Outsouring and outstaffing services in Germany

Outstaffing and outsourcing offshoring companies in Germany: differences and similarities

The essence of outstaffing is to provide the company with employees (workforce), but outsourcing is a service of transferring a function to a contracting company. Business outsourcing is the delegation of tasks to contractors, literally, “the use of other people’s resources”. For example, the outsourced service may be cleaning, security, logistics or even a manufacturing shop. 

Outsourced accounting processes are checking the correctness of reports or audit services. Tax consultant is in demand in any company, as well as business services outsourcing. In this case, the accounting outsourcing means the transfer of accounting functions to a contracting company and it is regulated by a contract. 

Thus, we can say that outsourcing is a more extensive service than outstaffing. And despite the fact that most people confuse outsourcing and outstaffing in Germany, the difference between them is obvious.

Why is tax and advisory necessary?

There is an opinion that outsourcing company accounting exists because there is a shortage of valuable staff on the market. But entrepreneurs outsource accounting to leading auditing firms not because they cannot find a specialist on staff. In most cases, the decisive criteria are cost optimization, professionalism, responsibility, the ability to outsource accounting matters and to concentrate on other important issues for the business. Large companies rather than small businesses turn to the outsourcing company. 

1. Partial (processing) accounting outsourcing is a type of cooperation where you outsource individual accounting processes, such as payroll outsourcing services in Germany, for example. In this case, contractors will work only with the documents that you prepare for them, without checking the accuracy of the data. 
2. Full accounting business outsourcing is a type of cooperation that involves outsourcing internal documents to a third-party company for full accounting services. In this case, the contractor will go deeper into the internal business processes of the company and help in resolving issues with the tax authorities. 
3. Outsourced consulting – irregular consultations aimed at checking/correcting the actions of full-time accountants.

Partial delegation of responsibilities is beneficial for those who wish to relieve their accountant of some of his routine but do not trust complete accounting to outsiders. It is better to choose full delegation for companies without a full-time accounting department. As for consulting on various accounting issues, then it is worth paying attention to outsourcing for those firms whose scope of activity requires specific knowledge (work in the international market, for example). But in fact, such accounting services will be useful to everyone who wants to feel more secure, since the tax legislation is changing quite rapidly.