Why Remote Finance and Accounting Employees Serve Better?

In the fast-changing business world, the office has a new face, and it is increasingly streamlined to remote work. Within the critical domain of finance and accounting, embracing a remote finance function has become a game-changer, enabling businesses to thrive in this dynamic landscape. This blog uncovers the compelling reasons why leveraging remote finance teams can elevate your organization’s performance. As it turns out, the benefits are undeniable, from accessing a global talent pool and achieving cost efficiencies to boosting productivity through real-time reporting and automation. We will also address key challenges, such as implementing an effective remote working policy and navigating the complexities of managing a remote workforce through an EOR. Finally, discover how innovative solutions, like those provided by Global Squirrels, can empower your organization to seamlessly integrate and manage a global remote workforce for finance and accounting success.

Determine your requirements for the finance and accounting job role

If you are not sure which roles you need to build a finance and accounting team, it can feel overwhelming. The good news? It doesn’t have to be. Consider each role to be a key piece to your financial puzzle that helps things run smoothly. Whether it is accountants keeping your books in order, payroll managers making sure the team gets paid on time, or financial managers guiding your strategy, each person brings value in his or her own way. We’ll break down the key players and what they offer your business.

• Accountants

Accountants are essential in maintaining the financial health of an organization, especially in a remote finance function. They analyze and review financial records to ensure accuracy and conformity with legal standards. General ledgers are managed by accountants, who prepare financial statements, file taxes, and create budgets. In remote finance teams, collaborate effectively using technology to ensure timely reporting and adherence to a remote working policy. Businesses use their expertise in compliance, reporting, and auditing to stay transparent.

Learn more about how you can hire Accountants from the Philippines or Hiring accountants from India and its benefits.

• Construction cost estimators

You can hire construction cost estimators to forecast expenses in your construction projects, even in a remote finance function. They study blueprints, project plans, and specifications to determine the cost of materials, labor, and equipment. Working within remote finance teams, they leverage technology to collaborate with architects and project managers. By following a remote working policy, they provide accurate cost reports, ensuring projects stay within budget. Their role is crucial in managing costs within a global remote workforce, ensuring financial feasibility and project success.

• Payroll managers

Payroll managers oversee payroll processes, ensuring employees are paid accurately and on time, particularly in a remote finance function. Hiring payroll managers helps you calculate wages, manage deductions, and ensure compliance with tax laws while leading remote finance teams. Payroll accuracy, tax compliance and smooth compensation of employees are all guaranteed by their expertise, and this is very important for keeping employee satisfaction in a globally distributed and remote work environment.

• Financial managers

Financial managers play a strategic role in ensuring the financial health of an organization, especially in a remote finance function. Hiring financial managers makes it simpler for you to prepare budgets, analyze financial data, and manage investments while leading remote finance teams. Adhering to a remote working policy, financial managers use technology to collaborate with global stakeholders and provide real-time insights. They can also manage financial operations across borders, enabling seamless integration into a global remote workforce. Their knowledge in financial planning, risk management, and compliance helps businesses maintain long-term stability and profitability in a fast-changing and remote work environment.

• Payroll administrators

You can hire Payroll administrators to manage payroll operations and ensure employees are paid accurately and on schedule. They calculate wages, manage deductions, and maintain payroll records while collaborating with remote finance teams. They use payroll software to streamline processes and ensure compliance. Their focus on detail and knowledge of payroll systems helps with smooth payroll operations and makes employees happy and organization efficient in a globally distributed and remote work environment.

• AR (Accounts Receivable) accountants

AR analysts play a key role in managing cash flow within a remote finance function. They monitor outstanding invoices, reconcile accounts, and ensure timely payments while collaborating with remote finance teams. Adhering to a remote working policy, they use advanced tools to analyze payment trends and reduce overdue receivables. They have developed their expertise in financial reporting and customer relationship management to allow for a steady cash inflow; hence, it keeps businesses financially stable and flourishing in a globally distributed and remote workers space.

