(415) 418-0020 info@proteafinancial.com
Protea Conversations: Nastassia Lopez

Protea Conversations: Nastassia Lopez

by | Feb 25, 2021 | Outsourced Accounting, Protea Conversations | 0 comments

Protea Financial was founded in 2014 to provide high-quality out-sourced accounting at an affordable price.  Given Protea’s flexible work environment, the Company especially appealed to accountants who wanted to re-enter the workforce after taking time off to start a family. This allowed Protea to attract extremely talented individuals who were overlooked.  Over 80% of both Protea’s leadership and accounting teams are women.

We selected the name Protea because is the national flower of South Africa and is a symbol of our connection. The Protea flower has become an ornamental flower because of this striking beauty and is included in arrangements and bouquets as a symbol of courage or daring to be better or a sign of positive transformation.

Protea Conversations focuses on a successful woman in business and their achievements.  The hope is that these conversations will create a forum to discuss the experiences, opportunities, and challenges women face, and how we can build a more diverse, inclusive, and successful environment for everyone.

In February 2021 we spend time with Nastassia Lopez. Nastassia is a partner in Booker and Dax, a kitchen equipment design company. Additionally, Nastassia co-hosts the weekly podcast “Cooking Issues,” with host Dave Arnold, the highest-rated show on the Heritage Radio Network. She also co-founded Pasta Flyer, the critically-acclaimed, fast pasta concept with Chef Mark Ladner. 

Nastassia also created the controversial Wine Santa and introduced it to bars and restaurants in NY and LA. Dave hates it because he didn’t think of it.

Prior to her work with Booker and Dax, Nastassia opened Salumeria Rosi with Chef Cesare Casella in New York’s Upper West Side in 2010. She also managed the Culinary Technology Department at the French Culinary Institute with Chefs Nils Noren and Dave Arnold before launching Booker and Dax.

Nastassia currently sits on the Culinary Board of the Museum of Food and Drink, and the Junior Council at the American Museum of Natural History. 

Nastassia worked in restaurants to pay her way through Stanford University, where she earned degrees in both Creative Writing and Communications. In 2015 she graduated from Stanford Business School’s Entrepreneurship Program. She lives in Hell’s Kitchen and has a passion for hosting and entertaining.

Now, this is what we call a successful leader.

 

 

How did you get into the food industry and specifically your current role at Booker and Dax?

I paid my way through college by working in restaurants in Palo Alto (I went to Stanford). I was the first in my family to ever attend college. I hated working in restaurants—I would see a lot of my classmates come in and I’d have to climb under their table and fix the wobbly leg or pretend I knew the difference between Grey Goose and Absolut when making their bloody mary. When I graduated, I resolved to never work in food again. I went on to work in music at MTV and fashion. On a trip to Italy to visit a former roommate when I was 24, I remembered how much I loved food. When I got back to NYC, I applied and started working as the assistant for Italian chef, Cesare Casella. The Food Network had just launched, and “foodie” wasn’t a thing yet. Cesare introduced me to Dave Arnold, who was/is a crazy, food tech, philosophy undergrad at Yale/art master’s at Columbia. Dave and I became friends for a few months, and then eventually became business partners because we both realized we had similar weird backgrounds, but also loved food and could think strategically.

 

 

What has been the biggest challenge you have experienced in reaching your current success (personally and professionally)?

Misogyny, verbal abuse, psychological abuse, some physical abuse. This industry is no joke, and I’ve had to act like one of the guys to get by, while also taking on a lot of shit.

 

 

What are the short-term goals of your career/business and yourself?

Sell our business to a larger company, and do something completely different career-wise after that. 

 

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received that has helped you in your success?

Be nice, work hard, and never sign the contract.

 

 

What is the piece of advice that you wished you had gotten when you were starting out?

Don’t hold on to the way things “should be.” Everything changes in ways that you will and won’t be prepared for, so don’t try to control the environment or the outcome. Ride the wave and be flexible. Everything usually always shakes out the way it’s supposed to. Worrying and fretting makes you age faster and does absolutely nothing for you.

 

 

What advice you give to others to help them be better leaders?

