16 Reasons Why Building an Offshore Team with Dedicated Staff Trumps Outsourcing

The tapestry of accounting has evolved dramatically over recent years, driven by technological breakthroughs and the momentum towards international collaboration. As firms grow and the hunt for specialized know-how heightens, the problem of allocating resources becomes paramount. Offshoring, a gateway to global talent and fiscal prudence, is a preferred strategy. However, a critical question looms within this offshoring framework: Should accounting firms forge dedicated offshore contingents or gravitate towards classic outsourcing?

Both models have merits and demerits, and choosing between them can profoundly impact a firm’s efficiency, growth trajectory, and bottom line. This article delves deeper into 11 Reasons to build an offshore accounting team, providing insights to help firms make informed decisions to build offshore accounting teams.

16 Reasons Why Building an Offshore Team with Dedicated Staff Trumps Outsourcing

1. Enhanced Control and Oversight: 

When accounting firms outsource, they relinquish a substantial degree of control over their projects. The external vendor manages their own team, making it challenging to oversee daily operations and ensure adherence to the firm's standards and processes. This lack of direct oversight can lead to inconsistencies in work quality, communication issues, and delays in project timelines, which can ultimately affect client satisfaction and trust. 

Building an offshore team means these employees are an extension of your accounting firm. You maintain direct control over hiring, training, and managing the team. This ensures that your standards and processes are consistently followed, resulting in a higher quality of work and better alignment with your firm's values and goals. With an offshore dedicated team, you can implement your own workflows, quality checks, and communication protocols, making it easier to monitor progress and make adjustments as needed. This level of control leads to improved efficiency, better client relationships, and a stronger overall firm performance.

2. The Underlying Value of Consistency:

A cornerstone of any successful accounting firm operation is consistency. When firms have a stable staff on board, they can guarantee uniformity in procedures and output. Such teams, over time, become well-acquainted with internal processes, client expectations, and the standards to which the firm aspires. As they immerse themselves in the firm's culture, they maintain and elevate the quality of their work, leading to steadily improving results. We found this one of the prominent reasons to build an offshore accounting team.

3. Motivation as a Catalyst for Excellence:

Job stability often serves as a morale booster. Employees tend to exude a greater sense of commitment when assured of their place in a firm. Their perception of being valued leads to heightened dedication, fostering a culture where they consistently strive for excellence. This sense of belonging and loyalty can significantly enhance the overall output quality.

4. Seamless Integration with Company Culture: 

For accounting firms, third-party vendors work independently. This can cause cultural misalignment and communication issues. Since these vendors are not immersed in your firm's culture and values, there can be misunderstandings and a lack of cohesion. This often leads to reduced productivity and difficulties in building a strong, unified team. 

An offshore team becomes a true extension of your accounting firm. They are fully integrated into your company's culture and values, participating in team activities and adopting your firm's work ethos. This close alignment fosters better communication, smooth collaboration, and a strong sense of team spirit. Regardless of geographical boundaries, your offshore team works seamlessly with your onshore staff, enhancing overall productivity and ensuring everyone is working towards the same goals. 

5. Consistency and Reliability:  

For accounting firms, outsourcing often means different teams work on different parts of a project. This can lead to inconsistencies in work quality and reliability. For example, one team might handle bookkeeping, while another manages tax preparation. This lack of continuity can cause errors, miscommunication, and a fragmented approach to your clients' needs. 

With an offshore dedicated team, your accounting firm has the same group of professionals working on all your projects. This team gets to know your firm's processes, standards, and clients. Over time, they become an extension of your in-house team. This consistency ensures higher quality work, better communication, and a seamless service experience for your clients. Reliable and continuous support from a dedicated team helps build trust with your clients and contributes to your firm’s long-term success and efficiency. 

6. The Paradigm of Growth-Centric Teams:

Accounting Outsourcing, by its very nature, is transactional. On the contrary, dedicated teams are built with an eye on growth. Reasons to build an offshore accounting team are manifold, including access to specialized talent pools, cost-effective solutions, and round-the-clock productivity. As these teams mature within an organization, their skills are honed, leading to discernible milestones in their professional journey. These include improved quality of work, increased efficiency leading to reduced oversight, and an enhanced role in end-to-end task management.

7. Better Knowledge Retention:

When you outsource tasks, the knowledge transfer is typically limited to the duration of the project. Once the project concludes, the external team often moves on to other assignments or projects. This can result in a loss of specific insights and familiarity with your business processes and objectives. 

