Widespread cost cutting at local businesses has been a boon to companies offering outsourced services.

Three local companies that provide outsourced accounting, human resources and information technology services say business is up 15 to 36 percent over a year ago.

At Vienna-based Cordia Partners, which offers outsourced accounting and other services, the firm has fielded many calls from business looking to trim the fat, improve efficiency and reduce the staff in their accounting departments, said Mitch Weintraub, founding partner.

“We help businesses do more with less,” he said.

Through its outsourcing service, Cordia Partners will take over all or part of a company’s accounting department, though the specifics depend on the situation. It could supplant the high-level functions of the chief financial officer, or it could handle lower-level work like transaction processing. Also, some of the work is done on-site, and some remotely, depending on the client’s needs.

“There’s no cookie-cutter approach,” Weintraub said.

Part of the firm’s pitch is that Cordia Partners frees up its clients to focus on their mission, while saving money, he said.

Business is up about 15 percent from a year ago to $5 million in projected 2009 revenue. The company has 26 employees, as well as 10 contract workers. It expects to add two to six staff over the next year.

Kathy Albarado’s phone also has been ringing more over the past few months. She is CEO of Reston-based Helios HR, which does consulting and outsourced human resources on a model similar to Cordia’s.

Albarado started Helios in September 2001, during the last recession. It was actually a good time to launch, she said, because businesses were hesitant to hire staff and more apt to explore outsourcing.

“This economy is the same,” Albarado said. “People are much more willing to outsource a job than to add someone to the payroll.”

As such, sales are up 25 percent from a year ago, and Helios is doing more efficiency assessments and layoff consultations, she said, without disclosing revenue.

Chevy Chase-based Lore Systems Inc., which offers IT outsourcing and other services, is on pace for a 36 percent spike in sales this year to $7.5 million.

Through Lore’s service, business can dramatically reduce fixed costs by outsourcing most of their IT functions, said Laurie Freeman, chief operating officer of the 42-person company. “We’re talking return on investment on day one.”

Increasingly complex compliance issues surrounding the 1986 Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, or COBRA, are pushing businesses to look into another kind of outsourcing business: professional employer organizations.

PEOs take over a company’s HR function, handling payroll, employee benefits, compliance and the like through a co-employment model. The PEO becomes the employer of record for all company employees, including the business owners, taking on legal responsibility for payroll taxes and insurance. The company still manages employees and makes the day-to-day business decisions.

Over the past few months, PEO ADP TotalSource has seen increased inquiries from businesses interested in exploring this option, said Dawn Amat, general manager for the Southeast region, which includes D.C.

“From a client’s perspective, it’s a more productive use of their time,” she said. “It allows them to focus on the things that are most important to them and not on the non-revenue-generating administrative tasks.”

Amat declined to say if ADP TotalSource’s uptick in customer inquiries has materialized into increased business.