Managing people is incredibly hard, and trusting a team execute your vision is even more difficult. Go with your gut if someone isn’t working out. Don’t waste time thinking they’ll “get better.” Cut them as soon as you feel they’re not on course.

 

As a thank you to our interview and Protea’s commitment to more diverse and inclusive leaders, Protea will make a donation to Vital Voices. Vital Voices Global Partnership is a global movement that invests in women leaders who are solving the world’s greatest challenges. They are “venture catalysts,” identifying those with a daring vision for change and partnering with them to make that vision a reality. The scale and accelerate impact through long-term investments to expand skills, connections, capacity, and visibility. Over the last 22 years, we have built a network of 18,000 change-makers across 182 countries who are collectively daring to reimagine a more equitable world for all.

Tax Preparation Enablement

We provide your organization a true end to end solution to all of your tax needs. Tax season is year round to Protea – if you aren’t preparing daily, it’s too easy to get behind. We are always working with your organization to streamline your businesses tax management.

Ask Questions
Accrual Accounting vs. Cash Accounting – What’s the Difference?

Accrual Accounting vs. Cash Accounting – What’s the Difference?

by | Feb 18, 2021 | Accounting | 2 comments

There are two methods for recording financial transactions in your books—the cash basis and the accrual basis. The primary difference between these two is the timing of when transactions get recorded.

Choosing a method depends on your business’s needs, and most wineries should use the accrual basis to value inventory properly. However, we’ll discuss both ways so you can see how each impacts a business.

Cash Basis Accounting

The cash basis of accounting records financial transactions when cash changes hands. When you receive money from customers, you record revenue. And conversely, when you pay your bills, you’ll record the expense. It’s that simple.

Although the cash basis of accounting generally doesn’t comply with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), it’s widely used by small businesses and new companies due to its simplicity.

And using the cash basis doesn’t necessarily require hiring an accountant with years of experience. A competent bookkeeper will easily be able to keep your cash-basis books.

Accrual Basis Accounting

Recording revenue when it’s earned and expenses when they are incurred is the basis of accrual accounting. When cash is received or used is irrelevant to the recording of the income and expenses

The foundation behind accrual accounting is the matching principle. This means that companies match expenses with related revenues to calculate profitability for a specific period.

For example, when you sell a case of wine, at the same time, you need to record the cost of the wine and any related selling expenses so, at the end of the day, you know your profit on the sale of that case of wine.

Accrual accounting will make use of accounts receivable and accounts payable to keep track of money owed to you and money you owe to others. These accruals allow you to match your expenses with the corresponding revenue.

For example, when you ship 20 cases of wine to your distributor with an invoice, those 20 cases’ sales price becomes a receivable to you. You earned the revenue by completing the sale but haven’t yet received payment.

The converse works for the money you owe to others. When you receive a shipment of glass bottles from your supplier, you incur the expense when you receive them. But you may not pay that invoice for 30 days, so you’ll have a payable on your books for the value of the bottles.

Accrual accounting is more complex than cash accounting but does provide a truer picture of the profitability of your business.

Most larger companies and companies with numerous owners are required to use accrual accounting to adhere to GAAP principles. In fact, the IRS also has requirement on when accrual accounting must be used, namely for:

  • most businesses with inventory,
  • C-corporations, and
  • companies with more than $25 million in annual sales.

Examples of Effects of Cash and Accrual Accounting

Effects on Income

Assume you sell 100 cases of wine for $1,000 to your top distributor and the total cost of making, bottling, and packaging that wine was $500.

Cash basis

You record the $1,000 in revenue when your distributor pays you.

You record the costs for the grapes, labor costs, bottles, etc. when you pay for those items, which was likely long before you sold the wine.

Gross profit reported at the time of receiving the cash from the distributor is likely to equal to the revenue.

Accrual basis

You record the $1,000 in revenue when you deliver the wine to the distributor.

You record the costs of the materials and labor at the same time that you record the sales revenue.

Gross profit reported at the date the wine shipped (or a different date depending on the shipping terms) and will be equal to sales revenue less the cost of the wine.

