When we bought our house 8 years ago, we were informed that it was previously owned by a house builder. This builder had constructed the extension himself and carried out all the other improvement work. However, as soon as we moved in, it was evident that the cliché was true—it was a shambles.
He might have been a poor builder, but more likely, he fell victim to the old saying, “A builder’s home is never finished.” He neglected his own home, failing to apply the same standards he would have for a client.
I see this happening day in and day out across the business world:
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YouTube experts with less than 100 followers on their own channel
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Weight loss experts who are clearly overweight themselves
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SaaS businesses who use a competitor product internally over their own
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Marketing agencies with rubbish websites and poor social presence
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The six or seven-figure “guru” clearly faking their own wealth
I wouldn’t buy from any of these. I want to see people practice what we preach. Show me what you can do, don’t tell me.
At the final stages of a sales call with a new client last week, he asked me how good the team I allocated him was and whether they were up to the job. So, I explained how I “outsource” my own finance function to the same team and hence this post.
For an accountancy business of our size, one of two things would typically happen in the internal finance function (if they even have one!?). The owner would usually do a lot themselves, run their own payroll, submit VAT and accounts, etc., or they would use a freelancer outside of the day-to-day team to help with bookkeeping and other bits.
Why do owners try to do it themselves?
Comfort
Like other professionals, our work can be taxing on the brain. Numbers, especially our own, can feel like our safe space. It’s easy when you need a task a little less draining on the brain to focus on what comes easiest to you. It's a bit like colouring for adults, I guess?
Confidentiality
Accountants have the importance of confidentiality drummed into them constantly from day 1 training. This, combined with the fact that most business owners do not want their team to see the numbers, means most owners would be horrified at the thought of their own team having unfiltered access to the P+L.
I appreciate the need to be careful with some of the more sensitive numbers, especially around payroll; however, I am a big advocate for sharing our numbers with the team - how else are they supposed to improve them?
Control
Control is the big one. We feel in control of our finances when we are closest to the day-to-day data. Every business owner must feel in control of their finances, but there are better ways to do this than carrying out all the work yourself.
If we ask our clients to let us run their finance departments but cannot give up that control ourselves, then we have a big problem!
How do I know this? This used to be me. 5 years ago I used to do everything myself for the same reasons I listed above. This was until my business coach at the time pointed out how absurd this was. I quickly delegated the whole thing to the team and never looked back!
How my finance functions run
My team treat the Crisp finance function EXACTLY like any other client.
I have an allocated bookkeeper who handles all the day-to-day bookkeeping and chases me for receipts and bank statements. Andreea manages our finance mailbox and cues up payments for me to make.
One of our growth accountants, Rachel, acts as our financial controller. She prepares our financial insights each month and presents these to me. She takes care of all compliance (accounts, VAT, payroll etc) and monitors the business's overall financial health.
I don’t even do my own tax planning. Rachel prepares this for me and sits down with me to go over it, exactly as she does with her clients.
The team do the credit control, reminds me to sign off returns, and prepares payment runs for me to authorise - the lot!
The work they do is even reported internally in the same way. I see the crisp jobs on the Kanban board alongside our other clients.
The only role I play is that of CFO, as this is the role I carry out for our clients, too. I handle the strategic planning aspect of our finances alongside Rachel.
The benefits of outsourcing my finance function
When you hear me or my team talk about why you should outsource your finance function, they come from me. I have experienced all the benefits myself, and it was one of my best decisions.
Great ROI
Financially, it makes sense.
While I don’t often charge by time, my day rate is £1,500 when I do. It is crazy if I am doing my own bookkeeping when it can be done by someone better at it than I am, faster and has a lower charge out rate.
If you are still doing your own finances, ask yourself what you could do with that free time and how much that is worth to the business (if you could make more sales or deliver more service) or to you personally (if you want to spend more time with your family).
Stay in your zone of excellence
As owners, we must spend as much time as possible doing what we excel at. Very few entrepreneurs enjoy doing their own finances and even fewer do a good job of it so why do you persist?
Even for me, as a trained accountant, in theory, I can perform most of the roles in the finance function. Am I any good at them? No, not really! It’s been years since I prepared a set of accounts or tax returns - I don’t even have access to our accounts software, a fact I am proud of.
Aside from what else you can spend your time doing, by outsourcing your finance function, you know you have experts looking after every aspect of your money and you now have the headspace to work on other areas of the business.
Experiencing the service
This won’t apply to others who outsource their finances, but it is a huge benefit to me. The team treats me the same as other clients, with no preferential treatment, so I get to experience exactly what our clients do.
So, with my hand on my heart, I can truthfully attest to how good our service is.
It also gives me a chance to give feedback on improvements to the team that we may not have heard otherwise. The small things, like how painful it is to be chased for tiny receipts (so we changed our policy on receipts) or what using some of the external apps actually feels like from a user perspective.
At Crisp Accountancy, we break the cliché of the unfinished builder’s home.
By outsourcing our own finance function to the team, we ensure we walk the talk, experiencing firsthand the quality of service we offer our clients.
This approach not only builds trust but also continually improves our service quality based on real, lived experiences.
If you’re still managing your finances yourself, consider the benefits of outsourcing and the value of staying in your zone of excellence.
You can book a call with one of the team to discuss this here: https://crispaccountancy.co.uk/discovery-call/
About the author
Luke Desmond
Fractional CFO for Tech, eCommerce & SaaS. CEO @Crisp_Acc provides virtual finance functions. Co-Founder @getvaulta SaaS Startup for accountants.