processes | AdvanceTrack Outsourcing

In the second of AdvanceTrack’s FAQs, we ask our MD Vipul on your behalf: ‘How would my practice begin working with AdvanceTrack?’

Initially we have a fact-finding meeting. It’s effectively the first – and one of the most important – tasks. It’s vital for us at AdvanceTrack to know how your accounting practice works, and for whom. We are well-versed at getting down to the important details quickly! There are a whole host of questions but, essentially, we ask about the practice’s structure, processes and technology stack.

The next part of the fact-finding mission is also very important. We ask: “what problem do you think we’re going to solve for you?” This is all about getting to the heart of whatever issues or tactical aims the practice views us as being the solution for. Sometimes we can see a clear path for us to help, but on occasion, we might have to explain why another option may be best for the practice to pursue.

The issues we’re confronted with, though, usually fall into two buckets: your firm is either in the midst of having difficulties in maintaining service for the clients; or the firm has growth plans and require our flexible capacity to help them scale.

It’s ‘nicer’ to be able to methodically plan and support growth, but we understand that things aren’t always that straightforward.

If a firm’s processes and tech are in a sufficient place for us to be able to link well, then we look at the strategic needs and provide advice on whether we think an outsourcing or offshoring solution would work best. The former is structured around us completing a set amount of work on behalf of a firm in a set timeframe, whereas the latter is about the provision of dedicated offshore team members to work with that firm full-time. It is an important decision, and a decision made carefully between us and the firm’s leaders.

Whatever the route, we would always say that the next step is about communication between the firm, our technical team and us at head office. This would certainly be front-loaded to ensure that things are working smoothly.

How we manage and progress our relationship is a story for another day – but keep an eye on our blog for more FAQs. Our first FAQ, on client data and security, can be accessed by clicking here.

If you’d like to talk to us about your accounting firm, and how we could help, please get in touch.

Q: How have things been for your practice?

A: It’s been tough going. We’ve done so much for clients and lost a lot of chargeable time – but some are grumpy because we’re either looking to charge for support or they think we’ve not been in contact enough. We’ve done good things but it’s been forgotten by some. We have all clients on a monthly package and we did a lot of work for them to get through this year. We then charged for furloughing in July and perhaps we should have communicated the value in that service better. Some team members have found it easy working from home and others haven’t. And while we trust our people we’ve improved monitoring of workflow, using Karbon, to be better organised.

Q: How do you see the next few months, particularly lockdown/SA filing season and more government initiatives?

A: We’ve had everyone coming in for Monday planning meetings – these go on for a long time because of dealing with all the issues and the week ahead. Afternoons have been more for training sessions – this has involved grading clients and allocating them to our two new senior team members. Obviously, with new lockdowns and tiers it’s been difficult to get to know them and integrate as quickly as we would have liked.

Q: Longer term, how easy is it for you to plan? Where do you see the firm in the planning cycle, both long term and next 12 months? What is in your thoughts?

A: We have new offices, new people and new processes. I know what the team structure will look like and what our ideal client will look like – and it will involve us providing much more advisory; certainly with two seniors we can build deeper relationships.

On the tech front, it’s making sure you get the best out of it. We’ve been using Xavier every day; there’s competition for who has the highest Xavier score and then we build that into our analytics – but there’s so much more we can do. Take VAT returns; we can now do a pre-VAT check that picks up that clients’ bookkeeping is up to date – either they can sort it or we can do it for them with a charge.

Karbon’s my favourite thing. It sends out notifications, automates tasks and is helping with workflow for enquiries as well – we can even send a potential client a task list of what they need to do and have before they sign up. Practice Ignition sorts out the proposal and Karbon sends it.

Get in touch with AdvanceTrack here