You can see how the cash basis doesn’t provide a good representation of profit when your revenue gets recorded long after the expense shows up on the income statement.

 

Effects on Taxes

Using the same example of 100 cases sold for $1,000 at a cost of $500, the tax effect creates a similar mismatch.

Cash basis

You probably (due to the length of the inventory cycle in wine) recorded most of your costs in previous years, making your taxable income lower in those years.

But this year, when you record the $1,000 in revenue, your taxable income will be higher because you don’t have the offsetting expenses.

Accrual basis

This year, you’ll be taxed on your $500 profit on this sale since you’ll record revenue and expenses in the same year.

You’re starting to see that the accrual basis creates more of a steady financial environment than the cash method’s peaks and valleys. Accrual accounting provides a clear picture of the profitability of a business as the income and expenses are matched.

Which is Better? Cash Basis or Accrual Basis

Choosing the correct accounting method will depend on your business’s specifics. Things to consider when deciding on a method include:

  • Do you think you’ll need bank financing in the future?
  • Is expanding the business to include more owners a possibility?
  • Will your books ever need to be audited?

Cash Basis
Pros
Cons
Simple and easy Inaccurate financial picture
Easy cash flow management No records of what you’re owed or what you owe
Good short-term view Doesn’t comply with GAAP

 

Accrual Basis
Pros
Cons
The better overall financial picture Requires more resources
Commonly expected in business The short-term picture can be skewed
Conforms with GAAP

Once you pick a method, you’ll want to stick with it for two reasons. Firstly, for consistency in your financial information. This way you’ll always be comparing apples to apples. Secondly, the IRS requires you to maintain the same method. If you ever want to change, you’ll need to ask for the IRS’s permission.

It’s best to consult with your accountant when selecting the accounting method that’s best for your winery and could be different for operational needs and tax needs. They can help you set up your accounting system and processes to ensure you’re recording your transactions correctly. You can also lean on them when you need expert help or additional hands to get the work done. Protea has decades of experience helping winery owners navigate the bookkeeping, accounting, and tax waters. Contact us today to see what we can do for you.

How to Calculate the Cost of Making Wine

How to Calculate the Cost of Making Wine

by | Jan 21, 2021 | Accounting, Outsourced Accounting, Wine Industry | 0 comments

To run a profitable winery, it is vital to understand how much profit you are making per bottle of wine sold. You will need to be able to determine and understand what you can sell your wine for and how much that wine costs to produce.

While the market will dictate how much you charge for your wine, you control how much it costs to make it, as long as you understand what is included in the costs and have a mechanism to track it.

An accurate calculation of the costs to make your wine increases the likelihood of operating a profitable winery. Although this sounds like a simple endeavor, there are challenges. From determining which costs to include, to tracking all expenses through the production process, getting to a final dollar value takes time and careful consideration.

The Basic Terminology

Before we can start discussing how to value your winery inventory, let’s define two key accounting terms.

Cost of Goods Produced (COGP) 

Commonly known as wine in process or cost of inventory, all costs involved in the process of making wine are included. This includes things like:

• Raw materials
• Services
• Labor
• Overhead allocations

Whether direct or indirect, all costs from planting through to bottling the finished wine are included in COGP.

Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)

The COGS is the cost of the wine sold in a specific period. You’ll need to match the cost of the inventory you sold to your revenue. A simple way to put it, for each bottle of wine sold, how much did it cost to make and get it into the hands of the customer.

Now that you understand the two primary accounting terms related to production, we need to dig deeper into the different ways to develop a value for your COGP, starting with the groups of costs involved.

Inventory Costs

Winemaking generally involves three main types of costs.

• Direct materials
• Direct labor
• Overhead allocations

Direct Materials in Winemaking

Calculating materials cost is reasonably straightforward. It is the cost, including tax and delivery fees, to acquire your materials and get them to your production area. This includes raw materials like grapes and packaging materials like bottles and boxes.

Segregating these costs makes the allocation of overhead (which we’ll discuss a little later) a little easier and more accurate. And it makes sense for blended wines. You’ll be better able to track the component costs.

