Tag Archives: Financial Process Outsourcing

Financial Process Outsourcing is becoming a strategic finance solution as organisations face rising reporting demands, regulatory complexity, talent shortages, and rapid AI adoption. This article examines the market’s growth, key adoption drivers, regional shifts, investment activity, and emerging opportunities shaping the FPO landscape in 2026 and beyond.

Why Financial Process Outsourcing Is Scaling Fast in 2026

Financial Process Outsourcing is shifting from a cost-saving tactic to a core finance strategy worldwide. The global market reached $29.64B in 2026, up from $27.36B in 2025, growing at an 8.3% CAGR, and is expected to approach $40.58B by 2030. Growth is increasingly driven by AI access, regulatory complexity, and rising reporting demands. Alternative investment managers are outsourcing fund accounting, NAV calculation, and investor reporting to build institutional-grade infrastructure without adding permanent headcount.

Financial Process Outsourcing Is Scaling Fast in 2026

Financial Process Outsourcing Market Size and Growth Outlook

The financial process outsourcing market has moved past early-stage niche status into a multi-billion-dollar global category. Independent research houses differ on exact figures, but every major estimate points towards consistent, high-single-digit growth through the end of the decade.

Global Market Valuation and Compound Growth

The Business Research Company sizes the market at $29.64B in 2026, up 8.3% from $27.36B in 2025. The market is projected to grow at an 8.2% CAGR through 2030, reaching $40.58B. This growth signals structural rather than cyclical demand.

Finance and Accounting BPO as the Anchor Segment

Grand View Research values finance and accounting BPO at $70.2B in 2025, rising to $76.5B in 2026, with a 9.3% CAGR through 2033. Within the $328.4B global BPO market, it is the largest service line, holding a 21.4% revenue share.

Regional Growth Differentials

North America holds the largest share of financial process outsourcing, at 36%–41% of global demand. Asia-Pacific is growing fastest, with CAGRs of 8.8%–10.7%, as regional enterprises adopt outsourcing more aggressively.

Forecast Through 2030 and Beyond

Beyond the $40.58 billion 2030 estimate, Mordor Intelligence projects the wider finance and accounting outsourcing category reaching $85.92 billion by 2031. The spread reflects differing scope definitions, but the direction is unambiguous: the sector is compounding faster than professional services at large.

Key Drivers Behind Financial Process Outsourcing Adoption

AI adoption, mounting regulatory complexity, and thinly staffed internal finance teams are pushing more organisations towards providers that can supply both delivery scale and specialised technology.

AI and Automation Inside Finance Functions

Deloitte’s Q4 2025 CFO Signals survey found that 87% of CFOs expect AI to be extremely or very important to finance operations in 2026, while 63% of finance departments already use AI. 81% are adopting AI through outsourced providers, as specialised AI talent remains scarce internally.

Rising Regulatory and Reporting Complexity

The EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive requires disclosure of ~1,100 data points across 50,000+ entities from 2026. With limited internal capacity, finance teams are increasingly relying on providers for compliance-adjacent services.

Rising Regulatory and Reporting Complexity

Forecasts for 2026–2030 highlight rising adoption among small and mid-sized enterprises, driven by cloud-based finance platforms. Lower entry costs are making outsourced finance accessible beyond large enterprises to leaner organisations.

Rising Regulatory and Reporting Complexity

Lean finance teams often face capacity gaps as fund structures become more complex. Side letters, waterfalls, and multi-currency vehicles are driving greater use of outsourced NAV calculation and financial process outsourcing to meet investor expectations.

Geographic Shifts Reshaping Financial Process Outsourcing Delivery

Delivery is consolidating around a small number of global hubs, with India extending its lead as capability centres move from transactional processing towards strategic ownership.

Geographic Shifts Reshaping FPO Delivery

India’s Expanding Global Capability Centre Footprint

Industry tracking counts 1,700–2,100 GCCs in India, employing ~2.4M professionals and generating ~$98.5B in FY2026 exports, projected to reach $110B by 2030. JPMorgan Chase’s December 2025 plans for Asia’s largest GCC in Mumbai highlights India’s shift towards strategic infrastructure, beyond cost-driven back offices.

