An ex client of Odyssey reached out to me last week, and wrote the following:
Dear David,
It has been some time since I have made contact. I was wondering if we could touch base.
We used Odyssey for the majority for SMSF clients in the 2016 year, approximately 40-50 funds.
Most of these were handled by our senior accountant responsible for outsourcing at our office (who visited your operation in Vietnam), who around November last year left and we took on a new Accountant.
The new accountant decided to do most of the funds herself in order to familiarize herself with the clients. Unfortunately, she has now decided to leave the practice and finishes tomorrow.
This means I have a dilemma., I am wondering if you can offer some guidance as to some type of solution. I have a variety of work, various types of information is supplied and various software is used.
Do you have some type of Matrix or structured questionnaire that could assist us in the type of work we could outsource to you and how involved you could be in performing that work.
How involved, could you be through out this process and what approach could you take?
I’m open to any suggestion. Feel free to call tomorrow if you wish.
Regards
We see the above dilemma played out many times when accountants contact Odyssey, and it highlights a myriad of issues that smaller accountants face.
Small accountants usually like to have full time resources, or resources they can control, which partly stems back to the need for “ownership” of some asset. In this increasingly fragmented world, there are many outsourcing options available. Many Australian accountants prefer to exhibit that control in hiring overseas resources on a full time basis, even though this doesn’t allow them to have better throughput. Whether this full time resource model continues in the longer term is still a view that rests almost entirely on conjecture.
Often with inhouse or external full time resources, you are paying for the resource, and subject to the whims of that resource. When paying for a service, you expect a company to stand behind a service. When paying for a resource, then if that resource departs for any reason, then you are forced to re-hire a new resource. Regardless of where you find the new resource, you will need to either try and have them fit within your systems and processes, or as in the case above have to mesh a new working style within your working philosophy. Odyssey’s approach is to have a standardised way of producing excellent quality, where the quality and timing of the return of work is the responsibility of Odyssey. Absences from work, termporary or more permanent, should remain the responsibility of the outsourcing company. After all Accountants didn’t go into business to handle HR matters, but to provide a service to a client.
Odyssey’s CEO handles each phone call personally, and frequently is involved in discussing the best way to make outsourcing work for a firm. As an Australian accountant who has also been in public practice he’s also able to make comment on areas to review within a practice, and best practice for current firms.
Feel free to reach out to Odyssey to chat about how we can assist with your outsourcing requirements.
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