An accounting outsourcing company runs bookkeeping, payables, receivables and reconciliations for many clients from one office. Margin depends on how well hours are matched to clients and how long trained people stay on an account.
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Share your requirementsAn accounting outsourcing company does the routine finance work of other businesses: entering and coding bills, chasing receipts, reconciling bank accounts, preparing monthly books and answering client queries. Work is organised into client teams, each with an accountant, a reviewer and often article trainees. Hours are logged against each client, and the fee is usually fixed, so every extra hour comes out of margin. Peaks follow month-end and quarter-end, and the quiet days between them are short. Staff learn each client's habits slowly, so losing one person hurts that account for months. The wider professional services hub covers what firms share, and the accounting firms hub compares the types.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
Hours are logged late or loosely, so the firm cannot tell which clients cost more than they pay. Underpriced accounts stay underpriced.
Closing work piles up in the same week for every client, and the team works late, then drifts at the start of the next month.
The coding rules, odd vendors and approval habits of an account live in one accountant's head. When she resigns, errors rise at once.
Article trainees do much of the volume work. Many go after their articles end, and the cycle of teaching starts again.
Pushing everyone to bill most hours leaves no time for review, courses or handover, and quality shows later in client complaints.
A signed client needs a team in weeks. Hiring and training lag, so existing staff cover the transition and tire.
Good preparers become reviewers with no guidance, and feedback turns inconsistent from team to team.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Performance Management; Retention and Attrition Management; Onboarding and Probation. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for professional services, not in general.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a accounting outsourcing companies business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
One page per client: chart of accounts habits, approval contacts, cut-off dates and known exceptions.
What this coversHideOne page per client: chart of accounts habits, approval contacts, cut-off dates and known exceptions. A second person can then step in. The documentation process shows how to keep these notes alive.
A simple daily entry that finance and delivery both trust, reviewed monthly against fees.
What this coversHideA simple daily entry that finance and delivery both trust, reviewed monthly against fees. See reporting and analytics.
Stagger client close dates where clients agree, and share a month-end roster early so leave and extra hands are planned.
What this coversHideStagger client close dates where clients agree, and share a month-end roster early so leave and extra hands are planned. Shift and leave planning supports this.
A route from first tasks to reviewed work to a senior role, with a clear offer for those who finish articles.
What this coversHideA route from first tasks to reviewed work to a senior role, with a clear offer for those who finish articles. The onboarding process starts it well.
A short guide on what to check, how to give feedback and how to record it, with practice on live files.
What this coversHideA short guide on what to check, how to give feedback and how to record it, with practice on live files.
A small bench of trained people so a new client does not drain a running team.
What this coversHideA small bench of trained people so a new client does not drain a running team.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
A first-month plan for trainees and new accountants so they are productive and checked.
Utilisation and quality measured together, so neither is traded for the other.
Skill paths for associates, reviewers and trainees tied to client work.
A look at who leaves after which month and from which team, and what to change.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in professional services, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why associates and managers leave consulting, accounting, legal and advisory firms, and how to ask about progression, workload and partners at exit.
6 min readRead article
Measures that show how reactor, console, lab and gantry staff are really doing, the ones that mislead or bury near misses, and a monthly sheet an in-charge can run in twenty minutes.
7 min readRead article
How to spot an unmanageable workload before it becomes an exit or an error, what to look at, how to talk about it and what to change, without guessing.
5 min readRead article
Hour by hour, then week by week, for a recruit's first month at a module, inverter, pack or junction box line: safety and handling first, a practice bench, a buddy, a sign-off and a day-30 review.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Show a visible next step, tie pay to review and client skills, and give them a say in the accounts they handle. People leave when the work repeats and the path is vague.
Track billed hours by client and by person, but also record time spent on review, learning and handover. A figure that ignores these pushes quality down and hides the real cost of an account.
Give them structured tasks on supervised files, with feedback within the week. Unsupervised volume work harms both the client and the trainee, and they leave sooner.
Share the close calendar early, stagger work where clients agree, and hold trained cover for leave. Where peaks are predictable, plan hands in advance rather than asking for late nights.
Yes, for the larger or trickier ones first. A page of coding habits and contacts lets another person cover an absence and shortens the learning time for new joiners.
We would compare hours logged with fees for three clients, ask which accounts depend on one person and count how many trainees stayed last year. A trainee path with account notes is a natural first piece, and scope is written down for your sign-off.
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