Tier-2 City Expansion

Coimbatore, Kochi, and Ahmedabad account for ~12% of GCC hiring, supported by policies like the Maharashtra GCC Policy 2025. Attrition is 10%–15% lower than Tier-1 metros, with 30%–40% talent-cost savings.

North America and Europe as Demand Centres

North America and Europe account for well over half of global spend on these services. Their large enterprise bases and complex regulatory requirements sustain strong demand. This remains true even as offshore delivery capacity expands.

Captive GCCs Versus Third-Party Vendors

Offshore finance work is shifting from vendor contracts to captive and hybrid models.
India’s regulatory simplification is supporting this transition.
GST 2.0 and the pending Income Tax Bill are influencing location decisions.

Investment and Deal Activity in Financial Process Outsourcing

Private capital is consolidating financial process outsourcing providers, favouring scale and AI-enabled delivery capability over simple headcount growth.

Private Equity Appetite for Services Platforms

Global M&A value reached $4.9T in 2025, up 37% YoY, with private-equity-backed transactions totaling ~$1.8T. This capital is increasingly flowing into business services and technology-enabled platforms. Finance and accounting providers with recurring revenue are benefiting from this trend.

Platform Buyouts and Scale as a Deal Thesis

PitchBook expects platform buyouts to reach at least 25% of private equity deals in 2026, with larger funds gaining share. In FPO, sponsors are consolidating smaller providers into scalable platforms to support AI investment and cross-selling.

Strategic Reviews Among Established Providers

Consolidation pressure is visible across established BPO players. Conduent explored a potential sale in early 2025 after attracting takeover interest, signalling continued strategic repositioning across the broader sector.

Emerging Opportunities and the Road Ahead for Financial Process Outsourcing

The next phase will be defined by ESG reporting demand, agentic AI, and closer integration with fund operations for alternative asset managers.

ESG and Sustainability Reporting Services

Providers are expanding financial close services into materiality assessment and carbon-footprint tracking as disclosure requirements grow. This turns compliance needs into a new outsourced service opportunity.

Agentic AI and Touchless Finance Operations

Providers are moving from AI copilots to agentic systems that automate complex finance workflows with limited human oversight. Deloitte is already applying these capabilities to tasks such as month-end close and vendor validation.

Institutional-Grade Reporting for Alternative Managers

Alternative investment managers are among the fastest adopters as reporting complexity outpaces internal capacity. Private credit, real estate, and venture funds increasingly use outsourced NAV calculation, fund administration, accounting, and financial modelling to deliver institutional-quality reporting without expanding permanent staff.

What This Means for CFOs and COOs

Financial process outsourcing is becoming a strategic infrastructure choice, enabling faster scaling, regulatory readiness, and AI adoption. Firms treating finance functions as core infrastructure can better compete for capital and talent.

Services Offered by Magistral Consulting for Financial Process Outsourcing

General Ledger & Accounting

End-to-end management of accounting activities, reconciliations, journal entries, and financial close processes to ensure accurate and timely books.

Financial Reporting & MIS

Preparation of financial reports, dashboards, and MIS to deliver clear, timely, and actionable insights for management.

Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)

Budgeting, forecasting, financial modelling, and variance analysis to support strategic planning and informed business decisions.

Cash Flow & Treasury Management

Cash-flow forecasting, liquidity monitoring, payment management, and treasury support to optimise working capital and cash utilisation.

Payroll & Expense Processing

Accurate processing of payroll, employee expenses, reimbursements, and related financial reconciliations while maintaining compliance.

Tax & Compliance Support

Preparation of financial data, tax reports, compliance documentation, and regulatory requirements to minimize financial and compliance risks.

Financial Data Management & Analytics

Collection, validation, analysis, and reporting of financial data to improve data quality, visibility, and decision-making.

Financial Controls & Quality Assurance

Implementation of financial controls, validation processes, and quality checks to enhance accuracy, consistency, and governance.

