But what exactly is FaaS? And how does it differ from other outsourced accounting and finance alternatives? Bill Klein, the co-founder and President of Consero Global, one of the fasted growing FaaS firms, defines it as something distinct from traditional outsourced accounting
Tenet #1: FaaS solutions incorporate a full suite of experienced staff, proven operational processes and pre-integrated software to reliably manage all of a
company’s finance and accounting needs
Klein believes that FaaS companies are different from traditional accounting services firms and financial software Value Added Resellers (VARs). “Many traditional outsource providers claim to offer all of the components of FaaS but rather than a pre-built platform configured for each customer, they pull from a grab bag of disparate solutions cobbled together on a customer-by-customer basis. For instance, they might offer custom software implementations and add on separate outsourced services for companies who want that. The problem is the outsourced services in that example are really just some accounting staff thrown on top of a grounds up software build combined with whatever process is being used by that customer. There is no way the customer can achieve the levels of quality, efficiency, and reliability of a FaaS solution where specialized team members work with the same baseline processes and software they utilize with every other customer.
“Our standardized set of pre-integrated processes and software allow us to devote even more time to configuring each customer solution to their unique needs and still have them up and running in a fraction of the time they could achieve otherwise.” which leads to the next tenet.
Tenet #2: FaaS provides a single, self-service software interface.
Tenet 3: FaaS provides transparent and scalable service-based pricing for the client’s needs today and tomorrow
Tenet 4: FaaS offers skilled finance and accounting professionals with the right expertise for the client’s needs and priorities