While you may initially record the cost of grapes separately (if you are farming, this will be more complex than if you are buying grapes), it will be added to the other expenses, such as fermentation and cellar costs, to get to your bulk wine cost.

Direct materials don’t include materials consumed in production. For example, light bulbs or air filters in your production facility are manufacturing overhead.

Labor in Winemaking

Labor required to turn your raw grapes into a finished bottle of wine should be included in inventory costs. You’ll want to include not only salary and wages but also benefits and payroll taxes.

Owner or executive compensation is difficult to classify. While they are involved in the winemaking process, they also work in other areas, like administration and finance. For these individuals, determine how much of their time is involved in the winemaking process and apply the percentage to their total payroll costs. Using reasonable estimates is acceptable.

Overhead in Winemaking

Costs incurred to keep your winery operating but aren’t direct materials or labor are overhead. Overhead costs are usually aggregated into cost pools and allocated based upon the number of bottles produced.

Examples of overhead include property insurance and taxes, building repairs and maintenance, utilities, and administrative staff wages.

With your bulk wine value, adding expenses for your direct labor and overhead gets you to the total cost of the finished, ready-to-sell wine.

After you’ve tabulated the total inventory costs, you’ll need to consider how your wine inventory moves. This cost-flow is your inventory valuation method and impacts your COGS, income taxes, and balance sheet ratios for lending requirements. Choose the other that best suits your production process.

COGP/Inventory Valuation Methods

Specific Identification

This method involves tracking each item from the time of purchase through to when the wine is bottled. Meticulous record-keeping, data collection, and data segregation make specific identification highly accurate.

Starting with the calculation of exact juice or wine yields for each varietal vintage, even getting detailed down to which vineyard or vineyard block, you then track the juice into the individual barrels for each lot, parsing and combining as barrels get blended.

Weighted or Average Cost

When costs are intermingled and difficult to specifically identify, using the average cost method may work best. Using the average or weighted average for consumable supplies like yeast and sulfur or general costs like storage is appropriate.

First-In First-Out (FIFO)

Another valuation method is the FIFO method, which assumes that inventory moves such that the oldest stock (the first in) is the first sold (the first out).

Last-In First-Out (LIFO)

As you might guess, the LIFO method assumes the newest inventory items (the last in) are the first to be sold (the first out). This is unlikely the case in the wine industry since older vintages are typically sold before newer ones.

Specific identification and FIFO are the most commonly used valuation methods for wineries.

Using LIFO for tax purposes requires you to use it for financial reporting purposes. This can be achieved while still using the specific identification or FIFO method by recording a LIFO reserve on your books.

Recent changes in the tax code for expensing of certain winemaking costs make consulting with your CPA very helpful.

Regardless of which inventory valuation method you use, use it consistently. Consistency is required for U.S. GAAP reporting and makes spotting an error easier.

Valuing winery inventory is challenging and unique. It requires specialized knowledge acquired through years of experience. The professionals at Protea have decades of experience helping winery owners with complex accounting and tax issues. Reach out today to see how we can help you.

Financial Forecasting and Cash Flow Planning

Financial Forecasting and Cash Flow Planning

by | Jan 14, 2021 | Accounting, Bookkeeping, Financial Services, Outsourced Accounting | 0 comments

While extremely rewarding, getting a winery up and running can be very difficult to do. Not only does it require a large amount of capital and resources to start with, but you also won’t even start selling wine until a few years down the line. It’s a large investment with a substantial amount of risk – especially if you don’t plan accordingly.

In this article, we’ll discuss how you can use financial forecasting and cash flow planning to ensure that your winery is set up for success.

What Is Financial Forecasting?

Financial forecasting is the process of estimating your expected financial status in future periods. Usually, forecasting involves making use of existing data and is most commonly seen in income statements. However, more complete financial models will have forecasts for all of their financial statements, including the balance sheet, cash flow, and statement of owner’s equity.

Financial forecasting models vary from business to business. Some companies use historic figures and data as a basis for future trends, which are easier to calculate but not as reliable. Other companies favor studying expansion and inflation rates and other forecasted data, which can be more time-consuming but possibly more accurate.