About Magistral Consulting

Magistral Consulting has helped multiple funds and companies in outsourcing operations activities. It has service offerings for Private Equity, Venture Capital, Family Offices, Investment Banks, Asset Managers, Hedge Funds, Financial Consultants, Real Estate, REITs, RE funds, Corporates, and Portfolio companies. Its functional expertise is around Deal origination, Deal Execution, Due Diligence, Financial Modelling, Portfolio Management, and Equity Research

For setting up an appointment with a Magistral representative visit www.magistralconsulting.com/contact

About the Author

Nitin Kumar

Nitin is a Partner and Co-Founder at Magistral Consulting. He is a Stanford Seed MBA (Marketing) and electronics engineer with 19 + years at S&P Global and Evalueserve, leading research, analytics, and inside‑sales teams. An investment‑ and financial‑research specialist, he has delivered due‑diligence, fund‑administration, and market‑entry projects for clients worldwide. He now shapes Magistral Consulting’s strategic direction, oversees global operations, and drives business‑development support.

FAQs

What is financial process outsourcing?

Delegating finance and accounting functions such as bookkeeping, reconciliations, NAV calculation, and reporting to external specialists.

How large is the financial process outsourcing market in 2026?

The market is $29.64 billion in 2026, growing at 8.3% CAGR and projected to reach ~$40.58 billion by 2030, according to The Business Research Company.

Which regions lead financial process outsourcing delivery?

North America leads consumption at 36%–41% of global demand, while India leads delivery capacity and Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing consumption region.

How is AI changing financial process outsourcing?

AI is shifting delivery towards automated workflows, with ~81% of finance functions adopting AI through outsourced providers.

Which functions benefit most from financial process outsourcing?

Fund accounting, NAV calculation, investor reporting, financial modelling, and compliance reporting, especially among alternative asset managers.

Introduction

Project Management Office (PMO) support is a crucial aspect of successful project management. It involves the establishment of a centralized office that provides guidance, standardization, and support to project teams across an organization. The PMO serves as a hub for project management expertise and knowledge, ensuring that projects are executed in a consistent, efficient, and effective manner. PMO support encompasses a range of activities, from defining project management standards and methodologies to providing project oversight and governance.

The primary goal of PMO support is to increase project success rates by improving project planning, execution, and delivery. This is achieved through the provision of standardized processes, tools, and templates that help project teams manage their work more effectively. The PMO also plays a key role in aligning project objectives with business goals, identifying risks and issues, and ensuring that projects are delivered on time, within budget, and to the required quality standards.

PMO support is essential for organizations that undertake complex and large-scale projects. Without proper support, projects can become unmanageable, leading to cost overruns, missed deadlines, and poor outcomes. The establishment of a PMO provides a framework for project management that helps organizations deliver successful projects, reduce risks, and improve their overall project management capabilities.

Project Management Office Roles and Responsibilities

The Project Management Office (PMO) is a crucial division that offers support, oversight, and direction to project teams within a business. The PMO can come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from a small team in charge of project management procedures to a bigger team that handles project portfolio management, project governance, and reporting. We shall examine the many duties and roles that a PMO does within an organization in this article.

Project Management Office Functions

Project Governance:

The PMO is in charge of making sure that projects fit with the organization’s goals and objectives. This entails outlining the governance structure, as well as the stakeholder, sponsor, and team roles and duties. Also, the PMO keeps track of how projects are coming along, spots potential problems, and makes sure they’re handled properly.

Project Portfolio Management:

The PMO is in charge of overseeing the organization’s project portfolio, which includes giving projects a priority ranking, allocating resources, and making sure they complement the strategic goals of the company. The PMO creates a procedure for choosing and approving projects and keeps tabs on the portfolio’s development.

Standardization of Project Management Procedures:

The PMO is in charge of creating and upholding uniform project management procedures, templates, and tools. Defining project management methodology, standards, and best practices is necessary for this. Project teams must also receive training and assistance.

Project Reporting:

Providing regular reporting on the state of projects, including status updates, risk evaluations, and financial reports, is the responsibility of the PMO. This entails creating reporting guidelines and templates and making sure that project teams deliver accurate and timely data.

Resource Management:

The PMO is in charge of overseeing all project resources, including personnel, funds, and tools. This entails building resource management tools, setting resource allocation procedures, and keeping track of resource usage.