Conversely, an offshore dedicated team remains integrated with your operations for the long term. They not only retain but also continually build upon the knowledge gained from their ongoing work with your company. This accumulation of institutional knowledge enables them to better anticipate your needs, streamline processes, and maintain consistency across projects. As a result, efficiency improves, and the time needed for onboarding new projects or initiatives is reduced, as the team already possesses a deep understanding of your business context and requirements.

8. Managing Seasonality with Confidence:

Certain times of the year, like the tax season, can be particularly challenging for the firms. This is where building an experienced offshore accounting team becomes necessary. Such teams can manage the increased workload efficiently and step up to train and supervise temporary staff, thus acting as force multipliers. Hiring offshore staff is one of the significant Offshore accounting benefits because, during tax season, the accounting firm owners have a lot of burdens to complete the tax return; here, offshore accounting staff come to the rescue as they know the ins and outs of the accounting industry.

9. Building a Team is Growth-Focused, whereas Outsourcing is Transactional: 

When you cultivate a dedicated offshore accounting team, there's an ongoing evolution in their skills and expertise.

Consistent Quality Enhancement characterizes their professional trajectory: As they persistently hone their abilities, the quality of their work progressively improves.

Reduced Review Efforts for the Onshore Team: Over time, the onshore team finds a diminished necessity for rigorous oversight, leading to more streamlined operations.

Expanding Role in Task Management: Team members start to oversee tasks from inception to completion with heightened proficiency.

Growing Responsibility: As they familiarize themselves further with the processes, their sense of ownership and accountability naturally amplifies.

Strengthened Trust: The rapport between the onshore and offshore teams fortifies, fostering more seamless collaborations.

These Benefits of offshore accounting teams enhance your operational efficiency and chart a path for the offshore team's professional growth. Conversely, accounting outsourcing provides a fixed, transactional engagement lacking the all-encompassing development, thorough task management, and extensive learning prospects inherent to a dedicated team.

10. Overtime Leave Adjustment: 

Dedicated teams allow for more fluid adjustments in terms of work hours. If your team has worked overtime during busy periods, they can compensate with leaves during slower times, ensuring overall balance and well-being.

11.Longevity in Training and Talent Retention:

One of the hidden costs of firm operations is the recurring cycle of training, onboarding, and handholding. By investing in dedicated teams, this cost can be optimized. Over time, the learning curve sees a positive trajectory, leading to more efficient outputs.

12. Cultivating Long-Term Relationships:

It's no secret that long-term relationships foster a better understanding and smoother operations. Dedicated offshore teams amplify the chance to build such relationships, leading to synergized processes and outputs tailored more closely to a firm's unique needs.

13. On-Demand Staff Level: 

The depth and expertise of on-demand staff are often restricted. Typically, they offer up to Level-3 proficiency but fall short for specialized tasks or in-depth analysis. As mentioned above, most experienced staff would be interested in taking more stable and long-term opportunities.

14 . Process Alignment & Turnaround Time:

Working in an on-demand capacity frequently requires professionals to manage tasks from multiple clients, making prioritization a key concern. This can occasionally result in delays in task completion. Moreover, when exposed to various clients and their distinct workflows, professionals may encounter difficulties in swiftly adapting to each unique process.

15. Harnessing Multi-Tasking as a Firm Asset:

Rather than allowing staff downtime during quieter periods, their skills can be optimized across various functions. They consistently contribute value by involving them in diverse roles, from accounting and sales tax calculations to back office responsibilities and administrative duties. This approach ensures trained staff remain engaged and integrated within the firm, negating the need for their departure. 

16. Enhanced Security and Confidentiality: 

When accounting firms outsource tasks to third-party vendors, they often share sensitive client information. This practice introduces security challenges because firms must ensure that data remains secure and confidential outside their direct control. Managing and maintaining these standards can be particularly challenging when working with external partners who may have varying security measures. 

Opting for a dedicated offshore team involves hiring professionals who work exclusively for your accounting firm from a remote location. These teams operate under your firm’s established security policies and protocols. This setup provides a higher level of control over data security and confidentiality. By aligning closely with your firm’s practices, dedicated offshore teams help mitigate risks associated with data breaches and intellectual property theft. This approach ensures that sensitive client information is handled with utmost care and according to the firm’s specific security standards. 

