“So the auditors are in and you’re telling me we don’t have proper books and records for them to audit because you don’t have sufficient staff with the right expertise?”
An option in dealing with this kind of situation is recruiting contractors. The dilemma for you is what type of temps or contractors do you need for your small business.
Temps, contractors, consultants or whatever title they’re given all mean the same thing. They are providing you with a service that you are going to pay for.
In reality a temp is someone who provides a service for a short period of time and the level of work is often more on a routine basis, mainly to clear backlog or provide additional support when there is sudden shortage of staff.
A contractor on the other hand is providing a service on a longer period, say for six months to a year for a specific task with set objectives to be delivered within a set period, i.e. project work. A consultant is an expert and who could potentially be extremely expensive.
The differences between recruiting contractors or temps can get hazy. Sometimes a temp can become a long-term temp (two years), sometimes a contractor can be as expensive as a consultant and a consultant doesn’t always turn out to be the expert or at least not in the field you were expecting.
Despite these differences in job titles I shall refer to them as contractors.
The quality of the service that you get from recruiting contractors is largely dependent on your relationship with them. The key is that both the company and the contractor understand very clearly the rules. The contractor should be aware that they are there to achieve a set number of goals within a given, achievable timescale. The company needs to ensure that they receive the results within the time and budgeted requirements as agreed when recruiting contractors.
It is critical the company spends an initial 30 minutes or more with the contractor to outline their remit. Specifically, to provide them with essential facts about the company and information required to do the job (It is amazing how many times I have come across companies who just don’t have the time to show someone what they want but need someone in desperately to relieve the pressure from them).
Contrary to popular belief, a contractor cannot just come in and pick things up – there is some basic information that you need to provide. For example, main contact points, giving them access to the necessary computer drives, files, system tools and email.
It’s pointless asking a contractor to set up budget templates if you haven’t bothered to tell them about your organisational structure or the set-up of your chart of accounts. Of course, a good contractor will go and find out, either by interrogating the system or simply asking.
However, this does not help if you haven’t enabled them access to the accounting package. In the meantime the clock’s tic...
