ways to improve efficiency, lower your risk exposure, and turn weaknesses into opportunities.

Your advisor will be your key point of contact at NM Group, but he or she will have an entire team made up of professionals in accounting, tax, auditing, grant funding, business planning and execution, expansion, internationalisation, legal, and economics.

The best part is, that you only pay for the services that you need, but when the need comes, we’re always just a phone call away.