What Does an Outsourced Accountant Do?

If you’re a real estate investor looking to scale your business, one of the most valuable resources at your disposal is an outsourced accountant. Bringing in a highly-skilled accounting professional to handle the complications associated with running a real estate business can mitigate risk, limit mistakes, and open up a world of new opportunities. 

At this stage of your investing career, your time is valuable. It’s often the case that learning the complexities of real estate accounting is more trouble than it’s worth. Hiring a CPA who specializes in real estate accounting streamlines your workflow, allowing you to focus on high-level tasks. 

An outsourced accountant can provide a wide range of skills and services that can be summarized under three tiers: bookkeeping, accounting/controller, and CFO services.

Keep reading to learn more about the unique benefits of each type of service and how it can benefit your real estate investing career in every phase of growth.

Outsourced Bookkeeping

Outsourcing bookkeeping tasks offers many benefits to real estate investors. Although bookkeeping tasks are relatively simple, when done incorrectly, they can compromise the foundation of a business’s entire accounting strategy. Accurate accounting demands accurate data, and without robust bookkeeping, that’s impossible. 

For this reason, bookkeeping professionals are a valuable addition to any real estate investor’s team. Outsourced bookkeepers can perform a variety of tasks on your behalf. These tasks can include:

• Keeping a detailed record of transactions
• Reconciling bank accounts
• Creating and presenting regular financial reports
• Managing accounts receivable and payable
• Running payroll 

Having an expertly-managed digital bookkeeping setup ensures all accounting systems are well-organized, resulting in maximum efficiency and return on investment. 

Outsourced Accounting

Outsourced accountants, otherwise known as outsourced controllers, are essential to the financial management of all organizations, including real estate businesses. They can perform a variety of tasks associated with the daily management of a business's finances, including:

• Managing accounting software such as Quickbooks Online and other aspects of a company’s digital accounting infrastructure.
• Reconciling bank accounts for all properties for maximum accuracy.
• Communicating with lenders and investors about debt or equity financing on a regular basis.
• Creating monthly financial reports that summarize portfolio performance, including profit & loss statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements.
• Supervising bookkeepers to promote improvement and growth among staff.

Hiring an outsourced accounting firm that specializes in real estate offers investors access to domain expertise that a general CPA will be unable to provide. Using this extensive knowledge, real estate accountants bring tailored approaches suited to your business. These support growth, improve financial performance, and expose you to new opportunities. 

CFO Services

An outsourced Chief Financial Officer (CFO) brings sophisticated strategic advisory services that can unlock valuable growth opportunities for real estate businesses. Experienced CFOs can help grow a business’s assets, manage compliance, ensure accuracy in all levels of accounting, and provide professional liaising with stakeholders.

For many real estate investors, bringing on a full-time in-house CFO may be out of your budget. However, an outsourced CFO can bring many of the same services on a more cost-effective part-time basis. Such services include:

• Developing and implementing financial processes and internal controls: In order to optimize a real estate company’s financial infrastructure, an outsourced CFO will track cash flow for effectively managed financial processes, precise financial statements, and accurate tax returns.
• Investment strategy advice: CFOs who specialize in real estate will have a sophisticated understanding of how to strategize for optimal portfolio performance and growth. This can include property acquisitions, trend forecasting, market information, and more.
• Budgeting: A well-developed and organized portfolio should include individual budgets for each property that all roll up to an overall portfolio-level budget. An outsourced CFO can provide budgets that include forecasts and performance analytics that will allow investors to meet and exceed their objectives. 
• Leadership and management: CFOs are high-level strategists and leaders who are able to organize and manage teams of bookkeepers, accountants, and controllers to ensure optimal workflows and accuracy.
• Raising capital: In the growth phase, outsourced CFOs often have the connections to secure partnerships with lenders that streamline access to debt financing. They will help you to establish the required documentation and can also participate in any negotiations.
• Managing challenges: As obstacles arise throughout the growth phase, a CFO can provide their expertise to strategize and develop processes to overcome them.

Hiring a part-time CFO offers many benefits, but perhaps the most important is the flexibility and affordability of such an arrangement. Real estate investors that work with outsourced CFOs will gain access to a uniquely valuable skill set for complex challenges that demand significant domain expertise.

Find a Specialized Real Estate Outsourced Accountant

If you’re considering hiring high-level outsourced real estate accounting professionals to support your accounting needs, you stand to benefit from a wide range of advanced skills. The value of these partnerships is measurable—investors with well-managed accounting systems operate more efficiently. They have a complex understanding of portfolio performance and are better equipped to execute intricate strategies that fuel portfolio growth. 

The flexibility of outsourced accounting services allows investors like you to collaborate with professionals that understand your specific needs. You can outsource your entire accounting setup and management, or work with an accountant on an as-needed basis. 

If you’re ready to outsource your bookkeeping, accounting, or CFO needs, Hall CPA is here to help. Unlike most generalist accounting firms, our team of highly skilled professionals specializes in real estate accounting. 

Our onboarding process ensures you receive personalized service and are assigned professionals who are compatible with your unique needs. During the initial consultation, we’ll discuss how our team can provide value to your business, how we can best meet your expectations, and any concerns you may have. 

Once our goals are aligned, we will begin providing services and implementing systems that will make an immediate impact on your business. We offer ongoing, full-cycle, or as-needed real estate accounting services to complement the needs of your team. 

Want to learn more about how our team can help you reduce your taxes and maximize your financial performance? Contact us to schedule a consultation today.