Project Audits:

The PMO is in charge of carrying out project audits to find areas that can be improved upon and make sure that projects are carried out in compliance with industry standards and best practices. This includes developing audit procedures, specifying audit standards, and carrying out audits of project deliverables and processes.

Difference Between Project Management Office and Project Manager

Project Management Office (PMO) and Project Manager are two critical terms in the world of project management. Though they are related, they have distinct roles and functions in the project management process.

The Manager is an individual responsible for leading a project from initiation to closure. They are responsible for developing and implementing plans, defining scope, managing resources, monitoring and controlling project risks, and ensuring the timely delivery of the project. The manager plays a critical role in the day-to-day management of the project, ensuring that the objectives are met, and stakeholders’ needs are addressed.

On the other hand, the Project Management Office (PMO) is an organizational unit responsible for ensuring the successful delivery of projects across the organization. The PMO is responsible for standardizing project management practices, methodologies, tools, and templates to ensure consistency across projects. The PMO also provides guidance and support to project managers, assisting them in achieving project objectives, managing risks, and resolving issues.

In essence, the project manager is responsible for managing a specific project, while the PMO is responsible for managing the entire project portfolio. While the project manager focuses on the day-to-day management of a project, the PMO provides guidance, support, and oversight to ensure that projects are aligned with the organization’s strategic goals and objectives.

PMO Types

It comes in a variety of forms, each with a unique scope and degree of authority. The different kinds of PMOs and their diverse functions will be covered in this article.

Types of PMO

Supportive PMO:

This PMO provides project support services such as training, templates, and best practices. It serves as a resource for project teams and guides to ensure that projects align with the organization’s standards and methodologies. The Supportive PMO does not have any direct control over the project teams or their resources, and it does not have any decision-making authority.

Controlling PMO:

The Controlling PMO provides a higher level of project oversight and control. It establishes project management methodologies, standards, and guidelines and ensures that they are followed across the organization. The Controlling PMO has decision-making authority over project-related matters, such as the approval of project charters and project budgets.

Directive PMO:

The Directive PMO has the highest level of authority and control over projects. It not only establishes project management methodologies, standards, and guidelines but also enforces them across the organization. The Directive PMO has decision-making authority over project-related matters, and it can direct the project teams’ resources to achieve the organization’s strategic objectives.

Hybrid PMO:

A Hybrid PMO combines the characteristics of Supportive, Controlling, and Directive PMOs. It provides project support services, establishes project management methodologies, standards, and guidelines, and has decision-making authority over project-related matters. The level of authority and control varies depending on the project’s complexity, size, and importance to the organization.

Project Management Office Functions

In general, most Project Management Offices (PMOs) play a vital role in ensuring the success of project management in any organization. Their functions include providing support and information to ensure successful project and program delivery. The primary functions of a PMO are:

– Governance: PMOs ensure that the right people make informed decisions based on accurate information. This can include auditing, peer reviews, project structuring, and accountability.

– Transparency: PMOs provide relevant and precise information to support effective decision-making.

– Reusability: PMOs act as a repository of best practices, templates, and lessons learned from previous successful projects, thus preventing the need to reinvent the wheel.

– Delivery Support: PMOs streamline processes and reduce bureaucracy, offering training, mentoring, and quality assurance to help project teams perform their jobs more effectively.

– Traceability: PMOs manage documentation, project history, and organizational knowledge to maintain a record of the project’s progress and status.

Magistral’s services on PMO Support

From the project definition stage through to project termination and post-project support, we assist our clients with project management from beginning to end. To ensure organization and project specifics, we assist our clients in choosing and adhering to the most appropriate methodology and strategy.

– PMO Design and Implementation: Assessment of your existing PMO, evaluation of the efficacy of the related control structure, and formulation of doable implementation suggestions.

– Collaborate on Project Management: Your project management skills will be evaluated, and you’ll be given the best chance of succeeding.

– Risk Mitigation & Successful Delivery: Support for your successful delivery, leveraging success, and risk mitigation: Using failures as lessons to improve future deliveries.

About Magistral Consulting

Magistral Consulting has helped multiple companies to reduce operations costs through its offerings in Procurement and Supply Chain.

