Now that the cloud is here and most types of accounting work can be done remotely, business owners have an interesting choice to make.

Do you want to handle your accounting the traditional way, by hiring an employee and trying to do everything in-house? Or would you rather hire an outside accountant or firm to manage your system and handle the majority of your accounting functions from day one?

I’ve worked in both roles over the past 25 years, as both an inside Controller and an outside CPA, and I can tell you that outside accounting is hands-down the better choice for 90% of small to midsize businesses. I could give you a dozen reasons why but here are the top five:

#1 No Learning Curve

Outside accountants require no training or supervision and already have systems in place to get your work done efficiently. Basically, they’ve already put in their 10,000 hours and know exactly what to do.

#2 Lower Cost

Hiring an outside accountant on a fractional basis costs a lot less than trying to recruit, hire, and train an employee. The math isn’t even close: An outside accountant will cost one-third to one-half the amount of a full-time employee. Also, no employer costs (payroll taxes, benefits, PTO).

#3 Flexibility

Do you really have eight hours of accounting work every single day? Most businesses don’t (trust me) and working with an outside accountant is far more flexible. You can hire them on a part-time basis (five hours/week, ten hours/month) and scale up or down as your needs change.

#4 One-Stop Shopping

Small businesses often hire bookkeepers because that’s all they can afford. However, that’s not all they need. One of the biggest advantages of working with an outside accountant or firm is that they can provide a full menu of services (bookkeeping, payroll, financial reporting, tax) and help you keep everything under one roof.

#5 Independence

I’ve seen the same problem over and over again during my career: Internal accountants don’t always see problems clearly, won’t admit when they make mistakes, and are afraid to bring bad news to the owner’s attention because they don’t want to risk their job.

That’s a shame because one of the accountant’s main jobs is to look at the numbers objectively and highlight key issues and trends the owners need to be aware of. Outside accountants are in a much better position to do this. A good one will serve as a second set of eyes on your books and tell you what’s really happening, not what they think you want to hear.