Here are some of the most commonly used methods of financial forecasting to give you a better idea of how they work:

Straight-line Method

Arguably the easiest financial forecasting method, the straight-line method uses linear growth as basis for computation. If you were to chart the growth on a graph, you would notice a straight line moving up or down, hence the term “straight-line.”

To calculate using the straight-line method, all you need to do is calculate the growth rate of any relevant data you wish to forecast, such as sales. Then, multiply the current data by the growth rate to get the future amount. This process can be repeated indefinitely.

The main downside to the straight-line method is that it’s not a very accurate one, especially for smaller, more volatile businesses.

Linear Regression

Linear regression is a popular method of financial forecasting that makes use of trends and extrapolating forecasted data from them. Similar to the straight-line method, linear regression does involve lines, but instead of the values forming the line, the values are fitted into a linear equation.

Because of its accuracy, linear regression and its various sub-methods have become one of the most common ways to forecast financial data. Unless you have the knowledge and expertise, however, you may want to refer to professionals for an accurate analysis.

What Do I Do with Data from Financial Forecasting?

Once you have a predictive model of your financial data, you can then begin to make decisions to maximize gains or minimize losses. If you’re expecting more sales in the future, you can increase production now to gain even more profits. If sales are forecasted to go down next year, you may want to cut your losses by lowering your prices. The data itself won’t save your businesses – only you can.

What Is Cash Flow Planning?

Cash flow planning is a subcategory of financial forecasting. Instead of predicting all of your financial data, however, it focuses on the future inflows and outflows of cash in your business.

Cash flow planning is such an important tool because cash is the most liquid asset that drives nearly all transactions. A business that runs out of cash dies.

To make an accurate cash flow plan, you need to consider multiple factors. Here are some of the most important ones:

Regular/Operating expenses

This is by far the most important (and most predictable) outflow of cash. Every day, week, month, quarter, or year, you have recurring expenses that the business must pay to keep running. Common examples of this are payroll, rent, and utility bills.

Losses

Not everything goes perfectly in business. Sometimes, your business may incur losses that aren’t part of your regular expenses. These losses aren’t very predictable and can leave you with little to no liquidity.

Examples of losses include accidents (such as car accidents), natural disasters, and even spoilage. Since you can’t really predict when these events will occur during the year, some businesses set aside an amount that’s reserved for losses.

Price Changes

The market’s always changing, and so do the prices of goods. For wineries, this can be the difference between a large profit margin and barely breaking even. By understanding and taking into account the price changes of materials, ingredients, and even equipment, you’re able to more accurately determine your expenses and earnings for the period.

How Often Should I Make Cash Flow Plans?

Since cash flow plans involve your most liquid asset, they are best made on a month-to-month basis or even more frequently. A lot of businesses would benefit at looking at their expected cash position before making weekly payments so they can consider if delaying of payments are necessary or if they need to talk to investors or lenders to extend funds to get through high cash flow period (think about all the additional needs for cash during harvest).

Making cash flow plans for the next year is difficult, and often changing but most businesses need to plan more than a few months out, especially manufacturers, which would include wineries. At a minimum a business should be forecasting 3 months out but forecasting 1 year out will be very important to allow to make better decisions. 

After making a cash flow plan, you should now have a good idea of what to expect for the next few months, and whether or not you’re going to have sufficient funds to cover your current needs.

Conclusion

Financial forecasting and cash flow planning are useful tools to help you make financial decisions to maximize your profits and ensure your business never runs out of cash. Financial forecasting can give you an idea of the general direction your business is headed, whereas cash flow plans help you stay on top of your month-to-month operational expenses and assisting in making long term financing decisions..

By understanding how financial forecasting and cash flow planning works, you can guarantee the success of your winery for years to come.

How to Grow Your Business Through Accounting Outsourcing

How to Grow Your Business Through Accounting Outsourcing

by | Nov 19, 2020 | Accounting, Business, Outsourced Accounting | 0 comments

Outsourcing routine tasks is an easy way to simplify and grow your business. Accounting, customer service, and marketing are easy places to start when it comes to outsourcing. None of these tasks are unique to your business but all are necessary for a successful business. 