For setting up an appointment with a Magistral representative visit www.magistralconsulting.com/contact

About the Author

The article is Authored by the Marketing Department of Magistral Consulting. For any business inquiries, you could reach out to prabhash.choudhary@magistralconsulting.com

Introduction

When a bank or financial lender outsources the working of its mortgage files, this is known as business process outsourcing. Some banks and lenders employ in-house loan originators, loan officers, underwriters, and closers. Banks and mortgage lenders outsource the process to third-party organizations when they do not have in-house staff for these tasks. This practice is known as Mortgage Lending Process Outsourcing.

Mortgage Lending Process Outsourcing can be a very cost-effective technique for originating and processing mortgages, which is one of the reasons why a lender would use it. Because the mortgage company would not have to house all these people, it can save money on rent and other operating costs associated with keeping an office or commercial space. The mortgage lender can also save money on salaries and worker’s compensation by outsourcing instead of hiring full-time staff. This method allows the mortgage lender to pay specialists while working on mortgage files while also employed in overflow situations for mortgage lenders, banks, and mortgage businesses.

Banks and lenders often turn to Mortgage Lending Process Outsourcing to manage the problem rather than hiring more people to cover peak periods and then laying them off after business slows. Employees of these firms do the same tasks as those of a mortgage lender’s in-house staff. Typically, these individuals run a business out of their own home office, or a place owned by another company. When a client applies for a mortgage, the bank sends the file to an outsourced loan officer. When the loan officer has finished working on the file, they pass it on to the mortgage lender’s outsourced underwriter. The procedure will be repeated until the mortgage file is closed. The sole distinction between Mortgage Lending Process Outsourcing and in-house processing is the location of the file’s professionals. They are not personnel of the lender in this circumstance.

Benefits of Mortgage Lending Process Outsourcing for SMEs

Despite the monetary crisis, mortgage process outsourcing has aided innumerable mortgage brokers, banks, and lenders in dealing with new generation customers and their diverse expectations. The following are the few primary benefits of outsourcing mortgage services:

Mortgage Lending Process Outsourcing Benefits

Benefits of Mortgage Lending Process Outsourcing

Reduced Turnaround Time

Lenders are compelled by market demand to change their product portfolios often. A mortgage is initiated in numerous steps, with the borrower having the possibility to back out. While outsourcing does not entirely remove this danger, it does speed up the decision-making process and reduces the chances of a borrower withdrawing from a loan application. An experienced team enhances efficiency and accuracy, enabling you to meet targets while reducing turnaround time through a streamlined process.

Focus on Core Competency

One of the significant advantages of outsourcing mortgage processing is that the service provider’s highly qualified team can do complex mortgage-related activities, allowing the company to focus on critical goals while managing the extra work. The service provider can conveniently oversee many mortgage activities, increasing profitability and growth. It also aids in the re-allocation of internal resources for a more effective workflow.

Access to Big Data Analytics

Big data is nowadays a must-have resource for any business. Several financial institutions are increasingly actively using big data analytics to serve their consumers better. However, processing copious amounts of data is costly, and not all small firms or institutions can afford the necessary technology and skills. Outsourcing allows full use of big data and makes analytics-driven loan and pricing model decisions, leading to a considerable rise in profits and increased consumer satisfaction.

Minimal Overhead Costs

Financial institutions that work their loan processing departments find the technique expensive and time-consuming. They must recruit and train a workforce, pay significant salaries and benefits, and obtain the necessary equipment.

Most mortgage outsourcing service providers, on the other hand, either charge fair prices or change their fees based on their needs. The outsourced crew brings prior training and experience in mortgage loan processing, which significantly reduces infrastructure and staffing costs.

Ensuring Information Security

Outsourcing can also help financial organizations, particularly smaller ones, in information security. Smaller businesses often struggle to manage their information security effectively because it needs significant expenses. As part of their obligation and commitment to the client, the outsourcing partner provides information security.

Streamlined Process

Loan processors who are outsourced are highly competent experts. Financial institutions and lenders receive help from their holistic support in originating and funding loans and promoting stability and security as streamlined and simplified as clients. Business functions are becoming more efficient because of digitalization. On the other hand, building a digital infrastructure needs significant money and resources. Most outsourcing partners offer innovative technical knowledge and a digitalized framework that mortgage lenders could use.

