Flexible staffing solutions at a fraction of the cost.
Our tailored offshoring solutions will support you to scale your accounting or bookkeeping business quickly and easily, without the HR Headaches.
All our staff fall into two main categories, Hourly charge or Permanent hires (with a third category for those in training). We have an ever-growing pool of staff within our hourly charge team. Effectively firms provide work which we complete at an hourly rate. This gives the firms a way to “try before you buy”. Some firms we meet need clarification on offshoring, and by completing a few jobs for them and then growing our workload accordingly, they can get a sense of our skills first-hand. All offshoring entities say they are the best, but you will be sure once you try the service.
We find that most firms move from the hourly charge pool to the extended teams pool, effectively integrating the staff within their team. Those companies then manage the staff’s workflow directly and build up a team that does the same jobs year in and year out, building efficiency within their extended teams.
Hourly Charge (Jobs Based)
Our jobs-based team has a pool of people that work for various firms. The work is then charged out on an hourly basis.
The idea and concept is simple enough. Clients then have three main questions about this model:
– Quality/consistency of work
– Timeframes of Jobs
– Pricing of Jobs.
First, to maintain a high quality of work, we run the team with a few Senior Accountants, who not only help with questions but also review the work before it goes out to the client. This does not mean there are no review points, but it does mean that most review points that you generally would deal with intermediate accountants are dealt with before you, as the firm owner reviews them. Thus the quality of work produced by our jobs-based team is very high.
Second, the timeframes for jobs. We ask our clients to provide us with deadlines which our Senior Accountants review. In most cases, the timeframe is fine; however, if we believe it to be unrealistic (i.e. firms that send their BAS list to complete on the 25th), we will indicate when we believe it will be done. But under our jobs-based system, we only invoice for completed jobs at the end of the month. Thus, it is in our best interest to prepare them to the highest quality and as fast as possible so we can invoice.
Third, pricing on jobs. We ask our clients to prepare a job budget for us along with the timeframe. IE a company tax return and financial statements with a standard Xero file at 6-7 hours. Then we will invoice based on the jobs budget prepared by the client rather than how long we take. This is to ensure that we are meeting your standards, and thus as a firm, you are not getting charged for inefficiencies. Of course, if the jobs budgets provided are unrealistic, we will discuss it with the client.
Permanent Hire (Extended Teams)
Most clients hire directly from the jobs-based teams; thus, they have experience working with both BISTEC MH and the staff member they are hiring full-time. The main questions about hiring permanently then are around work hours, management and quality of work.
Our staff start work at 7 am Sri Lankan time and work 8 hour days. This equates to starting work at 11:30 am AEST. This gives your offshore and onshore teams a 5.5-hour overlap, so they can communicate freely and join team meetings as necessary. We recommend clients hold their budgets and fees meetings at 11:30 onwards so the Sri Lankan team can join without issues.
Regarding management, the client will directly manage the team members’ workflow. We will still assist in helping with any work issues that may arise, as it may be easier for them to ask another accountant next to them for help rather than to bother the onshore team. This also helps with the quality of work; even though they are directly working with the client and their team, they still have access to assistance from the whole team (onshore and offshore).
Our Training Program and our system of Hiring
We strive for excellence in our team. As mentioned in our services, we have an hourly charge (Jobs Based) system and a permanent hire (Extended Teams) system. Not only does it offer flexibility to clients and a way they can try before they buy, but it also offers us a great way to train our staff.
Our staff are hired either from our training program or our offshoring companies. The team hired from our training program has Accounting degrees, but their experience with Australian Accounting and bookkeeping is all from our program. We take them through all the basics of Australian Accounting and the main systems they will use (MYOB, Xero, Quick books).
Initially, we do not offer the newer staff for direct hire, and we keep them shadowing our hourly charge team pool so they can learn using real examples across various systems. After a certain period, they join our hourly charge pool of staff, and only after experience in this pool can they be hired directly as part of our extended team model.
Our hourly charge system has its own senior accountants to ensure the quality of work remains high, allowing our team to learn without compromising quality or causing delays for clients.
Our other staff hired from other Australian Accounting offshoring entities come with years of experience and, depending on their skill level, go directly to the jobs-based pool or the extended team system.
Aside from that, we have Senior Accountants on hand with over 7-8 years of Australian Accounting experience available for the team’s questions. There will be certain questions that they will need to ask the client directly, but we prefer to take care of most things before it reaches the client.
