Ten reasons to outsource your legal cashiering

In simple terms, outsourcing’s the process of ceasing to perform administrative functions of a more specialised nature – legal cashiering and payroll, for example – through internal manpower resources and paying for an outsourced service provider to manage these areas instead.

If you’re wondering why businesses are choosing outsourcing, it’s because it’s proven to be the lowest-cost option, takes care of peak holiday season (and other absences) plus many more benefits; some predictable, some surprising, every one of them compelling.

Here are 10 of the best reasons to outsource your cashiering. Many of these apply equally to other outsourced services, such as payroll and pension management. Any one of these reasons alone is enough to convince businesses to select the outsourcing model. The 10 reasons combined mean we’ve entered the realms of no-brainer decision making…

#1: It’s one less thing to worry about!

By handing over your cashiering role, you’re easing your workload so you can spend more time with clients and other business-critical tasks. There are only 8 hours in a standard working day so use them to best commercial advantage, leaving the more mundane but stringently governed activities to external suppliers.

#2: Lower operational costs

The outsourcing option is charged on a pay-as-you-go basis correlating directly to your fee earning activity, saving you money on salaries, hardware and software. There are no hidden, sudden costs and the manageable monthly fee is easily absorbed within your overheads.

#3: Enhanced risk management and regulatory compliance

Through outsourcing, regular anomaly reports highlight potential SRA Accounts Rules breaches for resolution before they happen. Your cashier assists with keeping your accounts in order, compliance officers supported and regulators abated.

Outsourcing provides you with a secure cloud-based solution using state-of-the-art ISO 27001 accredited and EEA-based primary and secondary data centres for your safety and protection.

#4: Automatic emergency planning and disaster recovery

Outsourcing allows you to plan for ‘business as usual’ at all times because there’s uninterrupted cashier support even when your named cashier is out of the office because a deputy will simply pick up where they left off. Even better, you’ll have 24/7 access to your cloud-stored accounts and matter data if supporting software is provided too.

#5: Peace of mind

By entrusting an experienced outsourcing supplier with the responsibility for SRA Accounts Rules compliance, you tap into their recognised, certified expertise for complete confidence that your accounts are being managed accurately, thoroughly and in accordance with regulatory guidelines.

#6: Flexibility to expand or contract

Outsourcing can be immediately scaled up or down upon demand so that you only pay for what you use and have the flexibility to cancel your contract at any time.

#7: Availability of value-added support

You’re assigned a dedicated cashier (with deputy, when absent) to hand over your accounts, named supervisor for escalation of queries necessitating management-level involvement, helpful technical support team for IT-related advice and optional consultancy services for extra hand-holding support from a wider business perspective.

#8: Streamlined annual accounting and auditing procedures

With an outsourced cashier running your accounts, there’s a clear audit trail as required by your accountant or inspector. Additionally, if your software comes with a free accountant licence, this affords secure, remote access to your data via the internet, so that your accountants can perform the bulk of their work from their own office for completion during a subsequent short on-site visit.

#9: External accreditation assistance

Outsourced support helps with financial and compliance risk management (automatically generated weekly reports), forecasting and strategic planning (business intelligence information), continuous service provision guarantee (always-available cashier during working hours and 24/7 online system access) and better client care (comprehensive case management functionality).

This proactive way of working perfectly complements quality mark frameworks, simplifying the accreditation process.

#10: Healthy cash flow and business growth

An outsourced cashier will keep an up-to-date log of case-related fees and expenses for regular claim-back purposes. Your cashier-generated reports provide a management-level overview of your financial performance to identify trends, maximise opportunities and grow your business.

Note: This is a shortened version of an article published on the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers website. To access the original, please go to www.infolaw.co.uk/newsletter/2014/06/ten-reasons-to-outsource-your-cashiering.