Mortgage Lending Process Outsourcing Services

Diligent Mortgage Underwriting Support

Many lenders experience issues with their underwriting process, such as missing or insufficient information and poor underwriting productivity. Inefficiencies in the underwriting step can result in significant problems such as mistaken asset and income estimations, poor loan quality, and excellent denial rates. It can also result in a never-ending backlog of underwriting work.

Streamlined Mortgage Closing and Post-Closing Support

There are numerous inefficiencies in the loan origination process. These can have several negative consequences for a firm, including reworks, longer turnaround times, and a worse borrower experience overall. Lenders can automate their entire closing process by outsourcing their mortgage services. Automation can also help them standardize their procedures by reducing the number of submission checklists needed. These businesses may also design extensive process maps and do thorough quality assurance inspections.

Meticulous Title Support Services

The title to the property heavily influences the ultimate closure of a loan. Many factors like whether the title was claimed before or if there are any unsolved concerns must be checked. Title support services, such as title order, title inspection, title commitment, and final policy creation are provided by mortgage outsourcing businesses. They also include services such as title insurance, settlement, and closure.

Intelligent Appraisal Support Services

Lenders and mortgage brokers can use third-party help for complete appraisal support services as part of their mortgage outsourcing services. Thanks to intelligent analytics and innovative valuation technologies, mortgage outsourcing firms can deliver rapid and correct property assessment services.

Proactive Loss Mitigation Services

No one wants to lose money on a poor loan. From basic document processing to complicated operations like borrower outreach, mortgage process outsourcing services offer various loss mitigation services. Foreclosure aid, custom loan modification, short sale management, and other services are available.

Smart Mortgage Automation

The mortgage industry can outsource more than just manual back-office activities and assistance. Mortgage outsourcing services also form the most up-to-date software and automated solutions for mortgages. Recent technological breakthroughs have automated various laborious operations, such as data extraction and validation. For example, automating mortgage loan origination choices can drastically cut turnaround times and increase client satisfaction. Mortgage underwriting automation allows direct data collection from the source. This intelligent approach significantly reduces the time and cost associated with manual data entry. Automating the collection of required consumer papers such as credit check reports and income statements from credit reporting bureaus can also help.

Magistral’s services on Mortgage Lending Process Outsourcing

We have created unique procedures for spanning loan origination, underwriting, closing support, and title support services with mortgage clients. We provide data encrypted services, including document fulfillment, originations support, underwriting support, appraisal, and loss mitigation services. These are explained below:

Creation of leads

In this process, the system creates leads for loan origination by summarizing key data from loan applications, processing and scoring credit, locking rate quotes, and indexing loan documents.

Processing and Underwriting

Providing underwriting support, clearing loan conditions, conducting quality checks and auditing frauds if any, creating policy and compliance audits, verifying social security numbers, and disclosing all the information to the client are major steps under this.

Closing and Funding

After communicating all necessary information to the client, the team prepares the closing documents, performs quality checks, and conducts file audits to create the policy documents.

Servicing

This step covers the servicing phase, including loan boarding, auditing new loans, processing pay-offs, conducting customer research and resolutions, and making welcome calls to mortgage clients.

Why choose Magistral for Mortgage lending Process Outsourcing?

Magistral’s mortgage services help businesses develop robust operations, make better decisions, reduce risk, and unlock growth. For a smooth transfer, Magistral uses a unique and low-risk procedure. Business continuity and risk minimization are at the forefront of the process. The procedure is also intended to instill trust in the clients in Magistral’s ability.

About Magistral consulting

Magistral Consulting has helped multiple funds and companies in outsourcing operations activities. It has service offerings for Private Equity, Venture Capital, Family Offices, Investment Banks, Asset Managers, Hedge Funds, Financial Consultants, Real Estate, REITs, RE funds, Corporates and Portfolio companies. Its functional expertise is in Deal origination, Deal Execution, Due Diligence, Financial Modeling, Portfolio Management and Equity Research.

