Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to the questions we get asked most about outsourced accounting, from what it actually involves to what it costs and how quickly you can be up and running. If your question is not here, ask us directly.
Outsourced accounting basics
What is finance and accounting outsourcing?
Finance and accounting outsourcing is when a business hands its accounting function to an external firm instead of running it in house. The firm takes over the day to day work, the month end close, the reporting, and the financial oversight, and delivers it as an ongoing service.
At W Squared it goes further than bookkeeping. You get a team built around your business, which can include accountants, a controller, and CFO level support. So you are not just getting the transactions processed. You are getting people who can tell you what the numbers mean and what to do about them.
How is outsourced finance and accounting different from hiring an in-house accounting team?
The main difference is that you get a whole team’s range of expertise for less than the cost of building that team yourself. An in house hire gives you one person with one skill set. W Squared gives you accountants doing the daily work, a controller reviewing it, and CFO level insight when you need to make a decision.
It also removes key person risk. When your one accountant resigns or goes on leave, the function stops. Our team does not. We have been doing this for over 20 years and clients regularly stay with us for a decade or more.
What are the benefits of outsourcing finance and accounting services?
The main benefits are a reliable close date, reporting you can trust, access to senior expertise you could not justify hiring, and no recruitment or turnover risk.
Most clients come to us for one of three reasons. Their reporting is late or unreliable. The business has grown more complex than the current setup can handle. Or the person doing the books was never qualified for the job it has turned into. What they usually say afterwards is that the difference was the people, not the process.
What accounting functions can be outsourced?
Almost the entire finance function can be outsourced. With W Squared that includes day to day accounting operations, accounts payable and receivable, general ledger management, bank reconciliations, month end close, multi entity consolidation and segment reporting, financial statement reporting, controller services, and CFO level advisory.
We do not file your tax returns or perform your audit. What we do is prepare and support both, so your tax advisor and your auditors get clean, complete records and the process runs quickly.
Should I outsource my accounting?
Outsourcing makes sense when your accounting has outgrown the people or systems currently handling it. The clearest signals are a month end close that runs past two weeks, reports you do not fully trust, no consolidated view across entities or locations, and growth decisions being made on instinct rather than numbers.
If your business is simple, single entity, and low volume, a bookkeeper may still be enough. If it is growing, multi location, or heading toward an audit or a transaction, the gap tends to widen quickly.
How do I know if my business is ready to outsource accounting?
Most businesses are ready when the current setup starts creating risk rather than just frustration. Common signs include a close running past two weeks, reports arriving with caveats attached, one person holding all the financial knowledge, systems that never quite reconcile, and no reliable per entity or per location reporting.
If you are preparing for an audit, a lender conversation, or a sale, that timeline usually makes the decision for you.
Cost and getting started
How much does outsourced accounting cost?
Outsourced accounting is usually priced as a fixed monthly fee based on transaction volume, number of entities, and the level of support required. It is typically less than the fully loaded cost of building the equivalent team in house once salary, benefits, software, training, and turnover are accounted for.
W Squared scopes every engagement individually, because a single entity practice and an eight location group are not the same problem. We look at your structure, your systems, and what you actually need from reporting, then quote a fixed monthly fee.
How do you outsource accounting services?
The process usually runs in four steps. A discovery conversation to understand your structure and where the current setup is failing. A scoping stage that defines exactly what is being handed over. Onboarding and data migration. Then ongoing delivery on a fixed monthly cycle.
With W Squared the first step is a thirty minute call with someone who has done this hundreds of times. We will tell you what we would fix first, whether or not you go ahead.
What does the onboarding process look like?
Onboarding follows a structured plan. We map your entities and systems, migrate and clean your data, standardise the chart of accounts, define workflows and ownership, then run the first close alongside your team before taking it over fully.
Data migration is where most transitions go wrong. It is also the part we are known for. Clients usually arrive with information spread across several systems that have never reconciled, and getting that into one clean environment quickly is one of the things we do better than anyone.
How do I schedule a consultation with LBMC W Squared?
Book a thirty minute discovery call through the form on this site, or call us on 615-577-4927. No preparation needed. We will ask about your structure, your systems, and where reporting is falling short, and tell you what we would address first.
Reporting and month end close
What financial reports will we receive each month?
You receive a full monthly reporting package. That typically includes profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow statement, consolidated and entity level reporting, and the operational KPIs that matter to your business.
Reporting is built around the decisions you actually make. If you run multiple locations, you get performance by location. If you run multiple entities, you get the consolidated view and the detail underneath it. And you get someone who will walk you through it, not just send it.
How long should a month-end close take?