Fewer in-house employees and the legal and financial complexities that come with them mean you’ll be able to quickly adapt when the time comes to grow your business. But is outsourcing your accounting right for you? 

Consider these five advantages when looking to hire an outsourced accounting team.

Save Money and Reinvest to Grow Your Company

Employee hiring can be expensive. Recruitment, pre-screening reports, training, and payroll taxes add up quickly when hiring a full-time accountant. The ongoing salary and taxes will eat into your profits even when your business is in a lull. 

By using an outsourced accounting team, you’ll pay a fraction of the money you’d spend on full-time employees. And that money you’ll save can be used to grow your business. 

Perhaps your winery needs to replace its aging cooperage or purchase a new point of sale system for your retail operations. Reducing your payroll costs can help fund these new investments and grow your business.

As an extra bonus, no more searching for an employee with decades of experience in the beverage industry who knows the industry jargon and nuances. You’ll have a team of winery accounting experts on hand.

Promote or Reinforce Good Business Habits

If you’ve been attempting to do your own bookkeeping and find that it’s not a priority and doesn’t get completed until the bank, the tax preparer, or an investor asks, you’re not setting yourself up for victory. Accounting is the language of business and your business needs to be fluent. 

When you work with an outsourced accounting firm, you’re working with a team of financial experts with years of experience in bookkeeping, financial statement preparation, and internal controls.

An outsourced accounting team can help with calculating winery inventory costs and design internal controls to prevent employee theft. Relying on your team of experts allows you to have up-to-date bookkeeping records so you’ll always know where your business stands. 

These solid habits will pay off when the time comes to expand your business. Outside investors will love seeing that you have complete control over your business and its operations.

 Receive Unbiased Advice From Your Accounting Team

If growing your business means soliciting outside investors or competing in a new market, your outsourced accounting team can provide you with the unbiased advice you deserve. 

Your team of experts can offer tips on how to reduce your cost of goods sold to obtain a higher profit margin to make your winery attractive to investors. Or they can help you evaluate various warehouses to find the best fit for you. 

And if you’re in need of improving cash flow, ask your team how you can reduce your accounts receivable and encourage customers to pay quickly. Offering a discount for prompt payment may cut into your profits but if it decreases your need to rely on expensive short-term loans to meet your cash needs, it may well be what your business needs to hear. 

Outsourced accountants can see your business from the outside, something that may be challenging for the business owner. They can see what’s working and what isn’t. And any fair and trustworthy accountant will give you an honest take on the health of your business. 

Reduce Burdens on You and Your Managers

As a winery owner, you’re pulled in dozens of different directions. Harvesting, production, operations, finance, and customer relations all compete for your attention each day.

You can alleviate stress on you and your management team by letting a team of expert accountants handle the day-to-day finances. Let them get into the trenches so you don’t have to. They will keep your bookkeeping records current so that you’re free to focus on areas that need your personal touch.

Relying on your team’s expertise gives you the confidence you need to make sound business decisions. 

Your expert outsourced accounting team can even help with production reporting and TBB compliance –  freeing up your operations team to focus on quality production.

Grow Your Business Together

When the time comes for your business to expand, your outsourced team will be able to grow with you. You won’t be slowed down searching for and hiring additional full-time employees. Start with a team now that has the ability to meet your needs today and tomorrow.

Rely on a team of experts who can help you answer questions like:

  1. Am I pricing my cases correctly?
  2. Which customers are most profitable?
  3. Can I afford to offer seasonal sales incentives?

And if the time comes when business is slow, your outsourced team can easily be scaled back. You won’t have to continue incurring overhead payroll costs when revenue has dipped. Your outsourced team can fluidly adjust to your business needs.

If you’re considering outsourcing your accounting, do your due diligence to find the right team of experts to complement your business. With the right outsourced team, you’ll be able to tap into the top talent in the accounting industry setting your business up for continued success.

Let Protea be your team for today and tomorrow. Discover why we’re the premier winery and beverage accounting experts on the West Coast by requesting your complete business evaluation today. 

