What's it like to work with out-of-house accountants?
As an executive producer, you’ve probably worked with accountants who aren’t on staff, such as bookkeepers or tax CPAs, and the experience may have been frustrating. It can be challenging to manage out-of-house contractors and consultants, and it often takes longer to establish trust with them than it does with employees you see every day. Though many EPs have had negative experiences working with outsourced accounting services, the good news is that better out-of-house accounting support is out there.
If your current accountant or accounting set-up isn’t supporting your business the way it should, here’s how to reap the benefits while overcoming the challenges of working with out-of-house accountants.
The challenges:
Remote work
After 2020, any stigma around working remotely seems to be a thing of the past. Regardless, interacting with people face-to-face offers real value, especially while developing new relationships. When working with out-of-house accounting support, you may rarely—or even never—see your accountant in person. And without frequent interaction, they may not fully understand your business needs or goals.
At Syzygy, we confront this challenge by building strong relationships—founded in partnership and trust—with our clients from Day 1. We love getting virtual face time with them, especially while we continue to work remotely, as it helps us stay in sync with their shifting priorities and needs.
Standardized reports and processes
One of the realities of working with third-party support teams is that they’ve got their own set of systems. Part of developing your relationship with them is finding a way for your systems and theirs to integrate well. During onboarding, your new accounting team will ask you to make changes, which can feel stressful and uncomfortable.
We combat this challenge by reminding our clients that their comfort is our No. 1 priority. Though we often suggest changes as we start to identify where there’s room for added efficiency and cost savings, we provide our clients the flexibility they need to make the adjustments that give them confidence in our work.
Our reports adopt a similar approach—we’ve developed our standard reporting over time based on the emergent concerns we’ve heard from dozens of clients working within the production industry. But our first priority when working with a new client is to make sure we’re giving them clear, transformative information that address the unique concerns of the industry.
The benefits
Incremental cost
With out-of-house accountants, you gain 100% of their experience’s value—at roughly 15% to 20% of a full-time CFO’s salary. If you own a production company, you likely don’t need a full accounting department anyway—with a CFO, controller, and support staff—which can cost upwards of $400,000 a year. Nonetheless, you should absolutely be receiving sophisticated reporting and strategic input from an accounting team who really understands the production business.
At Syzygy, we’re as invested in your companies’ success as we would be if we were in your C-suite. Working with out-of-house accountants is a great way to get all the value of that support before you’re ready for a dedicated, full-time staff.
Cost savings in benefits and time off
Finding coverage for employees when they need to take sick time, vacation time, or any other type of leave can be a stressful challenge. You may be faced with paying both their salary and wages for another interim hire or temp, or you’ve got to cover their responsibilities, which might spread the rest of your staff too thinly.
When you’re working with Syzygy’s out-of-house accounting support team, you never have to worry about coverage or HR for your accounting department. We plan for our staff’s time off and cover their benefits, so when you’re deciding whether to hire us, keep in mind that your monthly fees would be for continuous, uninterrupted support, regardless of who needs a trip to Hawaii.
Perspective and insider knowledge
Oftentimes, a CFO hire’s resume will include one or two other C-Suite–level roles. As strategic advisors, we’ve worked with dozens of production companies and ad agencies in the same capacity, equipping us to understand the industry’s best practices. We really have seen it all!
While taking confidentiality seriously, we can contribute our enterprise knowledge on how the production and advertising businesses work and how to make them work better when you hire us. Especially during universal challenges, like the COVID-19 pandemic, our understanding of how other owners are responding to a crisis can offer you context that helps you make crucial business decisions.