Problems & Solutions Facing the Accounting Industry
In the current economic climate, accountants are suffering from consumer and corporate caution, ever-changing legislations, high labour costs and shortage of good labour.
- Lack of locally skilled accounting staff
- High turnover of staff affecting productivity
- High wage costs decreasing your margins
- Cloud computing commoditising bookkeeping
- Global marketplace creating strong competition
- Local focus switching to “value add services”
- Your competition is outsourcing back office
- Ongoing training to comply with new systems
Thousands of accounting, CPA and bookkeeping firms are already embracing global outsourcing, benefiting all stakeholders:
Firms can deliver compliance work at around one third the cost, freeing up time to focus on higher-value advisory work…
Local staff are freed up from time-consuming procedural work and are able to engage in more stimulating strategic work with clients…
And clients can save money on compliance while benefiting from value-added services that grow their businesses and their net worth…
Everyone wins! But only if you choose the right accounting Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) partner…
Almost any task can be outsourced as long as your team as the right expertise, resources, training and support.
If you are new to outsourcing, we suggest that you start by systemising and outsourcing simple yet time-consuming tasks. This is a good way for both the onshore and offshore team to build a culture of systemisation, training and communication. From there, the sky’s the limit.
We’ll help you create an appropriate outsourcing strategy to suit your situation. Then we will assist with all facets of recruitment, onboarding, training and retention.
Here are some examples of the types of activities that can be outsourced, broken down by function:
ACCOUNTING:
Bookkeeping, Budgeting, Business Activity Statements (BAS), Cash-flow Forecasts, SMSF Business Advisory, Paraplanning, Payroll, Personal Accounting, Tax Preparation, SMSF Accounting, SMSF Auditing, Finance Brokerage, SMSF Bookkeeping, SMSF Tax Returns, Tax Planning, Estimation Of Assets, Inventor
CUSTOMER SUPPORT:
VOIP and Telephony, Inbound Calls, Help Desks, Software Development, General Admin, Client Support, Virtual Assistant, Appointment Setters.
SUPPORT ROLES:
Admin Support, Executive Assistant, Corporate Secretarial, Client Servicing.
MARKETING SUPPORT:
Digital Marketing, Website Hosting, Branding, Market Research, Website Design and Development, Article Writing, SEO Services, Social Media Management, Video Editing, Graphics Designing
SALES:
Email Campaigns, Direct Marketing Outbound Calls.
OPERATIONS:
Document Conversions, Process Documentation, Data Input, Document Management.
“What Kind Of ROI Can I Expect?”
Many accounting and bookkeeping firms are initially attracted by the potential cost savings of outsourcing.
This is certainly one benefit: an offshore team member costs around 1/3 of the local equivalent.
However, this strategy is about much more than cost savings. It’s a way to deliver procedural work quickly and cost-effectively, freeing up your onshore team for more strategic and higher-margin work.
So although the Return on Investment is certainly impressive – in many ways, this is a GROWTH strategy and not just a cost-reduction strategy.
The level of engagement between both your teams will determine success. The best way to ensure your offshore team is productive is to have a dedicated champion. This is someone responsible for overseeing your global accounting team.
Make sure that your champion establishes regular meetings to train and review the global accounting team’s output. Just like any new hire, you’ll initially want to allow more time for questions and supervision and over timeless training and supervision will be required.
All high performing teams, onshore and offshore, thrive on a positive culture, feedback, trust and support. The most successful firms that we work with go to lengths to ensure their global staff feel like a valued part of their local team.
If you approach global hires with the same leadership, training and support as you would an in-house hire, you can’t go far wrong.
