In short, no.
But we won’t end the blog there, because this is one of the most common hesitations from firms who are new to the idea of outsourcing, or just starting to dip their toes in. There’s a big misunderstanding that outsourcing and offshoring are just two different words for the same thing.
At Advancetrack, we offer both offshoring and outsourcing, and the model that works best for you depends on the stage you’re at as a firm, and how your processes work.
Offshoring = giving work to a third party overseas, or moving functions of your own business function overseas
Outsourcing = giving work to a third party anywhere
The word ‘offshore’ has some negative connotations to it, especially in the world of finance. Don’t worry - when we talk about offshoring here, it has nothing to do with international banking. Offshoring refers to a business contracting work out to another country, or moving their own business abroad, in order to take advantage of favourable economic conditions.
Offshoring isn’t exclusive to product manufacturing. It is becoming more common for businesses to offshore processes to companies overseas where the cost of labour is lower. It’s all legit and there’s nothing to stop you doing so.
The benefits of our offshoring model compared to others:
You can find out more about why we outsource to India here.
Outsourcing refers simply to the practice of hiring a third party or individual to carry out work that has historically been carried out in-house. You can outsource to a service provider anywhere, in order to utilise greater expertise, or free up more time for you to focus on the work you love, that you’re best at. That service provider may be in the same country or even the same local area as you, or they may be overseas.
The benefits of outsourcing:
You can read more about why we suggest outsourcing here.
Where the confusion between offshoring and outsourcing is most detrimental is the perceived benefit of cheap labour - that the point of either is to simply deliver your existing services or products at a cheaper cost. Saving money is desirable, of course. Who doesn’t love to save money? But you may find that spending less money results in a higher cost to your relationships with clients.
Our clients don’t outsource to us because they want us to do the more manual work at a cheaper rate. For starters, how would you go about deciding what your ‘cheaper’ work is?
Your compliance function is your core work - the work that needs to be done well and done consistently. It isn’t something you want just anyone to do. You certainly don’t want to compromise your high level reporting and life-changing advice for the sake of cheap rates either.
Our clients work with us for our expertise in the industry of accounting, for our desire to make them more proactive in delivering value to their clients - but mostly because they have the right mindset.
It’s not about saving money, but it’s also not exclusive to the big firms either. We’ve worked with Sole Practitioners, two office practices, multi-partner practices and major international groups. We’ve found it’s not about the size, it's about the attitude. The firms that see the most success are those who are able to look at their current offering and say “I want to be able to do more”. Those who don’t want to be stuck doing compliance only. Those who don’t want to see staff leave to do higher level work elsewhere. Those who want to be an integral part of their client’s business strategy instead of waiting on a monthly conversation.
We wrote more about those types of firms here.
Do you want to:
Great! All you need is a little help figuring out which model suits you best.
Scalable Delivery Model (Outsourcing)
Dedicated Offshore Delivery (Offshoring)
Ask yourself where your business is right now, and what you want to achieve. Then let us help you figure out which option is best for you. Take this short questionnaire to tell us about your outsourcing needs. It only takes a few minutes.