For setting up an appointment with a Magistral representative visit www.magistralconsulting.com/contact

About the Author

The article is Authored by the Marketing Department of Magistral Consulting. For any business inquiries, you could reach out to prabhash.choudhary@magistralconsulting.com

Introduction

Financial process outsourcing has been on the horizon of businesses for over a decade now. But there are a few trends that are making this process all the more strategic. It is not only about cutting costs, but having the right partner who could improve the processes, change culture, bring in the new talent and technology and make finance more predictive and proactive.

When it comes to Financial Process Outsourcing, the following trends are changing the landscape of the industry

Smaller and niche clients

Bigger players with a headcount of hundreds of thousands started taking advantage of outsourcing around a decade back. They are increasing it in terms of scale and complexity, however, the major volume is now going to come from smaller players as small as 1 or 2 men companies. Niche processes that are difficult to deliver on a turnkey basis also show promise.

Technology

Technology impacts all industries all the time. Financial process outsourcing is no exception. It has now moved from process outsourcing to process reengineering to automate steps and bring down the costs further and improve the operational efficiencies

Outcome-based offerings

Outcome-based offerings are still to take off but are on the horizon. It makes the vendor, your business partner where they are accountable for business results and not only delivering on the processes. Metrics related to a reduction in sales outstanding, operations costs, cycle time reductions, liquidity improvements, forecast accuracy are a few related to advisable business outcomes

Strategic importance

Outsourcing started as a low-cost low-value add jobs outsourcing. It still is to some extent. Firms are now outsourcing more strategic and high-value tasks. They actively outsource processes like budgeting, fundraising, and investor communications, in addition to routine accounting jobs.

Advantages of Financial Process Outsourcing

There are multiple reasons why outsourcing the financial processes is the best way of doing it. The reasons not only involve cost savings but a host of others that raise the operational standards of the client, whatever business they are in.

Magistral's Financial Process Outsourcing Advantages

Financial Process Outsourcing Advantages that Magistral Consulting Offers

These advantages are:

Cost

Of course, cost considerations here are tangible and very obvious. One dollar saved is a dollar earned. That is a saving that starts showing in the P&L as soon as you decide to outsource. You can normally expect to save 50–80%, depending on your location and the specific process you choose to outsource.

Flexibility

Apart from the absolute cost savings, there is a further scope of savings due to fractional resources. Fractional resources mean that you are not hiring anyone permanently but are tapping into the skill and experience of the resources only as and when required.

CFO outsourcing

CFO outsourcing or substantial outsourcing of strategic tasks is an emerging trend. This is all the more important for start-ups or funds that are small and can’t afford a full-time CFO.

Focus on core tasks

Outsourcing frees up the management and workforce bandwidth to focus on more strategic aspects of business and operations

Technology

Since the vendor has experience outsourcing similar processes for other clients, it can better recommend and implement technologies that reduce effort or improve turnaround time. The vendor achieves this by automating several tasks using Artificial Intelligence and machine learning algorithms.

Operational efficiency improvements

Outsourcing to an expert improves the operational efficiency of a process by multiple notches. Something like an increase in efficiency due to touchless processing, reductions in operations cost, and reduction in Day Sales Outstanding (DSOs) are very typical operational outcomes of outsourcing

Improved plan compliance and making finance more predictive

With tools like dynamic real-time scenario planning, dashboards, visualization tools, data science and analytics, and on-demand reporting, it’s possible to make the finance function more predictive

Financial Process Outsourcing: What could be outsourced?

Financial processes that are low value add and not strategic could of course be outsourced. Now added onto transactional outsourcing is the strategic outsourcing elements that require specialist interventions. The activities that could be successfully outsourced are:

Bookkeeping and back-office support

Organizations have consistently used activities like account reconciliations, deferred revenues, customer billing and payments, expense processing, managing the general ledger, financial and tax reporting, currency consolidation, payroll services, and vendor invoicing to reduce costs and enhance operational quality.

