7 Questions You Need to Ask Before Hiring In-house, Local or Online Accountant

• Reading Time: 4 Minutes
• Published: November 9, 2020
• Last Updated: February 7, 2025

Sydney, with over 5 million population, is home to approximately 65% of New South Wales’s population, it is also the most populous city in Australia. Sydney is one of the world’s major business centers, and it attracts a lot of multinational companies as well. It has over 70,000 plus businesses registered in 2019. The number has increased ever since even if the percentage of new business has dropped due to COVID. In fact, a lot of business has shut down permanently during COVID.

While it was impossible to avoid this unfortunate turn of event in some like hospitality, tourism, etc., but it is essential to understand that it is not sheer luck that some businesses were able to sustain during the pandemic. Businesses had done strategic financial planning which helped them to survive at unprecedented times, but it is challenging to forecast external factors, especially factors which are impacted by natural events. One major factor in helping business in difficult times is the precise and effective financial planning it has done in advance, which take into consideration that unpredictable external factors might affect future function.

Effective financial planning is not an easy task nor something that every person can conduct. Many businesses had fall prey to processing their bookkeeping and accounting methods just to cut costs ending up in financial chaos. Hiring an accountant or availing services from a local accountant or outsourced service provider is the correct way of going forward for a business’s finance function. There are more than 500 accountant firms with thousands of accountants in Sydney CBD alone, there is also the option of hiring an expert in-house accountant or hiring an accounting service provider. As a business owner, you must know the pros and cons of each method and how it will impact your business. You should be asking these questions to yourself to understand your business needs better and to go for a method best suited for your business.

What is the size of your business?

First and foremost, your choice of selection for accounting service is highly dependent on the size of your business as it indicates your capacity to hire in terms of cost, infrastructure, and training. For small and medium enterprises hiring a local accountant or outsourced service provider is best suited as it requires minimum supervision. And for the larger corporation, the choice is dependent on the need to hire an expert consultant who can help the business focus on its core activity.

How much are you willing to invest in your finance function?

You have to do detailed research and recruit an in-house accountant who is an expert yet does not cost you more than your budgeted cost to the company, and this is applicable for local accountants and outsourced service providers as well. Hiring an accountant in Sydney for your team in-house can be a costly affair both in-house and locally, here outsourcing from a service provider operating from developing nations can help cut down a significant amount of cost to the company.

Which industry do you belong to?

Each business faces unique challenges, and some challenges are rooted in the industry it operates within. It is a must to hire someone has who has experience in your industry, and you can do so by hiring an accountant who has worked earlier in the same industry. In case of availing services from a local accountant or outsourced service provider, you must make sure that they have either current clients or worked with clients of the same industry.

Can you rightly judge an accountant’s expertise?

Recruitment is a highly challenging task, and recruitment of a professional like an accountant can be more complicated than ever for someone who does not have the expertise in the same. As a business owner, you need to take help from a recruitment agency who can help you with hiring, and the same applies when it comes to hiring a local accountant. To select the right accountant, you have to be an expert or at least well informed to rightly judge their expertise. In outsourcing, only experts are hired by the service providers, thus reducing your headache of the recruitment process.

Which accounting software are you using?

Select an in-house accountant, local accountant, or online hire virtual accountant service who are proficient in the use of accounting software you are using. If you don’t use any accounting software, do your research and select software or two that suits your business requirement. When hiring makes sure, they are fully proficient in the accounting software that you are planning to use or top accounting software like MYOB, Xero, or QuickBooks so that you can take advantage of the same.

Do you have the time and resources to invest in training and skilling your accountant?

If your answer is no, don’t opt for an in-house accountant. You can explore the option of a local accountant or outsourced accounting service provider. Training and skilling crucial process as your accountant needs to on their toe all the time with the current law and legislation, accounting standards, and changes in the same. Not being able to do so can result in legal issues for your business.

Does your business require dedicated personnel or can do better with the guidance of expert professionals?

Hiring an in-house accountant or local accountant will limit your resource to a smaller pool of personnel. You will have a lesser option in terms of expertise personnel at a relatively higher cost compared to the outsourced accounting service provider.

We hope these questions will help you understand your requirement as well as your capacity to invest both time and money further allowing you to realize which method will work the best for your business.

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