An increasing number of SMEs can grow whilst keeping a careful eye on overheads by using the flexibility and agility of insourcing key functions such as financial management. Routine finance and accounting services such as payroll and bookkeeping are regularly outsourced, but increasingly the more commercial areas of financial management, such as the roles of Financial Controllers and Finance Directors, can be insourced.

For many SMEs, the current pandemic has caused workloads in finance teams to shrink, so the resource needs to be re-evaluated; this has accentuated the need for strong financial discipline to help owners move from survival to prosperity. EFM is on hand to provide your SME business with expert skills to help you start growing, manage your working capital, help you reduce the ‘pile of debt’ built up through the pandemic, and create a survival plan.

Insourcing finance functions helps companies to save overheads such as staffing and infrastructure, as well as related HR, training, and staff development costs. It also helps companies to hire highly skilled and relevant resources ‘on tap’ to hit the ground running as their businesses move out of lockdown.

Other advantages include:

• Quality resources on demand- Hiring full-time finance professionals in the early stages of a business uses precious capital and is a distraction from the main focus on winning customers and developing products and services. Insourced finance processes give small companies access to quality professionals, at a fraction of the cost of hiring and improve business productivity.
• Managing your Working Capital- A finance expert can take a fresh look at your company from an outsider’s perspective and suggest ways to improve your working capital management to ensure you have enough cash headroom to trade. This often comes from a combination of funding facilities, better customer collection processes, and improved supply chain terms.
• Flexibility- Agility and a flexible business model and cost base will be crucial for SMEs to survive past the current pandemic. Part-time expertise supports the business owner by allowing the organisation to scale up (and down) quickly in response to developments in the business.
• Handling your Debt- From one recent survey of business owners, 39% of businesses have had to cease trading and more than 35% of them cited customers taking longer to pay invoices than usual. Since the outbreak in the UK, a quarter of SMEs have experienced increased bad debt, writing off an average of £34,500. (Data sourced from Coronavirus and the latest indicators for the UK economy and society: 4 June 2020 – Office for National Statistics)An experienced FD can take the reins of your finance team and strategically navigate your business through the demands of debt. Stricter credit management measures can be introduced to help you get paid quicker and on time, helping to put your mind at ease and safeguarding your cash flow.
• Focus on Core Business- Insourcing non-core functions helps SME founders and managers focus on the core functions of the business, confident in the knowledge that non-core activity is in expert hands.
• Agility- In addition to often improved quality of service, insourcing of finance and accounting helps the organisation with quicker production of relevant financial information helping decision making and boosting their overall performance.
• Do you really need a full-time resource?- Why pay for a full-time resource when you can pay for what you truly need? A finance job may not take as much time as you believe. Our research and experience indicate that most SMEs DO NOT need a full-time Head of Finance or Finance Director. A “pay as you go” expert is often the way forward for business owners looking to save cash and have access to experienced finance support, tailored to meet their budget and requirements.

A good example of this is how EFM recently supported a language £3m revenue services company, with their finance requirements to help improve their overall standing and save on budget as much as possible to ensure survival throughout the Covid pandemic. By replacing their full-time Head of Finance resource with one of our local part-time Finance Directors, we have managed to save the company up to £5k per month.

Business owners can get the bespoke support they need by insourcing their finance and accounting services to EFM. Our UK and Ireland team of experienced and multi-sector finance professionals range from high-level Finance Directors & Financial Controllers, to lower-level support functions, such as Bookkeepers, Credit Controllers & Payroll Managers.

To find out more around how EFM’s tailored financial management services can benefit your company, get in touch with the central team. Contact us via [email protected] or call 01582 516300 to set up your free initial consultation.