4 Benefits of Outsourced Accounting For Wineries

4 Benefits of Outsourced Accounting For Wineries

by | Aug 21, 2020 | Accounting, Bookkeeping, Financial Services, Wine Industry | 10 comments

Accounting and bookkeeping are the heartbeat of the business side of your winery. Unfortunately, these critical functions are too often overlooked by busy owners. While it’s tempting to take shortcuts, or simply rush through the tasks, that can lead to inaccurate financial statements. That’s why Protea Financial offers outsourced accounting services.

While it’s certainly understandable – you have your plate full with so many other business tasks – errors in your accounting and bookkeeping can derail your business. And often without warning.

In 2019, it was reported that 82% of small businesses fail due to cash flow problems. And this infographic from SmallBizTrends shows that 30% of all small businesses are continually losing money due to poor financial management.

With business growth, wine sales and general management stealing your focus, you may consider outsourcing your accounting to ensure financial accuracy and promptness. Outsourcing your winery accounting can help reduce your workloads and divert some, or all of your financial tasks to qualified, highly-skilled accountants. The results will be evident. Once you have outsourced your winery’s financial tasks to an experienced accountant, you can rest assured that your business accounts are in safe hands.

Don’t believe us? Consider this: A survey in 2018 showed that over 80% of businesses outsourcing their accounting function would recommend their accountant to other businesses. If you’re not yet convinced, we’re going to tell you about all the benefits of outsourced accounting.

What Can an Outsourcing My Accounting Department Do for My Business?

Outsourced accounting can take some elements or even the entire function of accounting outside of your business. This will make room for other tasks – especially those that are particularly time-consuming. Whatever your current accounting situation, outsourced accounting can offer you a far more comprehensive solution. Here are 4 of our favorite benefits of outsourced accounting.

1.     Accounting Firms Are Made For This

Wine accounting is a complex and challenging task. Not only does outsourcing your accounting take the work off your shoulders, but it places it in the competent hands of highly trained and experienced accounting staff. That’s right, with many accounting firms, you’re no longer relying on one person to manage your books, often you’re getting a whole team.

2. You Can Cut Your Overhead

When you outsource accounting, you will only pay for the work done. In the USA, worker illness and injury cost businesses a total of $225.8 Billion. You need not be one of them. By outsourcing your winery accounting needs, you skip the hassle of payroll taxes, sick leave and vacation time. Therefore, significantly improving your winery’s profit margin. You also eliminate the risk of suddenly losing staff – an issue that most businesses face when someone goes into long term sick leave or quits without notice, leaving you and your books high and dry.

3. Trained Accountants Are Meticulous and Logical

There’s nothing quite so analytical and precise as the mind of an experienced accountant. By nature, accountants are highly logical and willing to deep dive into the details in order to produce the best outcome. Often, accountants utilize highly complex software in order to manage your accounts and to produce the most accurate results possible. One of the many benefits of outsourced accounting is of course, the accountants themselves.

4. You’ll Save Money

While paying someone to do a task you managed yourself might not seem like it would save you money, it definitely will in the long run. You are now free to take care of your business in other more effective ways, or to hone your focus into one element of finance such as bookkeeping and redirect the rest. So the fee your business pays to an outsourced accountancy firm will pale in comparison to the profits from a more active business. In fact, around 30% of businesses outsourcing their accounting functions have been able to increase profit with the guidance of their new accountant. 

How Protea Financial Will Bring You All the Benefits of Outsourcing Your Accounting or Bookkeeping

To remain successful, wineries need business leaders to run fast while remaining agile, as well as access to accurate financial data. The opportunity cost of not having superlative accounting is potentially enormous. Protea is here to empower you to cultivate business growth, while your outsourced accounting team manages your financial back office.

Our clients enjoy the benefit of having a team structured around your business needs. The strategic benefits of outsourcing accounting start with the savings. It’s the stack of talent that works with you around the clock to maintain the integrity of your company finances. No matter what happens, your Protea team will have your back and strive to make your job easier.

Begin your journey with Protea by requesting an evaluation today. Our goal is to design a winery financial strategy that allows you the freedom to scale at the pace you desire.