How to Determine: Dedicated Team or Outsource? A Comprehensive Guide

In the age of globalization and rapid technological advancement, firms often face the dilemma of building a dedicated in-house team or outsourcing specific tasks. Both approaches have pros and cons, and the decision largely depends on various factors unique to each firm. Accounting firms must carefully weigh the possible advantages and potential risks of offshore accounting and ensure they know the legal and regulatory requirements in the nations in which they operate. We already shared 11 crucial reasons to build an offshore accounting team, and now here's an extended guide to help you navigate this critical choice.

1. Overall Workflow Assessment:

Nature and Volume of Tasks: Start with a deep dive into the nature of the tasks. Are they technical, creative, administrative, or something else? The skills required to perform these tasks effectively can significantly influence your decision. Then, look at the volume. How much work is there, and is it steady, or does it fluctuate?

Recurring Tasks vs. One-off Projects: Recurring tasks that need regular attention benefit from offshore accounting teams that know the ins and outs of the work. On the other hand, one-off projects might be more suited to outsourcing, especially if they require specialized knowledge or skills that your current team lacks.

Consistency and Productivity: Building an offshore accounting team might be ideal if your firm demands high productivity levels and consistent output. This is especially relevant for tasks that remain relatively constant throughout the year, irrespective of seasonal fluctuations.

2. Cost Analysis:

Immediate vs. Long-term Costs: At first glance, offshore accounting solutions are cheaper. However, when you factor in the benefits of having a team familiar with your company culture, values, and specific processes, the long-term value of a dedicated team can often surpass the short-term savings from outsourcing.

Training and Skill Development: A dedicated team offers consistent training and skill development. Over time, this can lead to enhanced performance and fewer mistakes, ultimately saving costs and increasing value.

Understanding Downtime: While it might seem inefficient to pay a dedicated team during off-peak periods, it's essential to weigh this against the overall value they bring in terms of expertise, consistency, and familiarity. In many cases, the benefits outweigh the costs.

3. Future Forecasting:

It's essential not just to address immediate concerns but also to have a vision for the future. How do you anticipate your firm growing or evolving? Would an in-house team be better equipped to adapt to these changes, or would outsourcing offer more flexibility?

4. Quality and Consistency:

Ensuring a sustained level of quality is crucial. While outsourced teams can deliver quality work, there's often a learning curve. On the other hand, a dedicated offshore accounting team can provide consistent quality over time due to their deep understanding of your firm's nuances.

Conclusion:

The decision between building a dedicated team or outsourcing is multi-faceted. It's not just about cost but also quality, consistency, flexibility, and long-term value. By considering the abovementioned factors, firms can make more informed and strategic choices that align with their goals and values and drive more benefits from offshore accounting teams.

Dedicated offshore accounting teams, rooted deeply within the fabric of firms, offer stability and consistency. Their day-to-day interactions with various facets of the firm allow them to grasp its heartbeat, aligning closely with its culture, mission, and objectives. Over time, this symbiotic relationship fosters an environment of trust, mutual growth, and shared aspirations, where the team responds to challenges and anticipates and evolves with them. They become the backbone, growing with the firm's trajectory, making them invaluable assets.

On the other hand, Offshore accounting solutions give firms the agility to adapt to changing landscapes quickly. It offers flexibility, allowing organizations to tap into global talent pools and specialized expertise without long-term commitment. However, while it might provide immediate solutions and cost savings, it may need a more personal touch and an intricate understanding of the firm's core values, which can occasionally result in misalignments or discrepancies in output.

Ultimately, the decision to cultivate an in-house team or outsource rests on an intricate tapestry of financial, operational, strategic, and emotional factors. Firms must introspect deeply, analyzing their present needs and future aspirations. What do they envision for the firm in the next five years or even a decade? How critical is consistency and deep-rooted understanding to them? How much do they value flexibility and scalability?

As the accounting world continues to transform and as we navigate the evolving challenges of the 21st century, this decision will play a pivotal role in shaping firms' successes relationships with stakeholders, and imprint on the world. It's not merely a choice between two operational models; it reflects an accounting's philosophy, foresight, and commitment to its vision.

Nicholas Branson, CPA

Director

The author, Nick Branson is a CPA and Co- president of myCPE – Continuing Education Platform for Professionals. He has experience of more than 2 decades in the field educating the top professionals in the field of CPA, CMA, CIA and many more.