Navigating the High Seas of Accounting: Leveraging the Benefits of Onshore and Offshore Teams

In today’s competitive global business landscape, accountancy firms constantly seek opportunities to expand their operations beyond boundaries. However, this may be challenging with capacity issues rampant in the industry. One of the best ways to achieve growth in this scenario is by leveraging the benefit of onshore and offshore teams.

Onshoring and offshoring has been around for a long time, but there is often a debate about which team is better for accountancy firms. The truth is that both onshore and offshore teams have unique advantages and disadvantages and are vital for accountancy firms’ growth. While offshore teams allow practices to save costs, onshore teams offer proximity to clients and greater cultural understanding.

In this blog, we will explore how accountancy practices can leverage the benefits of both onshore and offshore teams to scale their operations and provide better value to clients.

What is onshoring in accounting?

Onshoring in accounting refers to the practice of hiring qualified resources from offshore destinations to work onshore in the same country as the accounting firm. For example, in this case, the accounting firm partners with an outsourcing company with global operations like QXAS or one located in an offshore destination like India and hires resources from that location to work on projects onshore in the UK.

The aim of onshoring is to facilitate better communication and enhance productivity while maintaining proximity to clients and ensuring cultural understanding.

By leveraging the benefits of onshoring, accountancy firms can access a large pool of skilled and highly experienced professionals without compromising the quality of work or customer service. This approach also provides greater control and flexibility over projects, as the onshore team can work closely with the offshore team and ensure seamless communication.

What is offshoring in accounting?

Offshoring in accounting refers to the process of hiring dedicated accounting resources or teams from an offshore destination to work remotely from a delivery centre. The aim of offshoring is to facilitate cost savings by tapping into a pool of highly experienced and skilled professionals from countries like India, the Philippines, and other low-cost destinations.

Offshoring enables accountancy firms in the UK to access a large talent pool without incurring the high costs of hiring and training staff in-house. It also facilitates round-the-clock service and faster turnaround times as the offshore team works in different time zones.

Regardless of the benefits, effective communication and management are crucial to ensure that the offshore team delivers the work to the required standards and meets the expectations of the onshore team and clients.

Leveraging the benefits of onshore and offshore teams

Both onshore and offshore teams are crucial to accounting firms’ success as they offer unique advantages that can be leveraged to provide better value to clients. We’ve already looked at the models and their unique benefits for accountancy firms.

While onshore teams facilitate better communication, control, and management, offshore teams help save costs and provide round-the-clock service due to time zone differences.

Accounting firms can adopt a hybrid model that combines both approaches to leverage the benefits of both onshore and offshore teams. This unique approach involves partnering with a top-tier outsourcing company to provide resources to work offshore as well as onshore in the UK.

This model brings the best of both worlds for accountancy firms – access to a large talent pool at lower costs, maintaining proximity to clients, and facilitating cultural understanding. The onshore team can work closely with the offshore team to ensure that work is delivered to the required standards and that effective communication and management are maintained throughout the process.

By leveraging the benefits of both onshore and offshore teams, accounting firms can easily scale their operations, reduce costs, and provide better value to clients.

Managing onshore and offshore teams – The challenges & the solution

Although a balance of onshoring and offshoring in accounting can be rewarding for accountancy firms, managing onshore and offshore teams may be challenging. Communication barriers, time zone differences, and cultural gaps may hinder the smooth functioning of the teams. Moreover, language barriers and diverse work ethics can further complicate the management process.

To overcome these challenges, accountancy firms must establish clear communication channels and set expectations upfront. Regular communication with your outsourcing partner as well as the offshore team through video conferencing and virtual meetings can help build trust and maintain effective management. In addition, practices can implement project management tools and software to track the progress of tasks and ensure work is delivered to the required standards.

Furthermore, accountancy firms must invest in training and development programs that can help bridge cultural and language differences and improve work ethics. Leveraging onshoring in accounting also helps facilitate effective communication between the onshore and offshore teams, establish a clear reporting structure, and provide regular feedback.

Overall, by overcoming the challenges of managing onshore and offshore teams, accounting firms can experience the benefits of both approaches and beat the growing capacity challenges.

Build a highly efficient team with QXAS

QXAS, a global leader in accounting outsourcing, understands the challenges UK accountancy firms face and provides diverse engagement models to suit clients’ requirements. We offer both offshore and onshore outsourcing models so that practices can hire highly skilled, trained, and experienced resources for their teams.

Some of the benefits of our outsourcing models include:

• 100+ skilled resources available to start immediately
• Excellent communication and technical skills
• Services in the areas of accounting and bookkeeping, audit, payroll, and tax preparation
• GDPR compliance and end-to-end data security
• Lightning-fast turnaround time
• Onshore client relationship manager support
• Regular checks and governance calls

To hire onshore or offshore resources for your team, talk to our outsourcing experts today. We are just a call away at +44 208 146 0808 or easily reachable by email at [email protected].