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Benefits of hiring remote finance and accounting talent

A broader talent pool access

Geographical flexibility: A remote finance function allows businesses to transcend location constraints, enabling them to tap into a global remote workforce. Hiring remotely helps companies increase the likelihood of finding candidates who have the specialized skills and expertise required for a wide variety of financial roles. This access is invaluable, especially when such talent may not be available locally, further strengthening the efficiency of remote finance teams.

Diversity of expertise: Hiring from different parts of the globe brings different perspectives and unique knowledge to the table. This adds to financial strategies and decision-making, which makes remote teams an ideal resource for businesses trying to broaden their expertise. Conversely, this greatly helps refining a business’s financial operations and strategies.

Cost efficiency

Reduced overhead costs: Employing remote finance teams eliminates the need for expensive office spaces, utilities, and equipment. It also saves companies on benefits and employee-related expenses because remote workers tend to need less administrative support. The cost-effectiveness of this is especially good for businesses that need accounting on a smaller scale, and their accounting needs fluctuate.

Flexible payment structures: The flexibility of remote hiring means that businesses can engage remote finance teams on a contractual basis. Businesses can make payment structures for every specific project or for hourly work. This flexibility helps businesses to more easily control their costs in both normal demand conditions and in uncertain demand.

Enhanced productivity

Improved work environment: A remote finance function enables employees to work in personalized environments with fewer distractions, leading to higher productivity and more accurate work. Remote finance professionals can perform at their best when they are able to control their workspaces, resulting in better financial processing and reporting.

Flexible working hours: The advantage of remote teams is that they allow businesses to work outside of traditional office hours. This flexibility enables financial professionals to offer round-the-clock services, including real-time financial processing, reporting, and data analysis. For businesses with global operations in different time zones, this capability is especially going to be very helpful.

Real-time reporting and automation access

Utilization of technology: Today, remote finance professionals use cutting-edge technology, like cloud-based accounting software, with automation tools. These tools improve real-time reporting, make financial operations more efficient, and give businesses real-time financial data to make quick decisions. With these technologies, businesses can achieve their financial goals without having to build large in-house resources.

Scalability: The scalability of remote finance teams is a significant advantage. Companies can increase or reduce their team size in reaction to demand in little time, without the time-consuming recruitment process. This agility brings flexibility to the business environment, which makes it both operationally efficient and competitive in changing market conditions.

Remote working policy for finance and accounting teams

Remote work in finance and accounting has become a thing, and in a big way, it is the wave of the future. To help your organization thrive in this remote-first world, a tailored remote working policy for your finance and accounting employees is essential.

1. Define eligibility clearly

Not every role in finance and accounting can be 100% remote, so start by defining who is eligible. Take, for example, that most tasks can be done remotely, but roles that handle sensitive data or need specialized equipment might need to be onsite. When considering who to allow to work remotely, you need to consider job responsibilities, performance metrics, and tech requirements.

2. Flexibility is key

A strong remote working policy is adaptable. If your policies do not change to reflect employee needs, what’s the point of it anyway? Make arrangements for temporary or permanent remote work for anyone with personal challenges such as family or health. Regular employee surveys can tell you what to do proactively to address the challenges of remote work.

3. Set clear communication guidelines

Remote setups are not like what they used to be. Clear protocols make it easy for your team to stay connected. Make availability during business hours, make regular check-ins, and use tools like email, chat, and video conferencing. It streamlines communication so that no matter where your team works, they are aligned with each other.

4. Outcome-oriented performance monitoring

The days of measuring productivity by hours are gone. Focus on outcomes instead. Track deliverables and results with metrics but encourage employees to log tasks so they are accountable. It also facilitates a shift that builds trust and ensures that everyone is working towards the same goals.

5. Prioritize security measures

Data security is mandatory in finance and accounting. Strengthen your remote working policy with robust cybersecurity protocols. Secure VPNs, cloud-based accounting platforms, and regular data protection training are all part of this.

