Accounting plays a crucial role in organizations, whether they are for profit or non profit, large or small. Accounting helps you track the flow of cash, whether it’s sales, expenses, a fixed (capital) asset, or a loan to further progress your organization. It is all part of the accounting processes and reporting. However, doing all of this can be stressful on your team, especially if you don't have enough people that specialize in these important areas.  

So What Does Accounting Services Mean And How Do They Function?

There are many types of accounting, which range from public accounting, government accounting, management and nonprofit accounting. Accounting types have their own different composition of accounting services and these could include the following tasks and/or positions:

1. Bookkeeping

2. Bank Reconciliations

3. Accounting Specialist

4. Controller

5. Chief Financial Officer

These accounting services play an important role in each accounting type. Without one of these services, it can be difficult for accountants to fully identify the cause of the problem or to improve the functionality of an organization.

Are you wondering how these services became so important? 

Let's go through each service briefly, one by one, and understand their value

Bookkeeping

It's a process of recording all financial transactions within an organization. Why is this important? Well, first bookkeepers update and monitor all of the incoming and outgoing transactions. Second, they collate data of these transactions and compile them to be able to track things on a certain accounting period. Third, without solid accurate bookkeeping, an organization's financial statements (balance sheet, income statement, etc) can be less accurate and less timely, thereby negatively impacting future decision making.

Bank (and credit card payable) Reconciliations

These processes can be done after bookkeeping tasks are looked after.  It’s not enough just to post bookkeeping transactions, but they must be reviewed and reconciled in order to confirm the bookkeeping transactions were entered correctly. This is basically reconciling your bookkeeping records to what is showing on the bank statement, and where there are differences, those need to be reviewed and resolved in the proper way. 

Accounting Specialist

After and/or during the bookkeeping tasks, additional help may be required to resolve accounting type issues.  Bookkeeping is normally the day to day, routine tasks that should be well documented and followed consistently.  Accounting specialists then review and monitor these tasks to make sure they are followed, and also provide resolutions to issues that can’t easily be resolved by bookkeepers.

Controller 

Controllers pick up from where bookkeepers and accounting specialists completed their work, and look after month end processes and review and issue historical reports to the management team. They work together with bookkeepers and accounting specialists, and also the Chief Financial Officer, to ensure the historical financial statements are as accurate as possible.

Chief Financial Officer

Chief Financial Officers (CFOs)  pick up from where the rest of the accounting department team have completed their work.  CFO’s then look to the future, up to 5 years (or more) at a time, to forecast and plan for where the organization can be, and what is needed to reach those goals and be sustainable in the long run.   Without CFOs, an organization can have a very well functioning accounting team, but lack the insight to plan for the future.  If there are changes (internally or externally) that the accounting team is not aware of, then the organization could be negatively impacted, and the worst case scenario being the closing down of the organization, since it can’t compete in that space for any number of reasons.

Adding Value To Your Organization

In conclusion, accounting services can be hard for some to understand if they have limited education, experience and expertise in this area.  However, it remains extremely important especially if you really want to sustain and create new value for your organization. Carefully and consistently tracking all your financial transactions and keeping accurate financial statements, to allow for better more accurate decision making,  can help to fulfil an organization’s goals and mission.

 

That is why here at Baac Office, we work with our customers to help them achieve some or all of what is noted above.   This can include dramatically shortening the learning curve for the organization’s current accounting team and/or strategically adding Baac Office resources to supplement the team for the future.   Our more than 20 years experience and expertise in web based accounting systems can help organizations achieve their desired future.

 

Want to know how we can contribute to your organization’s desired future? Click this link and book an initial FREE initial web meeting with us.