Ask the owners and directors of any UK Accountancy Practice about the top 5 challenges for the coming year and you will undoubtedly tick off a few of the following items:
- Cost of living crisis
- Pressure on fees and increased client expectations
- Resilience and scalability
- Managing people expectations
- Regulation and changing trends.
If you ask the same owners and directors why they haven’t considered outsourcing accountancy services as a solution to these challenges, you will probably hear the following:
- It doesn’t support our business objectives
- We will lose control of our work
- Data security is compromised
- Staff morale is adversely affected
- It’s expensive and only large businesses can afford it
- Clients won’t like it
- Time Zone, Language and Cultural differences are barriers
- Outsource providers can’t keep up with technological changes and industry trends.
At Initor Global we have been providing offshore accountancy services to UK Practices since 2006. We have helped hundreds of Practices meet their growth plans and improve profitability through our outsourced solutions. We have helped owners and directors overcome any misconceptions about outsourcing using our 120 strong team of professionals based offshore.
Our services include:
- Digital Bookkeeping
- Year-End Accounts
- Payroll
- Company Tax
- Personal Tax
- VAT
- Secretarial Services.
To arrange an informal discussion please contact us at hello@initor-global.co.uk or visit our website at initor-global.co.uk.
If you are thinking about outsourcing services and are looking to build the resilience and profitability of your Practice, read on.
Outsourcing can help your Practice grow and increase profit margins
With the additional capacity outsourcing brings to your Practice, you will be able to focus more clearly on your core business objectives, whether that involves increasing your client base or offering a wider range of higher margin services to your existing clients. You will find that outsourcing recurring tasks such as bookkeeping, payroll or accounts preparation frees up your time to help clients and understand their business needs. You will find the capacity to provide those high margin advisory services you never quite got around to offering when your clients needed them most.
Outsourcing will also secure immediate efficiencies and reduce costs for your Practice. You will need to review your workflows and systems to ensure these are fit for purpose and enable you to track the progress of work you outsource. You may need to engage a business analyst to do this work for you, and good outsourcing partners will help you implement the systems you need to increase efficiency.
Typically, the costs of outsourcing work to an offshore accountant is 50% less than a UK resource, securing immediate reductions to your cost base.
When you enter into a contract with an outsource provider, you must perform the strong due diligence necessary to ensure the partnership is right for you. You can use the contract to drive the efficiencies needed in your Practice through the enhanced systems and processes mentioned above. This will usually involve cloud-based solutions and remote access to your accounting software. At Initor Global we can work in the cloud or through secure access to your client servers. Most UK Practices we work with secure immediate efficiencies through better workflows and document management.
Automation is already driving the way UK Practices operate and communicate with clients (meeting the requirements of Making Tax Digital for instance) – outsourcing underpins this.
Importantly, your Practice will control the lead times to complete work through contractual arrangements. At Initor Global we report regularly on the progress of work and highlight any potential delays to ensure corrective action is taken at the earliest possible stage. This may involve obtaining missing documentation or clarifying matters with your clients.
Typically as volumes of work increase, unit costs will reduce. At Initor Global we offer services by the hour, on a half-time equivalent basis or a full-time equivalent basis.
Outsourcing provides flexible resources
Outsourcing can help make your Practice more flexible and agile, able to adapt to emerging issues such as regulatory changes and more local matters such as recruitment and retention difficulties, backlogs of work or a peak in demand for services.
Initor Global has helped many UK Practices deal with the requirements of HMRC’s Making Tax Digital regime for VAT through our monthly bookkeeping and VAT return preparation services. We also help Practices manage backlogs of work where resources are scarce and during the peak periods of work in December and January, when demand for personal tax services is at its highest.
