Accounting offshoring to India: 6 ways it can do much more than cut costs

Accounting, outsourcing and offshoring to India began as cost-cutting measures, but accountancy practices that create real sustained value use them for far more strategic ends- to address staffing shortages, or to gain capabilities that they don’t have in-house.

We have found that 80% of those accountants who outsourced their back-office accounting work to us did so to access a global pool of accounting talent and enable faster technology adoption. In other words, they have moved way beyond cost-cutting.

Based on our experience with clients, we’ve found that leading accountancy practices use our services to build six strategic capabilities.

1. Tap into global talent to address staffing shortages

Shortage of talent, particularly in the UK, is impending a practice’s ability to grow. Our clients have overcome this obstacle using offshore accounting teams in our delivery centers in India who not only deliver cost-savings but also deliver an increased number of accounting jobs at a faster turnaround time.

2. To beat the local competition

With the arrival of cloud accounting and business advisory services, accountants need to establish a presence before their competitors do. Our clients tap into the booming cloud accountancy market by using offshore accountants to do the routine accounting, bookkeeping and payroll jobs. As a result, they are able to focus on business advisory services and stay ahead of the competition.

3. To take on more work

One of the greatest benefits of outsourcing is that practice owners no longer have to refuse work. By having access to such a large overseas workforce no tasks become too trivial. Previously, services such as bookkeeping were viewed as tedious work with minimal return. However, refusing this work meant you could sour the relationship you have with your clients. No client wants to hear “no we can’t do that”. With outsourcing, you don’t have to say no and you can still take on all those tedious tasks but not deal with the headaches that come with it.

4. To get to market faster

Bringing out new services ahead of the competition is critical for accountancy practices in a rapidly changing accountancy marketplace. When our clients outsourced their back-office compliance activities, it boosted their in-house staff productivity to generate more revenues by selling services such as business advisory and cloud accounting. Today most of our clients use us as their production teams in India to complete routine tasks.

5. To disrupt traditional accountancy models

Since outsourcing their accountancy operations in 2013, one of our franchise accountant clients with multiple offices in London has used outsourcing to make itself more focused on acquiring new shops and increase profits on compliance work. He knew his in-house staff was good at client servicing and building relationships and chose to outsource everything he was having a tough time with, like compliance work.

The company now maintains a lean and flexible operation with front-end UK staff focused on practice growth, and teams in India delivering the compliance work.

6. To achieve a better work-life balance

With administrative tasks being outsourced it allows practice owners to focus their time and energy where they want to. The end game is that owners can still maintain a successful practice in addition to having the freedom to spend time with their family and friends.

This benefit is also applicable to the current staff of the practice. By outsourcing labour-intensive jobs, senior staff get to work on more challenging assignments which eventually creates a happier individual with a healthy work life balance.

More than just cost savings

The above points establish that when it comes to outsourcing saving money is not the only concern. In fact, an ambitious accounting practice owner tends to look at the success and longevity of their practice and takes advantage accordingly.

As a specialist outsourcing company with accounting, bookkeeping, tax, and payroll services for UK accountants, QXAS is your essential business partner in helping you create a well-rounded practice. For more information about how your practice can start benefitting from outsourcing feel free to get in touch.