A well run month end close should be complete within five to ten business days. Anything past two weeks means decisions are being made on data that is already stale.
Plenty of businesses run at three to four weeks without realising that is unusual. The cause is almost always process rather than effort, which is why it can usually be fixed.
Can you improve our month-end close process?
Yes. Shortening the close is one of the most common improvements we deliver. We standardise the chart of accounts, automate reconciliations where the systems allow it, build a documented close checklist with clear ownership, and remove the manual spreadsheet steps that create the delay.
Most clients end up with a close that lands on a fixed, predictable day every month.
How to improve business financial reporting
Better financial reporting comes down to three things. A consistent accounting methodology applied the same way every period, a standardised chart of accounts across every entity, and accrual basis recognition so results land in the period they belong to.
Get those right and reporting becomes comparable month over month and location over location. Without them, the numbers reflect how the accounting was set up rather than how the business performed.
How do you ensure accuracy and consistency in financial reporting?
Accuracy comes from process and review, not from working harder. Every engagement runs on a documented close checklist, a standardised chart of accounts, defined reconciliation procedures, and controller level review before anything is released.
Because the same team handles your account every month, the methodology does not drift. That consistency is what makes month over month comparison meaningful.
How do you improve accounting processes?
We start by mapping what currently happens, then remove the manual steps creating delay and error. That usually means standardising the chart of accounts, integrating systems that were never talking to each other, automating reconciliations, documenting the close, and defining who owns what.
Twenty one years of doing this means we tend to spot the problem quickly. We also tend to find things nobody flagged, which is often where the real opportunity sits.
Systems and working together
Can you work with our existing accounting software?
Yes. We work within your existing systems wherever possible, so there is no forced migration unless a change genuinely benefits you.
Where clients are running several disconnected systems, we will usually recommend consolidating. Getting everything into one clean environment is what makes reliable reporting possible in the first place.
What accounting software do you support?
W Squared works across the major accounting and finance platforms, including Sage Intacct, QuickBooks, Bill.com, Ramp, and Divvy. We hold CPA, Sage Intacct, QuickBooks Online, and Bill certifications.
We also have direct experience with EMR and practice management systems, which matters for healthcare clients where the clinical system and the accounting system have to reconcile properly.
Can you integrate with our existing business systems?
Yes, and this is one of the things we are best at. Most new clients arrive with data spread across several systems that have never properly reconciled with each other.
We migrate and integrate that data into a single source of truth, then keep it aligned. Systems integration is one of the three pillars the firm was built on, alongside people and process, and it is usually the reason onboarding goes faster than clients expect.
Can you work alongside our internal finance team?
Yes. Many engagements are hybrid. Your team keeps what makes sense to keep, and we take the transactional work, the close, the consolidation, and the reporting.
We also work well underneath an existing CFO or controller who wants a reliable function beneath them rather than a replacement. Support can be virtual or on site, depending on what suits you.
Can you manage multiple entities under one accounting structure?
Yes. Multi entity accounting is one of our core strengths. We build a standardised chart of accounts across every entity, apply a consistent cost allocation methodology, handle intercompany eliminations at close, and produce both consolidated and entity level reporting.
Without that discipline, comparing performance across entities is not analysis. It is guesswork. This is particularly common in healthcare accounting, where each location often operates as its own legal entity.
Audit, controls and security
Do you prepare audit-ready financial statements?
Yes. Everything we produce is prepared on an accrual basis with proper documentation, so your financials are audit ready by default rather than being cleaned up when an audit is announced.
That matters most when a lender, a board, or a potential buyer asks for financials at short notice.
Can you support annual audits?
Yes. We prepare the audit schedules, provide the supporting documentation, and work directly with your auditors throughout. We do not perform the audit itself, we make sure it runs smoothly.
Because the books are kept to an audit ready standard year round, audits tend to move faster and generate fewer queries.
How do you maintain internal controls?
We build segregation of duties into the process, so no one person controls a transaction end to end. Approval workflows are defined, reconciliations are reviewed independently at controller level, and system access is limited to what each role requires.
This matters most for businesses operating across multiple sites, where cash and payment handling at each location is a genuine risk area.
How secure is our financial data?
Your data is held in secure, access controlled systems with encryption in transit and at rest. Access is restricted by role, and as part of LBMC, one of the largest accounting firms in the region, we operate to enterprise level security and compliance standards.
Who will we actually be working with?
You get a named team built around your business, which can include accountants handling the day to day, a controller reviewing the work, and CFO level support for the bigger decisions. The same people every month, so they learn your business rather than starting fresh each close.
We are a team of over 40 people. Large enough that there is always cover, small enough that you know who is on your account and can pick up the phone to them.