compared with developed capitalist countries, the market for outsourcing services is not so well developed. A fairly large number of companies do not trust the transfer of their important business processes to third parties, despite the fact that such organizations can perform the task assigned to them much more efficiently and efficiently, while demanding for payment for their services an amount sometimes several times less than the total cost of maintaining this business process for the company itself.
Currently, a large number of all possible business processes are outsourced, but one of the most popular (if not the most popular) is accounting outsourcing, because such a business process requires the involvement of only competent and highly qualified specialists who require appropriate payment for their services. , but at the same time, accounting in no way affects the organization’s profit, that is, it refers exclusively to expenses. The bookkeeping outsourcing market is currently only developing, and an aspiring entrepreneur can start his own business with relatively little cost, while quickly gaining a significant share of the market. The main problem in this undertaking may be precisely attracting customers, but this does not detract from the possibilities and prospects of such an undertaking,
To get started, you need to register as a business entity. If it is supposed to work in the field of auditing an accounting report, it is necessary to register a legal entity, while the preferred form is a limited liability company, because by law an audit office cannot be an open joint-stock company or a public organization. In this regard, if a person does not want to engage in private audit practice, he needs to formalize his enterprise. All these restrictions, however, allow you to engage in accounting activities, including outsourcing the introduction of someone else’s accounting. With accounting services, in general, everything is much simpler, therefore it is more expedient when a company offers accounting and auditing services, register yourself as an audit office with an extended list of services. Even the activity itself falls under only one classifier, which includes both accounting and auditing – (OKPD 2) 69.2 Accounting services; on financial audit; for tax advice. It should only be noted that we are talking specifically about the audit of financial statements, which usually refers to the maintenance and verification of accounting. The term audit itself is much broader and can mean completely unrelated and quite different types. for tax advice. It should only be noted that we are talking specifically about the audit of financial statements, which usually refers to the maintenance and verification of accounting. The term audit itself is much broader and can mean completely unrelated and quite different types. for tax advice. It should only be noted that we are talking specifically about the audit of financial statements, which usually refers to the maintenance and verification of accounting. The term audit itself is much broader and can mean completely unrelated and quite different types.
Since January 1, 2010, compulsory licensing for audit firms has been abolished, but new conditions for the registration of such firms have appeared. The most important innovation is the need to join the relevant self-regulatory organization. Difficulties may arise here, because there are very few such self-regulatory organizations in Russia, and this is primarily due to the fact that an SRO in the field of audit must be a non-profit organization with a membership of at least 700 individuals or 500 legal entities. On the other hand, there are currently only prosperous, fairly large, and therefore reliable and highly capable audit self-regulatory organizations on the market.
The next important point is that it is easiest and generally more expedient to register your audit company if the entrepreneur himself is an auditor who has worked a lot in this area (at least 2 years) and has the appropriate education. This is due to the fact that the founders of the audit office should include people who themselves work as auditors. According to the law, 51 percent of the minimum authorized capital of an organization must belong to auditors or audit organizations, therefore, in order to avoid risks, you should not engage in such activities if it is not possible to have a significant share of the authorized capital of your company. The head must also be an auditor, in connection with which an entrepreneur who has nothing to do with auditing can open such an organization in the event that if he is confident in his partners and can completely trust them, acting simply as an investor in such an undertaking. Finally, the last limitation is that the company must have at least three auditors, but this should not be a problem, because hiring fewer people is still not worth it. There is another condition for the work of an audit company. The fact is that in the course of its work, it should be able to provide written recommendations from at least three auditors who are not its employees or founders, that is, it will have to contact third-party companies or third-party private auditors in order to obtain opinions of this kind. When registering your company, you will need to provide a certain package of documents, which includes: acting simply as an investor in such an undertaking. Finally, the last limitation is that the company must have at least three auditors, but this should not be a problem, because hiring fewer people is still not worth it. There is another condition for the work of an audit company. The