Handing part of your workload to an offshore team can free your senior people from processing work and give your firm capacity when it needs it most. But the firms that get the most value from outsourcing are rarely the ones that simply send files and hope for the best. They prepare.
Here is a practical checklist to work through before you send your first job.
1. Decide which work to send first
Start with work that is high-volume, follows clear rules and is easy to review. Good first candidates include:
- Bookkeeping and bank reconciliations
- Individual tax returns with straightforward schedules
- Payroll processing
- SMSF fund accounting and workpapers
Keep complex, judgement-heavy and advisory work in-house at first. Once the team has proven itself on the routine jobs, you can widen the scope with confidence.
2. Write down how you want the work done
Even experienced accountants need to know your firm’s way of doing things. You don’t need a manual – a one-page checklist per job type, your workpaper templates, your file-naming conventions and two or three examples of finished jobs go a long way. Include how you want queries raised and what “ready for review” means to you.
3. Sort out software access properly
List every system the team will need: practice management, ledger software, tax software and document storage. Create separate user logins for your outsourced team rather than sharing staff credentials. That way you control exactly what they can see, you have a clear audit trail, and you can remove access at any time. Give access to only what each person needs.
4. Cover your confidentiality and privacy obligations
Under the Tax Practitioners Board Code of Professional Conduct, registered agents must not disclose information about a client’s affairs to a third party without the client’s permission, unless there is a legal duty to do so. The Privacy Act’s Australian Privacy Principle 8 also requires you to take reasonable steps before personal information is disclosed overseas.
In practice, most firms update their engagement letters to cover offshore processing, update their privacy policy, and check their provider’s security controls before work starts. (This is general information, not legal advice – check your own position with your adviser.)
5. Agree how you will communicate
Decide on the basics before the first job arrives: which channels you will use (email, Microsoft Teams or Zoom), how often you will catch up, who in your firm is the main point of contact, the expected turnaround for each type of job, and how urgent work is flagged.
6. Plan the review process
Decide who in your firm reviews outsourced work and at what level. A good provider will have its own reviewer check each job before it reaches you, so your review can focus on judgement and sign-off rather than fixing basic errors. Keep a short list of recurring review points and share it – the quality improves quickly when feedback is specific.
7. Start with a pilot, then scale
Send a small batch first – a handful of jobs across one or two work types. Look at turnaround, quality and communication, and fix any process gaps while volumes are small. Then scale up well before your busy period, not in the middle of it.
Getting started
OrangeIQ works with Australian accounting and CPA firms through each of these steps, from choosing the first jobs to setting up access and review. If you are thinking about adding an offshore team, talk to us – we’ll help you work out where to start.
