How Financial Services Companies Outsource to Stay Competitive

Accounting teams used to sit in a corner of your office, churning through reams of paper receipts under the glow of the incandescent lights. Today, when many teams are hybrid or even fully remote, that is far from the case. Now, accounting teams can perform advanced finance and accounting tasks from anywhere with a secure Wi-Fi connection.

This modernization of accounting and finance has led to new efficiencies — including the ability to seamlessly outsource your accounting and finance functions entirely. As challenges like the finance and accounting talent shortage, staff or management level turnovers, and rising compliance demands compound, many savvy financial services companies turn to outsourcing to stay competitive in the market. According to a recent Robert Half report, 68% of finance organizations in the United States plan to increase their use of contract professionals.

In this article, we explore which financial processes are most suitable for strategic outsourcing, how an outsourced service provider can help, and the benefits of using an outsourced approach.

Financial Processes Worth Outsourcing

Accounting Services for Management Companies: Comprehensive outsourced accounting services are designed to support both daily and monthly accounting operations, as well as monthly and quarterly reporting. This allows your internal team to concentrate on more strategic, higher-value tasks. Outsourcing services include recording all expenses and transactions in compliance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), processing accounts payable, completing the month-end close, and producing weekly and monthly reports. Additionally, outsourced providers can assist with financial analysis and decision support, identifying opportunities for process improvements, assisting in selecting and implementing new technologies, and offering training and upskilling for existing staff to ensure adherence to best practices.

Fund Accounting: Outsourced accounting offers third-party oversight into a fund’s investments. This includes maintaining the fund’s books and records using tools like Advent Geneva, independently tracking daily trading profit and loss, managing inventory of stock ownership and other investments, and obtaining market valuations from appropriate pricing sources. Outsourcing providers can maintain a record of each investor’s capital balance and allocate profits and losses in accordance with the limited partnership agreement. Some financial services companies produce investor reporting using tools like World Investor, which includes investor capital call and distribution notices, mark-to-market statements, profit and loss (P&L) reporting, comparison, analysis, and net asset value (NAV) calculations.

Accounting for Special Purpose Vehicles (Blocker Entities): Our team provides comprehensive accounting services for special purpose vehicles (SPVs), also known as blocker entities. These services include recording monthly bank activity, preparing allocation files and partner capital statements, and tracking investment activity. We also maintain detailed loan and investment schedules to ensure accurate financial records. Financial services companies can leverage outsourcing for timely monthly and quarterly reporting to support transparency and informed decision-making for stakeholders.

Accounting for General Partner and Carried Interest Entities: General partner and carried interest entities often use outsourcing services for accurate and timely financial reporting and to handle the recording of monthly bank activity, investment transactions, and carried interest allocations. Additionally, outsourced providers can prepare detailed allocation files and partner capital statements. To enhance efficiency and accuracy, they can assist in maintaining and updating third-party software, which is specifically designed for managing carried interest entities and general partner accounting in the alternative investment space. These systems streamline the preparation of partner reports and capital statements, offering robust tools for tracking capital movements, allocating profits, and ensuring compliance with partnership agreements.

Annual Audit Assistance and Preparation of Financial Statements: Financial services companies utilize outsourced services for audit assistance and the preparation of financial statements for a wide range of entities. These include management companies, funds, SPVs, and general partner and carried interest entities.

Tax Preparation: The U.S. tax code is famously one of the most complex in the world and always evolving. The most recent changes signed into law on July 4, 2025, under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act are complex and require skilled professionals to navigate.

Small or middle-market financial services companies often employ generalists or small finance teams that do not have the time or expertise to keep up with changes to the tax code. That is why they seek outside help from professionals who know and understand the relevant details of these complexities. These outsourced specialists know about tax credits and deductions you are eligible for and can ensure you remain compliant under new legislation.

Implement Full-Service Outsourcing

Instead of outsourcing only one financial process, consider fully outsourcing all financial operations. The full-service outsourcing model is more custom-tailored to your company’s needs. Engaging in this outsourcing solution can help you build better processes, achieve a deeper and more insightful level of financial decision-making, and select and integrate the right technology to help you achieve faster, more accurate reporting.

Our Citrin Cooperman Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Practice can bring in industry specialists as needed to support or augment your team, stay current on the latest changes to both GAAP accounting standards and operating best practices, and help train and upskill your existing finance staff. Working with our team allows you to scale up or down your service package as needed.

If you are interested in implementing full-service outsourcing for your financial services company, please reach out to Dennis Murtha or your Citrin Cooperman representative at info@citrincooperman.com.