Most outsource suppliers allow variations in contract terms enabling your Practice to increase capacity when it is most needed. The optimum time to plan for outsourcing is usually February or March each year, when you are looking ahead to the new tax year and preparing to implement any changes in services your clients may need. The government’s Making Tax Digital plans for Self-Assessment are currently on hold until April 2026 at the earliest. However, the direction of travel is that self-employed people will need to submit more information periodically to meet HMRC’s requirements and accountants will need to work closely with clients and software providers to ensure they are ready for the new regime, and have the resources in place to manage the expected increase in workload.
Communication with clients and client service
Providers of outsourced services understand that the professional reputation of accountants is based on a track record of delivering quality work on time which meets professional standards. Many UK Practices prefer to retain responsibility for client communications and simply contract providers to complete recurring tasks. Other Practices are comfortable with the outsource provider using template email communications with clients to progress work and can track the quality of communications through their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
Regardless of the model adopted, most accountant engagement letters contain clauses to facilitate the outsourcing of work and almost all clients are comfortable with work being completed offshore.
Some UK Practices are concerned that time zone differences when outsourcing work offshore cause difficulties in resolving any matters arising. However, most outsource providers work to UK time zones and are also flexible enough to gain the advantage of overlapping work hours. Time zone differences often mean work is completed offshore outside of UK working hours creating a longer cycle of productivity and increasing efficiency.
At Initor Global many of our accountants trained and worked in the UK and are comfortable contacting clients directly to progress work and resolve any matters arising through the course of our work. We also have experts on hand to advise our people on UK culture such as public holidays, and political and popular culture, and we have a UK headquarters with customer experience professionals available as necessary.
Managing people expectations
A common misconception among UK Practices considering outsourcing is that their people won’t like it and will feel their careers are threatened or even at risk of losing their jobs. However, in most cases, outsourcing allows a Practice to look carefully at the career paths of individuals, ensuring they shift focus away from recurring tasks and are able to develop the wider skills needed to meet the needs of clients.
If one accountant is responsible for all recurring tasks such as bookkeeping, payroll and accounts preparation, this places a Practice at a high risk of losing valuable expertise. An outsourced accounting solution can be used flexibly to help smooth any changes in the workforce and ensure a Practice is resilient to any employment pressures. It can also benefit morale among accountants by contracting out recurring tasks and enabling the professional development of individuals. With outsourced services, accountants at all levels are empowered to focus on the key objectives of the business
Data integrity and security
Most owners and directors of UK Practices feel nervous about transferring responsibility for services and data to an outside provider. They also feel nervous about any risks arising from the theft of Intellectual Property. However, outsourced providers ensure data security by utilising the most secure, advanced accounting software available with state-of-the-art systems and other physical safeguards to prevent the loss or misuse of data.
Reputable outsourcing providers are fully GDPR and ISO 27001 compliant and use cloud based solutions to ensure data cannot be downloaded, thus mitigating the risk of data loss or IP theft. For GDPR purposes, the UK Practice will usually be the ‘data controller’ and the outsource provider will be the ‘data processor’.
Conclusion
UK Practices are increasingly using outsourced services to do more than reduce costs. Outsourced services are used to add value to the business, increase business flexibility and deliver growth. Outsource providers serve all sizes of clients – from ad-hoc bookkeeping for a single person Practice to the largest audits for the Big 4 Accountancy Firms. Any UK Practice looking to grow in the future should always consider how outsourcing can help it scale. Importantly, outsourcing should always be integrated into a Practice’s operating and delivery framework.
About Initor Global
Initor Global UK was established in 2006 and has been consistently delivering sustainable growth and increased profitability to Accountancy businesses across the UK. We have a truly remote workforce of qualified accountants and other experts providing the quality services your accountancy business need.s
Using the most secure technology we will help you:
- Reduce business risk
- Reduce operating costs
- Increase efficiency and margins
- Improve client satisfaction
- Drive up your quality standards.
Our services include:
- Digital Bookkeeping
- Year-End Account
- Payroll
- Taxation
- VAT
- Secretarial Services.
To arrange an informal discussion please contact us at hello@initor-global.co.uk or visit our website at initor-global.co.uk.
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