Request for Proposals for Outsourcing

Your request for proposal needs to be concise and set out the key information needed to ensure the bidding organization can assign the right level of staff at a competitive fee.

You want all the respondents to respond in accordance with how you lay out your request. The bidders should respond as followed:

• Experience of the firm, size, location, and area of expertise. This tells you right away whether the firm can provide the expertise you need.

• Scope of the service:
• Initial stage
• On-going stage
• Annual tasks

• Engagement team assigned. Description of who will be working on your engagement and what their experience is compared to your organization’s size and mission.

• References – minimum of three

• Fees and timeframe. Description of fees against the services noted under scope of services. You want to know what the timeframe is. Also you want to know the hourly rates for when you request special ad hoc advice. You want to know the billing arrangements and what out of pocket expenses are.

• Any other information the bidder feels is relevant

The information you need to provide in the request for proposal is:

Background of the Entity

Items to include are:

Type of entity – profit, non profit, partnership, etc.
Where and when it was incorporated
Where it is located
Objective/mission
Budget size
Employee size and how many are full/part time
Description of the accounting function, number of the accounting employees, and job duties

Scope of the Services Needed

Need a description of exactly what you want and when you want it

Transition/initial phase

Conversion of accounting information onto the outsourcer’s software if full outsourcing off site

Preparation of an accounting policies and procedures manual setting out the procedures to be followed as well as frequency and the timing of the services to be provided.

On-going services required

Specific procedures and on what basis, such as:

• Completing bank reconciliations for the bank and investment accounts and recording investment activity.

• Processing accounts payable information.

• Processing cash receipts information.

• Managing payroll.

• Preparing all required journal entries.

• Preparing account reconciliations and summaries to ensure that transactions have been recorded accurately and completely.

• Performing the necessary closing procedures after all adjustments have been made.

• Compiling the monthly financial statements, including statement of position, statement of activities and budget versus actual variance analysis reports.

Annual services

Any annual recurring services, budget, tax filings, assisting with audit, etc.

Questions, Deadline, and Proposal Information

You need to set out how many copies of the proposal you want and when you want it by. You also need to set out how you want to handle any questions from potential firms, do you want to have a meeting with them, have them send you written questions, or have them all attend a briefing meeting.

You need to provide a contact name, address, phone number and e-mail address.