If your team is spending more time chasing receipts than serving clients, it might be time to start thinking about more effective ways to use your precious time. Many CPA firms, nonprofits, and small businesses are overwhelmed by messy books, outdated systems, and staffing challenges. It’s stressful, inefficient, and leads to missed opportunities to focus on what really drives growth.
Outsourcing isn’t about giving up control. It’s about gaining a strategic, stable partner who helps you work smarter, not harder.
Here are five signs it might be time to bring in a partner like Pillar, and why outsourcing your accounting can be the most strategic move you make this year.
1. Your team is buried in client bookkeeping
If your CPA firm spends more time fixing client books than focusing on tax and advisory work, it’s time to outsource. When your team is overwhelmed with reconciliations, payables, and reporting, it limits your ability to deliver high-value client services.
Pillar’s solution: We handle your clients’ day-to-day accounting as an extension of your team, maintaining accuracy, consistency, and communication every step of the way. You keep control of the client relationship; we keep the books clean and current.
For business owners, that means having reliable financials without hiring in-house. For CPAs, it means more capacity, fewer headaches, and happier clients.
Benefit: Free your team to focus on what matters most, like advisory, compliance, and client relationships.
2. Your systems are outdated or disconnected
If your firm or business is still juggling desktop software, manual spreadsheets, or paper receipts, inefficiency is inevitable. Outdated tools slow you down, increase error risk, and create unnecessary complexity.
Pillar’s solution: We bring modern, cloud-based systems like QuickBooks Online and Xero together with workflow automation and secure hosting. We help migrate, optimize, and maintain your entire accounting tech stack so your data is accessible, accurate, and secure anytime, anywhere.
Benefit: Real-time financial visibility and smoother collaboration between your team, your clients, and us.
3. Staffing challenges are holding you back
Staffing shortages have become a major concern for CPA firms and small businesses alike. When you don’t have enough qualified people to manage the accounting load, quality and turnaround time suffer.
Outsourcing gives you instant access to trained professionals who can step in to manage key accounting functions without the cost or complexity of hiring full-time staff.
Pillar’s difference: We’re dependable, transparent, and collaborative. Our team becomes your team, integrating seamlessly with your existing systems and processes. We deliver on time, every time, with the same precision and professionalism you’d expect internally.
Benefit: A scalable workforce you can rely on—without the overhead.
4. Growth is exposing cracks in your accounting
As your firm or business grows, so does the volume and complexity of your accounting. New clients, more transactions, and evolving reporting requirements can stretch even the best internal systems past their limits.
Pillar’s approach: We provide flexible, scalable outsourced accounting that grows with you. Whether you need help managing multiple client books, consolidating nonprofit entities, or forecasting cash flow, we tailor our services to fit your needs, not the other way around.
Our team is collaborative and curious. We love designing smarter systems that not only keep up with growth, but help accelerate it.
Benefit: Accounting that scales alongside your success without disruption.
5. You want clarity, insight, and peace of mind
Accurate books are the foundation for confident decisions. When your financial data is timely and reliable, you can plan proactively instead of reacting to problems.
Pillar’s added value: Beyond bookkeeping, we offer partial CFO services (including cash flow management, forecasting, and budgeting), turning raw data into actionable intelligence. For CPA firms, that means you can rely on us for clean, ready-to-review financials and focus on delivering deeper client insights.
Benefit: Confidence in your numbers, and the peace of mind that comes from knowing everything is handled with integrity and care.
Why outsourcing accounting makes sense
The benefits of outsourcing accounting services go well beyond saving time. When you partner with the right team, you gain:
- Accuracy: Books that are clean, compliant, and audit-ready
- Efficiency: Automated workflows and cloud-based systems that cut manual work
- Scalability: Support that expands with your client base or business growth
- Security: Encrypted data hosting and single sign-on access for seamless collaboration
- Peace of mind: Reliable professionals managing your accounting, so you can focus on strategy
Ready to build your foundation with Pillar?
At Pillar, we’re guided by our mission to build lasting relationships and serve as a strategic, stable pillar for our clients, communities, and team members.
We believe accounting should feel lighter, simpler, and more strategic. By combining technology with genuine human partnership, we help you reclaim your time, improve your client service, and strengthen your financial foundation.
Contact us today to discuss our outsourced and cloud accounting solutions.