Why Nobody Cares About Bookkeeping Services in Pakistan:
Businesses in Pakistan feel several threats while making a decision on the outsourcing of accounting function. These threats have hindered the progress of Pakistani businesses, as a lot of businesses are still using poor manual accounting systems, that are extremely slow in presenting key financial information to the owners, impacting adversely the performance of decision-makers. Key decisions on cost reduction are delayed or ignored due to lack of classified information i.e. now readily available by accounting outsourcing companies, updated every minute and presented on accounting software’s dashboard.
Insecurity:
They think if they outsource to an agency, it might leak the confidential financial information to a competitor and the business might lose future sales, profitability and market share. They are unaware of the fact that Chartered Accountants have to follow strict ethical guidelines while carrying out their duties for multiple business clients. Chartered Accountants are backed by Prestigious Chartered Institutes, and they are can be held accountable if found providing service below set standards. Chartered institutes have the authority to initiate a disciplinary hearing and, in some cases, can initiate legal proceedings if the Accountant is found guilty at any stage. The Accountant might face charges, sentence and suspended from the Chartered status. The business will be compensated for the loss. But the businesses in Pakistan are unaware and ignore such remedies provided by Accounting profession and law. Such Unawareness and backwardness of Pakistani businesses had resulted in the loss of market share in the international market.
They think they will lose control:
Local Business owners think that by outsourcing to an agency they will lose control of key financial data. In their opinion hiring a full-time employee who doesn’t have enough knowledge and expertise is easy to hire and will give them peace of mind that their information is safe. They think outsourcing to an agency will provide them with expert advice in terms of growth, expansion and increasing market share but they are afraid to trust them. They are afraid to trust the new technology, that cannot only provide them with exact financial information in their office but on their laptops, tablets, and smartphones which they cannot only access in offices but at their homes, cars and on flights. They are ignorant of the fact that Accountants strive for the success of the business and the accountant’s successful career depends on the success of the business. Accounting agencies provide a high quality of service to clients to uphold the trust of the general public in the accounting profession.
Problems faced by Pakistani businesses in retaining their own full-time accountants:
Full-time accountants hired by Pakistani businesses are unhappy with their employers mostly resulting in leaving jobs after short time and employers complaining against employee’s short length of service, which compels them to keep advertising jobs and the HR had to waste a lot of time interviewing new employees all the year-round. Employees complain owners demand long working hours, normally 10 to12 hours a day, only one day off weekly and no training and learning opportunity followed by one type of experience that makes them pigeon hole when they look for another job as they now don’t fit into different industries. Full-time accountants think their family life is spoiled by working long hours and their career growth is slowing down without gaining diverse experience. On the other hand, accounting/bookkeeping companies in Pakistan provide employees opportunity to work on multiple clients working in different industries from telecommunication to manufacturing, travel, services sector, fashion, textile and many more. They also give them advanced level training on multiple most modern accounting software’s which opens the doors for lucrative future career opportunities. Agencies work only 5 days and provide employees weekend to rest and enjoy. Employees are satisfied with their work and life balance. Agencies hire Cost accountants, financial accountants, tax accountants and provide one-stop for all types of services to companies. Bookkeeping companies in Pakistan have acquired a great deal of business internationally. Australia, Canada, UK, European and the US are top destinations of companies that have outsourced their accounting functions partially or fully to Pakistani companies. Australia, Canada, UK, European and the US are top destinations of companies that have outsourced their accounting functions partially or fully to Pakistani companies. The trend of the international market is moving towards outsourcing their accounting functions to Pakistani accounting companies.
Solution:
Pakistani businesses should understand that when Australia, Canada, UK, European and US markets can trust and outsource to Pakistani accounting companies, why can’t they trust and benefit from them too. Instead of holding back with false fears of insecurity, loss of control and confidentiality, they should come forward with a confident approach and let outsourcing agencies design their accounting systems, connecting every department, showing every single rupee spent on expenditure and earned from sales on one single dashboard visible to every decision-maker. Providing decision-makers and outsourcing agencies every opportunity to advise on huge cost savings from reducing expenditures which are now visible due to accounting software. And unlock the potential by increasing market share which is now possible after huge cost savings on expenditures. Accounting agencies will act as your foundation for diverting your attention from generating accounting information to making decisions on cost reduction, improving quality, increasing market share and conglomerate diversification.
