In recent years, all businesses have sought to increase their agility, overcome short-term capability gaps and address the impact of talent shortages. One of the key areas that organisations aim to improve is their finance department – as it plays a pivotal role in strategy, payables, budgeting, valuing, receivables, and more. When it comes to a finance department, there are typically two models – either resource the functions yourself (internally or externally) or – have a managed finance service to keep your business operations up and running. Let’s compare the two to help you choose which one is right for your business.
What is a resource-only model?
Self-resourcing your finance department involves the attraction, recruitment and retention of individuals to build your own team. A resource-only model involves expanding your existing finance department by hiring additional resources to undertake a particular task. For years, the most common way for a business to do this was to put together a team of internal resources and appoint a CFO to lead them in managing the financial functions of the business. More recently, with the rise of the global workforce, some organisations are turning to offshoring or hiring external agencies to save on recruitment costs. However, both of these depend on your own resourcing to build your team.
What is a managed finance service model?
This model involves hiring a managed finance department like Dexterous, to take care of your entire business’ financial function for you. Rather than having to spend your time advertising roles, interviewing candidates and training successful applicants, you can simply hire the services of a full finance function team that already has the skills to handle all the elements of your finances for you. For more, read An Innovative Hybrid Option for Your Finance Team.
6 differences between a Resource-Only Model vs. Managed Finance Service Model
It’s important to understand the key differences between these two options to help business leaders decide which fits best, especially if you’re considering evolving your finance function or restructuring your organisation in the near future. Six aspects differentiate these two models.
The Management of Staff
Resource-Only Model: typically, your internal finance team require someone present in the office managing everyone, providing guidance, direction and support. Managed Finance Service Model: No internal or direct management is required on your part as the managed service is closely aligned with your objectives and goals, yet incorporates their own management.
Training and Development
Resource-Only Model: Business requirements and technology are always changing. This means that you must take the time and invest to upskill your team. However, sometimes knowing what areas to upskill can be complex. Managed Finance Service Model: Dexterous continually train and develop our team to ensure that our service provides all of the latest knowledge and expertise you need to always be a highly professional and engaged resource.
Recruitment and Selection
Resource-Only Model: Typically, it takes a lot of time, money and resources to advertise, interview and assess potential candidates. This also requires selecting the right people based on your criteria as the wrong hire can be costly. Managed Finance Service Model: Solution providers like Dexterous specialise in understanding the finance talent market and are always recruiting the best in the industry, so we can offer them to you, as you need them. This way, you don’t ever have to worry about hiring or retention.
Cost Visibility
Resource-Only Model: Naturally, employee salaries are one of the largest expenses for any organisation. However, with a lot of additional “hidden costs” such as superannuation, insurance, development costs, expenses, training, hardware provisions and more, it’s often hard to determine how much each person actually costs. Managed Finance Service Model: As you only receive a consistent and single invoice at regular intervals based on the solution level you choose, you always know how much to budget, with full transparency over finance function costs.
Nature of Resource Capacity
Resource-Only Model: Typically, when you self-hire finance department staff, the options for employment are fairly rigid. They are usually full-time or part-time and fulfil one main role. Managed Finance Service Model: Dexterous offers a fully flexible finance solution that perfectly aligns with your needs, covering multiple roles and hours of work time required.
- Engagement
Resource-Only Model: You’re responsible for ensuring that the finance team member is using their time efficiently and effectively. If they’re idle or unmotivated, it can reduce overall productivity. Managed Finance Service Model: All staff are always operating at the right level and allowed to develop and grow. This means they’re not doing the same work over and over. With this approach, they’re more engaged as they’re challenged and working at the right level, all of which benefits your organisation. So, which option is best for your business, based on these six factors? It’s time to rethink your resourcing with Dexterous Do you need greater engagement, more scalability, less headaches, better financial insight and improved data accuracy? Or are you simply tired of recruiting and training staff for your finance team? If you’ve been continuing down the traditional path of resourcing but you’re still not getting the results you need from your finance team, why not try a fresh approach to an age-old business problem?
Get an instant and reliable finance department you can trust today
At Dexterous, we’re about providing a turnkey managed finance solution that works for you through a financial, operating and growth lens. This means that we leverage all the latest tools including Robotic Process Automation (RPA), access global talent and manage your finance department with the local expertise of our Sydney team. Reach out to Dexterous and transform your finance department today.