6. Invest in training and support

As technology moves forward, you should also be updating your team. Following are just some ways to offer ongoing training, which will keep your employees productive and confident when they work remotely. Regularly review feedback on your remote working policy and tweak it to meet the team’s needs. Continuous improvement is a culture for long-term success.

Challenges of hiring finance and accounting employees

Challenge 1: Managing diverse compliance requirements

Companies that want to hire remote finance teams in multiple countries often face the challenge of adhering to diverse labor laws, payroll regulations, and remote working policies. Compliance across jurisdictions can be a nightmare, from aligning timesheet approval frequencies to local payroll cycles to dealing with country-specific leave policies. Part of the risks is that it increases the chance of penalties and damages employee trust. Organizations need solutions that address these challenges for their global remote workforce by automating compliance processes while allowing customization for unique company needs.

Challenge 2: Ensuring productivity and task visibility in remote teams

Managing productivity in remote finance teams or other distributed setups is difficult without transparent tools. Traditional methods often fail to provide real-time visibility for task progress, especially across a global remote workforce. This may result in inefficiency, late delivery, and bad communication. Tools integrated into workflows are essential to track one-time or recurring tasks while fostering accountability and flexibility, ensuring seamless collaboration.

Challenge 3: Simplifying administrative processes with growing teams

As companies scale their remote finance function, administrative tasks like managing pay adjustments, generating offer letters, and handling terminations become more complex. Manual processes are error-prone and inefficient and make employees dissatisfied. With the help of intuitive platforms, these processes can be automated with an ease of administrative burden remote working policies and stay in line with HR strategic initiatives, so organizations can remain efficient and responsive to team growth.

How does Global Squirrels help you eliminate all challenges?

Global Squirrels is a staffing and payrolling platform that helps you hire remote finance teams and manage them effectively. Our platform offers a cost-effective hiring process that allows you to eliminate 20% of their spend in hiring relative to traditional staffing agencies that typically charge 50% more. In addition, Global Squirrels handles all the challenges related to recruitment and HR operations to provide an excellent business experience.

Let us look at how Global Squirrels eliminates challenges for you.

• Our platform’s country-specific timesheets and leave management tools are in place to address the complexity of compliance with labor laws across multiple regions. Both timesheet approval cycles and leave policies are automatically aligned with local legal standards. It also provides customizable configurations that fit specific organizational needs to meet complete compliance with little risk of penalty or legal issues.
• The task assignment feature is integrated directly into timesheets and allows you to manage one-time or recurring tasks seamlessly. It makes managers and employees see all tasks, thereby increasing transparency and accountability. An intuitive interface provides convenient monitoring so the remote teams are always organized and productive without having to constantly micromanage.
• Using AI-powered functions, our platform automates complex HR tasks, like auto-generating offer letters and skill-matching job duties to skills. Moreover, the request for pay increases and terminations via the portal feature allows HR to work with pay increases, and employee exits at a pace without error. These tools decrease the time spent doing manual work and streamline the HR process throughout the organization as teams go global.

Our platform ensures all your business needs are met by offering the following.

Purple plan

The Purple Plan cuts the time it takes to bring your existing freelancers or pre-identified candidates up to speed. After you start onboarding, our platform takes care of everything from payroll management benefits administration to compliance with local and international labor and tax regulations and task and timesheet tracking. It also includes robust tools for performance monitoring and management to give you smooth sailing.

Orange plan

The Orange Plan is a more integrated way of hiring and managing your workforce. The purpose is to assist you in identifying and hiring finance professionals who will suit your business needs. You can get started by signing up and choosing Orange Plan. The platform will take you through the essential details that you need to share when hiring: job titles, job responsibilities, budgets, educational qualifications, required skills, and countries you are targeting for hiring. Within 2 to 5 business days, you will receive a pre-screened list of profiles that match your criteria. From there, you can select candidates to interview, give feedback, and make your final choice. Our platform will then handle all the required HR functions and ensure that your new finance team onboards smoothly and efficiently.

Are you ready to hire remote finance teams? Get a demo today!