Do you draw up your own balance sheet or have it done by an external service provider through outsourcing? This is a cornelian dilemma that many business leaders are facing today. It should be noted that although it is compulsory to draw up a balance sheet at the end of the financial year, entrusting it to a chartered accountant remains optional.
Drawing up your own balance sheet
More concretely, a balance sheet is a table that summarises the company's assets and liabilities, i.e. its liabilities and assets, at a time T. While it is possible to do this yourself, this task can quickly become tedious because it requires advanced accounting knowledge. This is the reason why some entities outsource it.
Drawing up an internal balance sheet therefore implies ensuring that the accounting entries are classified and evaluated on the basis of what the company has (assets) and what it owes (liabilities). In addition, the choice of the right accounting software is also far from being a piece of cake. It must be ensured that the software chosen incorporates the automatic production of the company's balance sheet from all the accounting entries entered.
When it comes to the choice of software, the entrepreneur has two options: either to acquire this or that software and then install it directly on computer hardware, or to opt for online software.
Entrust your balance sheet to an external service provider
In order to free oneself from the various constraints arising from bookkeeping, one can very well play the card of outsourcing, or more precisely delegate one's accounting to a chartered accountant. However, one should only use an accounting firm that is under the jurisdiction of the Ordre des experts comptables and has professional insurance. The accounting activity is rigorously regulated, so it is better not to entrust it to just anyone, because not all chartered accountants are the same.
The question is whether to draw up the balance sheet internally or to outsource it.
Internalize or outsource the realization of its balance sheet? The answer to this question must, in general, depend on many parameters such as the organisation of the company, bearing in mind that not all companies necessarily have the ideal organisation to draw up their balance sheet internally, the functioning of the company as well as the strategy it has implemented and its budget.
It should be noted that using an external service provider to draw up the balance sheet is more expensive, but more flexible than hiring an internal employee. Nevertheless, to ensure significant responsiveness, in-house processing is more advantageous.