CPA firm Success story with building offshore team. Initially from being skeptical about it, to recommend it.
One of our clients is Agro Accounting CPA based out of Newyork started their journey of offshoring with Entigrity 2 years ago. Basil Agrocostea, CPA is the only owner of the firm and wants to keep it that way. He says
“We were (very) skeptical and fearful to say the least. After speaking with Chris and getting a virtual tour of the facility, etc. we decided to move forward and give it a shot (fingers crossed)”
Accountants are perfectly normal to be apprehensive and cautious before embarking on their journey with offshore staffing.
He further says: “My primary comparison was between India and Philippines, and what I realized is while Philippines talent is good in communication, India’s big ecosystem of US accounting and tax has got some great technically talented people, hence a better-suited destination to outsource accounting in India. Entigrity made it possible to bring on board some of these talented people to work for us”
All the Big 4, Fortune 500 companies, Accounting Tech Companies like Thomson Reuters, Intuit, many of the Top 100 Accounting firms, etc, have their own dedicated outsource accounting offices in India. So India has a huge talent ecosystem. Today India has a 1M+ professionals ecosystem who have US Accounting, Audit, and Tax experience.
“US CPA and EA exam can be given from India and we anticipate number people taking the exam are going grom from 2500 to 30,000 per year” - Shawn Parikh
Basil further says: “We came across Entigrity’s professionals both on the US and overseas front, educated and kind. And everyone we interviewed was truly good. We feel the warmth and sincerity of the folks we're dealing with, these are typically young honest hard-working people who care about doing well in school and subsequently care to do well in the workforce.”
Basil further says a note of caution “We have spent a significant amount of our own time training our staff members to assist them to perform better. We also have procedures and protocols in place that they must adhere to. The cloud holds all of the tools. This is one of the reasons they are all full-time staff. We don't want our hard work and training to be used by another firm that may recruit them away from us.”
Apparently, the first hire helped them break down the barriers and understand outsourcing for accountants better, as they hired a second offshore staff within a few weeks. It's all about getting the ball rolling once.
Transformation:
“During the tax season, account managers have really helped us 24*7, they were incredibly responsive all the time. And we have grown 2-3 times the bigger firm than what we were”.
They had already considered outsourced accounting for accountants and remote work before the pandemic hit, as they work in typically progressive and tech-driven states of mind. Basil says that “business continued as usual during the pandemic, as I had a good year both last year and this year. I was not economically impacted though there were time gaps because clients did not come in at the same time of year and the entigrity was very accommodating about that so I don't want to go off on a side note."
HOW ENTIGRITY HELPED THEM BEING THEIR OFFSHORE PARTNER:
They are a full-service professional accounting firm with a four-person team. They've got three people working with Entigrity. Basil has a plan to continue to stay ahead of the curve for now. So they will continue to recruit and attract new offshore staff.
Entigrity being their offshore staffing partner for the past 2 years has seen them grow very closely. Here's what they also achieved successfully:
- Able to save 8 hours/week on average for each of their employees in the office.
- Better work culture and work-life balance.
- Staff taking initiatives, leading some of the tasks, and taking ownership.
- Projects/work got on auto mode with the least involvement from his side.
- Some level of disruption was expected.
- Improved TAT (from 30 days to less than 7 days).
Apparently, the first hire helped them break down the barriers, as they hired a second offshore staff within a few weeks. It's all about getting the ball rolling once, just like this firm, and getting offshore staffing integrated into your systems.
They also gave us a 5-star review on Clutch. Watch the full video here.
Conclusion:
Just like this firm, it’s mostly about setting the wheel to roll once and get offshore staffing embedded into your systems. Every month 30 new accounting firms select Entigrity to hire offshore staff and build an offshore team of skilled and experienced professionals.
Entigrity™ is a trusted offshore staffing partner to over 500+ accountants, CPAs, and tax firms across the US and Canada. Our flexible and transparent hiring model helps firms of all sizes hire staff for accounting, bookkeeping, tax preparation, or any other task for 75% less cost. As a firm 'run by accountants, for the accountants', Entigrity captures the hiring needs of accounting firms most precisely, providing staff that works directly under your control and management, still, you are left with least to worry about compliance, payroll taxes, overheads or any other benefits.
About The Author
Valay Parikh
With more than a decade of experience, Valay serves as the Vice-President of Entigrity Remote Staffing. Valay leads the India-centric Operations for the company, guiding its strength to unprecedented scales, with his guidance and leadership. Valay is a qualified Chartered Accountant himself. Beginning with public practice, he has served as a consultant and adviser to many small and mid-size businesses. Later on, he went on and co-founded Entigrity with Shawn. Valay has been phenomenal in building India Operations, with his core focus being on identifying and developing Indian talent pool for the company. Utilizing his experience, he developed and built robust HR policies and framework, developed strong training methodologies, and help clients with Financial Reporting, Business Analytics and Business Intelligence, thus creating strong and efficient processes for the clients.
