6 Reasons Businesses Outsource R2R (Record-to-Report)

The last few years have brought about a major change in the role of finance teams in organisations. Modern business owners expect accountants to leverage financial information to drive performance analysis and facilitate informed decision-making.

The constantly evolving legislation & compliance environment and rising expectations from business leaders and clients contributes to making the Record-to-Report (R2R) function highly complex. In order to tackle these challenges, many finance leaders are now looking at setting up a team of outsourced R2R specialists.

What is the Record-to-Report (R2R) process?

Record-to-Report, or R2R, is defined as a collection of processes that occur from the time a financial transaction is recorded to the time the financial report for the same is published. The core objective of R2R function revolves around providing strategic, financial and operational feedback on the performance of the organisation as well as producing financial statements that are compliant with local accounting standards.

As you can understand, R2R is a highly specialised finance function that can have a direct impact on a company’s future growth. Considering the increased business complexity, high business impact and fluctuating bandwidth requirements, many finance leaders choose to outsource record-to-report activities.

How do outsourced R2R services help?

1. Timely digitised reporting: Many successful businesses that carry out reporting activities onshore often tend to struggle with age-old, legacy processes. An experienced R2R service provider can help transform your business through intelligent automation & process digitisation. In addition to enabling better utilisation of financial reports, these measures also facilitate generation of dynamic, timely and easily digestible reports.
2. Scalable teams: Owing to high hiring costs and limited talent pool, hiring & retaining data experts can prove to be extremely difficult for businesses especially those in the UK or North America. Working with an external service provider allows companies to set up flexible teams of data experts. This flexibility can prove to be useful during business peaks & troughs and also takes away the additional costs involved in hiring full-time data scientists.
3. Improved efficiency: Considering the complex nature of R2R processes, onshore teams are often left feeling overwhelmed, which can impact other finance functions. Outsourced R2R teams leverage process optimisation, staff experience and intelligent technology to help organisations transform their record-to-report functions. This allows finance leaders to run a streamlined R2R function with high levels of efficiency, at a significantly lower cost compared to onshore models.
4. Cost savings: Businesses who choose to perform their R2R function in-house end up facing high operational costs due to talent expenses & the complex nature of financial reporting and compliance itself. Much like the case with outsourcing other F&A functions, setting up offshore R2R teams in countries like India and Philippines can cut operational costs by up to 50%. BPOs tend to benefit from process standardisation, global talent pools, and automation solutions to bring down costs.
5. Adherence to regulatory norms: As mentioned earlier, the legislation & compliance measures in the UK, EU and US are extremely dynamic and complex in nature. Introducing a team of well-trained and up-to-date R2R experts into your business takes away this burden from in-house finance teams and ensures strict adherence to GAAP and other relevant industry norms.
6. Expert support: In addition to the all the above-mentioned benefits, working with a team of R2R specialists also ensures that your business gets reliable support in carrying out your F&A functions efficiently. Outsourced R2R teams leverage their rich industry expertise to reduce TATs for month-end closing & management reporting and provide support in sharing of information for internal & external audits.

Transform your record-to-report with QX

QX offers a wide range of R2R outsourced services for businesses across industries. Our R2R solutions include general ledger accounting, audit support, financial planning & analysis and VAT compliance amongst others. We follow a unique partnership approach which allows us to work closely with the clients to identify their specific organisational needs and deliver highly customised solutions.

Get in touch with us and speak with our experts to know more about our R2R services.

Originally published Mar 16, 2021 08:03:03, updated Apr 16 2024

Topics: Record-to-report cycle