fact is that in the course of its work, it should be able to provide written recommendations from at least three auditors who are not its employees or founders, that is, it will have to contact third-party companies or third-party private auditors in order to obtain opinions of this kind. When registering your company, you will need to provide a certain package of documents, which includes: acting simply as an investor in such an undertaking. Finally, the last limitation is that the company must have at least three auditors, but this should not be a problem, because hiring fewer people is still not worth it. There is another condition for the work of an audit company. The fact is that in the course of its work, it should be able to provide written recommendations from at least three auditors who are not its employees or founders, that is, it will have to contact third-party companies or third-party private auditors in order to obtain opinions of this kind. When registering your company, you will need to provide a certain package of documents, which includes: that the company should have at least three auditors, but this should not be a problem, because hiring fewer people is still not worth it. There is another condition for the work of an audit company. The fact is that in the course of its work, it should be able to provide written recommendations from at least three auditors who are not its employees or founders, that is, it will have to contact third-party companies or third-party private auditors in order to obtain opinions of this kind. When registering your company, you will need to provide a certain package of documents, which includes: that the company should have at least three auditors, but this should not be a problem, because hiring fewer people is still not worth it. There is another condition for the work of an audit company. The fact is that in the course of its work, it should be able to provide written recommendations from at least three auditors who are not its employees or founders, that is, it will have to contact third-party companies or third-party private auditors in order to obtain opinions of this kind. When registering your company, you will need to provide a certain package of documents, which includes: that in the course of its work, it should be able to provide written recommendations from at least three auditors who are not its employees or founders, that is, it will have to contact third-party companies or third-party private auditors to obtain opinions of this kind. When registering your company, you will need to provide a certain package of documents, which includes: that in the course of its work, it should be able to provide written recommendations from at least three auditors who are not its employees or founders, that is, it will have to contact third-party companies or third-party private auditors to obtain opinions of this kind. When registering your company, you will need to provide a certain package of documents, which includes:
1. Constituent documents of the company
2. A document that confirms that the legal entity is included in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities
3. List of the founders of the company, indicating the auditors and his personal extract from the register of auditors
4. List of auditors, with attached extracts from the register, who are employees of an audit firm on the basis of employment contracts
5. Documents regulating the distribution of founder’s shares
6. At least three written recommendations from auditors who are not employees or founders of the organization to confirm the impeccable reputation of a commercial firm
7. A copy of the approved “Rules for the implementation of internal quality control of work”
In accordance with the provisions of the law, an audit office may engage in the following types of services:
1) organization and accounting;
2) assessment of the reliability of the preparation and submission of reports;
3) checking the condition, use and safety of property;
4) analysis of the security of the company with its own funds;
5) control and assessment of the financial stability of the enterprise, solvency;
6) accountable control and development of the enterprise management system;
7) assessment of the quality of work of the enterprise units;
8) consultations on taxation and performing disciplines;
9) planning and state of on-farm control;
10) regulation and stimulation;
11) assistance in organizing and evaluating production technology;
12) conducting business processes.
In general, it must be said that audit activity itself is initially in some way outsourcing services, because an enterprise cannot have an auditor in its staff and in any case is forced to turn to a third-party organization or an outside specialist to evaluate its activities. However, you need to understand that the audit is also divided into statutory and internal audit, and although this division is somewhat incorrect from a legal point of view, it is easiest for a start-up company to focus on these two areas. However, the vast majority of small companies that wish to provide their customers with audit services most often focus on working with business leaders who wish to conduct an optional internal audit, to check your documentation and financial statements before submitting them to regulatory authorities or simply to evaluate the work of your specialists and find errors in their activities. This applies primarily to companies that have a sufficiently large number of divisions and branches, and therefore cannot constantly and fully control the work of their employees and even the heads of these divisions.