Controller services

The services like audit reports, auditor facilitation, compliances, MIS, dashboards, etc form the backbone of outsourcing here

Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A)

This is the bulk of the planning and analysis aspects of the Finance function. This includes acquisition integration support, board reporting, financial data analysis, ratio analysis, comparative analysis with competition, financial research, along with planning, budgeting, and forecasting

Fundraising

This aspect requires a very specialist intervention. Here the offerings include pitch deck content and design support, investor reach-out, modeling and valuation, and investment bank’s selection

Mortgage process outsourcing

This is a specialist process of a lender whose critical elements could be successfully outsourced. These elements are marketing, loan origination data entry and analysis, underwriting documentation, background investigation, property assessment, accounting, financial checking, documentation checking, mortgage underwriting, and every other micro sub-steps required for the evaluation, underwriting, and approval of loans.

Magistral’s tried and tested process for outsourcing

Magistral has helped scores of clients in the financial industry and elsewhere in outsourcing operations. Magistral follows a customized and low-risk process for a smooth transition. The process puts business continuity and risk minimization at the center. Here are the major steps in offshoring that is proprietary and unique to Magistral:

Magistral's Financial Process Outsourcing Steps

The approach followed by Magistral Consulting for outsourcing financial processes

Project Kick-Off

There is a call with all the client stakeholders to understand their challenges and expectations from offshoring a process. Once the business imperative of offshoring is understood, a proposal for services is prepared. The proposal carries in detail the commercials, methodologies, KRAs and KPIs, project plans, and other details required for client management to take a call. Once the proposal is signed off the action begins.

SOP preparation

Before taking any project for delivery Magistral invests a great deal of time and expertise in preparing Standard Operating Procedure documents. For preparing SOP a trained analyst gets in touch with the client SPOC (Single Point of Contact) and by his skills in business analysis brings all the knowledge of people onto a process document. We call this “bringing what is between the ears onto the paper”. Every fine detail is captured. A Magistral SOP document would carry lots of process diagrams, tips for analysts, swim-lanes, along with audio and video recording of meetings and training. The whole of this process is done without any cost to the client. Clients first-hand see the expertise that Magistral brings to the table without any investment on their part. Once the SOP document is ready, the signoff about its accuracy is taken from the relevant personnel in management. Till this point client does not spend even a single penny and we are fine about it.

Business Reengineering

Once the detailed SOP is ready, business reengineering opportunities make themselves evident. We identify processes where Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and Machine Learning can reduce costs or improve turnaround time, and we share and validate these opportunities with the client.

Pilot Projects

Our proposals are always signed based on the projects or milestones that we deliver. It is never based on the number of people (FTEs) that we employ to deliver services. Normally vendors will charge for FTEs and then they will sit and undergo process training at the client’s expense. With Magistral, you only pay when we deliver the project or processes that meet your quality standards. We start with low volumes. Trainers get trained in the process. Coordination with the client is very close and done almost daily to fill any gaps in delivery and expectations. For bigger projects, an onsite analyst sits with the client for weeks and is responsible for business analysis and knowledge transfer.

SLA finalization

Many times, there are no Service Level Agreements decided for internal teams. We make sure we are accountable for everything we deliver and decide the SLAs of every process. These SLAs can be in terms of improvement in quality, turnaround time, analyst’s availability, prompt acknowledgment of requests, etc. With Magistral, if you have internal SLAs, we promise to beat that further with at least 20% improvements.

Process Stabilization

With SLA compliances meeting standards, we increase the scope and volume of work offshored.

The phased approach ensures the client is never too invested to back off. The process is also designed to give enough confidence to the clients to trust the expertise of Magistral.

About Magistral

Magistral Consulting has helped multiple funds and companies in outsourcing operations activities. It has service offerings for Private Equity, Venture Capital, Family Offices, Investment Banks, Asset Managers, Hedge Funds, Financial Consultants, Real Estate, REITs, RE funds, Corporates and Portfolio companies. Its functional expertise is around Deal origination, Deal Execution, Due Diligence, Financial Modeling, Portfolio Management and Equity Research

For setting up an appointment with a Magistral representative visit www.magistralconsulting.com/contact

About the Author

The Author, Prabhash Choudhary is the CEO of Magistral Consulting and can be reached at Prabhash.choudhary@magistralconsutling.com for any queries or business inquiries.