As for the statutory audit, it is an audit of the financial statements of such legal forms of organizations as joint-stock companies, as well as banks, funds, stock exchanges and enterprises, in the share of the authorized capital of which there are funds from foreign investors. There are some other large organizations, the list of which is established by regulatory legal acts and which therefore also must undergo an annual mandatory audit. These include, in accordance with Federal Law 400-FZ of December 28, 2010, companies whose assets exceed 60 million rubles or whose revenue is more than 400 million rubles for the reporting period, that is, for the year. All other companies are not required to undergo a mandatory audit, and this feature must be taken into account at the beginning of work, because if there is no goal to work with organizations,
The simplest example is that in a small town there is hardly a large enough company that would consider an audit worthwhile. Even if there are organizations of this kind, you need to understand that they will order it relatively rarely, and the audit office will not be able to receive a sufficient number of orders, which means that it will soon become bankrupt due to lack of demand or little interest in its services. In addition, it is worth noting that since 2013 Russia has adopted the “Federal Rules (Standards) of Auditing (PSAD)”, which are currently fully based on the international rules for auditing – MCA. For auditors, these rules will not be a revelation, the vast majority of modern specialists already work in accordance with these established standards,
Now it is worth dwelling in more detail on the outsourcing of the accounting business process. Despite the fact that this is one of the most common types of outsourcing, which allows a company to significantly save its costs, there are a number of problems in such an undertaking. Be that as it may, the most serious problem is still the psychology of potential consumers and their staff. The fact is that accounting is to some extent classified as secret data, even though this data is transferred to the appropriate structures, that is, it is legally open. It’s no secret that a certain percentage of entrepreneurs practice “black bookkeeping”. However, such business entities are best left alone with their problems. Better and easier to focus on organizations who do not seek to deceive the state and regularly pay taxes. However, even in this case, the manager is not always ready to transfer information about his accounting to a third-party company. In addition to some objective factors, it also depends on the mentality and peculiarities of doing business in this country. Simply put, this is an external factor that the outsourcer practically cannot influence, and therefore is forced to apply only to companies that are initially ready to cooperate with the accounting outsourcing company.
It can be very difficult to convince a potential consumer that outsourcing this business process is absolutely safe for him and, moreover, allows significant savings. Most outsourcers do not at all seek to conduct any negotiations and promote their services, preferring to work only with those clients who applied themselves. This makes it possible for a novice entrepreneur to cover the segment of the market where no competitor operates. However, you need to understand that the situation on the market can be very different, because large companies with very complex financial statements prefer to hire their accountants for a reason, because in this case you can count on a more prompt solution to your issue (although a good outsourcer will solve the problem anyway faster), on keeping information confidential,
On the other hand, bookkeeping in very small enterprises, and even more so for individual entrepreneurs, is not particularly difficult; even an unprepared person can master the skill in preparing financial statements if he spends some time and effort on training. In this regard, it is much easier for some managers and individual entrepreneurs to draw up one or two papers once a month, and then transfer the information to the tax authority, than to start cooperation with a third-party organization and still pay money for it.
Based on the foregoing, it can be said that individual entrepreneurs and legal entities, accounting for which is a significant part of the costs, and which at the same time do not have sufficient resources to support this business, become potential consumers who need to be relied upon in the first place. – process without significant costs. Such companies, which naturally experience problems with bookkeeping, it is much easier to convince that outsourcing can really help in solving this relatively simple issue. This category should include, first of all, medium-sized enterprises that have an established production cycle or simply occupy a significant market share within their capabilities,
Another significant drawback in this area is the undeveloped legislative framework, which does not have sufficiently clear and precise legal acts that could regulate the activities of accounting outsourcers and their relationships with clients. First of all, this concerns the drafting of contracts, because at the moment standards have not yet been developed that take into account the specifics of this type of activity. Other problems include the fact that the law does not contain clear concepts for defining the tasks and goals of an outsourcer, its duties and responsibilities are not spelled out, which largely discourages a certain percentage of potential consumers who are afraid to transfer important information to a third-party company, and then, in the event of some problems do not receive compensation. Here it can be noted that a good company always values its reputation and under no circumstances will not risk acting against the interests of its client, if this, of course, remains within the law, therefore, in most cases, all these consumer fears are not justified. However, given the mentality of Russian entrepreneurs, who in their vast majority are always focused only on short-term profits, the fears of clients can be understood.
To sum it up, you may get the impression that outsourcing in accounting is inexpedient and not profitable in this country. However, in fact, the market, although not completely ready, is constantly developing the situation at this point in time much better than a few years ago, so we can talk about prospects and opportunities. A good company that offers accounting outsourcing should be guided only by modern and progressive business principles. First of all, of course, it is necessary to hire only qualified employees who, at the same time, are engaged only in their own business and are professionals with many years of experience. In no case should accountants with a bad reputation or simply people who have poorly mastered this specialty work in a company. This is one of the main criteria by which the company is evaluated by the consumer. Its requirements are extremely simple – the reporting must be prepared without errors, be perfectly verified, and be provided on time at the first request.
In this business, you just need to perform your main task as efficiently as possible. An office that can deal with the accounting of any enterprises and firms, including individual entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations, is especially appreciated. Also, the outsourcing company has the opportunity to insure its risks and thereby give a guarantee to its client that even in the event of a problem, he will really be able to receive damages. This favorably distinguishes the outsourcing company from the internal staff of accountants, in which the human factor is not excluded and which consists of individuals who a priori bear less responsibility.
We must not forget about the price, or rather about the savings that the consumer can achieve. The standard outsourcing principle applies here: all employees of an outsourcing company are engaged in projects and tasks of several companies at once, have a fuller workload and are able to perform their work more efficiently and quickly due to high qualifications, knowledge and experience. In different cases, the savings can really be very different, they need to be calculated individually, but on average, the cost of accounting outsourced is less than the cost of the internal staff of accountants by 50 percent. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account not only the savings in money, but also the time and effort of the company’s management and responsible managers.
It is also worth noting that the outsourcer saves its client from some other problems, for example, bookkeeping will be available to the partner at any time, and he will never face the fact that bookkeeping will be interrupted for any reason – illness or planned vacation of employees. A good company, in addition, should take care of organizing a single information base that is connected to the information bases of its consumers; in this case, the partner always has access to his accounting through specialized programs. Remote access allows you to attract additional customers, give them some guarantees and even overcome the barrier of their distrust of the outsourcer.
As for the start-up investments in such a project, it must be said that opening an audit office will most likely cost an order of magnitude more than opening a simple accounting company. This is due to the need for an audit firm to obtain membership in a self-regulatory organization that sets its own requirements for incoming members, and therefore requires admission and, possibly, monthly fees from them. However, if we consider directly the amount of money needed to open our company, then it is approximately equal to an audit and purely accounting company. It is advisable to combine these types of activities, because the amount of expenses will increase slightly, but new prospects will open up and there will be more opportunities for generating income.
In general, opening an average office will require no more than 500 thousand rubles, which includes renting an office in a good place in the city, redecorating the premises, purchasing furniture and office equipment, registering a legal entity and forming a wage fund for the first month of operation. At the same time, some funds will be used to conduct its advertising campaign, which includes the placement of information about the company in the media, which include local radio, television, the press, and thematic portals on the Internet.
The cost of services of an audit firm is always calculated individually and lies in a very wide price range, because it depends on a large number of factors, while for bookkeeping the minimum cost of services is from 1 to 5 thousand rubles per month, depending on the region, but this is the most minimum, which involves the preparation of only one document. That is, here the income of the organization is formed depending on the amount of work, as well as on the complexity of the financial statements. Some additional services, such as providing remote access, can be both paid and free for the client.
Such a business is quite complex, accessible only to professionals in this field, but given the constant development of the market and the development of entrepreneurship in general, we can say that today you can build your own successful and prosperous business in this direction, which will only develop and expand in the future.