Has anyone tried outsourcing?

[Carol]

Hi- I'm an independent accountant with 3 bookkeepers in my office. A
company has been offering to do my low level bookkeeping for half what
my employees cost - They give me a multi-document scanner which sends
my work them directly to them. This could double my net, so I'm
tempted. Does anybody have any experience with this sort of thing?

[snow]

Post by Carol
Hi- I'm an independent accountant with 3 bookkeepers in my office. A
company has been offering to do my low level bookkeeping for half what
my employees cost - They give me a multi-document scanner which sends
my work them directly to them. This could double my net, so I'm
tempted. Does anybody have any experience with this sort of thing?

They should have references and certifications you can check up on,
right?

Unless they are outside the US.

What kinds of liability do they or don't they assume if there is a
problem?

[Carol]

Thanks for your comments, Snow. I was out of town which is why I didn't
answer you sooner.

References: They are in Mexico, and offer only references from 15
Mexican companies for whom they have been outsourcing there. They are
trying to break into the US market and are willing to bend over
backwards to get me to try their service.

Liability: They clearly state "None. Your responsability for overseeing
and supervising is exactly the same as it is for your in-house people.
The advantage you have with us is that if you don't like our work, you
simply stop working with us, and don't even pay outstanding invoices.
Try that with an in-house employee."

As you can probably tell, I'm tempted. Your previous comments were
relevent and wise. I'd appreciate hearing anything more you might have
to say.

[snow]

Post by Carol
Thanks for your comments, Snow. I was out of town which is why I didn't
answer you sooner.
References: They are in Mexico, and offer only references from 15
Mexican companies for whom they have been outsourcing there. They are
trying to break into the US market and are willing to bend over
backwards to get me to try their service.
Liability: They clearly state "None. Your responsability for overseeing
and supervising is exactly the same as it is for your in-house people.
The advantage you have with us is that if you don't like our work, you
simply stop working with us, and don't even pay outstanding invoices.
Try that with an in-house employee."
As you can probably tell, I'm tempted. Your previous comments were
relevent and wise. I'd appreciate hearing anything more you might have
to say.

Everything about that sounds completely questionable to me.

If you are not happy you do not have to pay the invoices? Would you
give somebody a trial of your services, work hard, and give them back
their money/credit them off if they are unhappy with your work? No.
Why should they?

They can strike back by disseminating your client 's information to
others in retaliation for your refusal to pay for work performed, even
if it states that in a contract. They could say you broke the contract
for any reason (years of construction accounting have taught me the
ways of evil).

Eh the list goes on but I won't :)

Being tempted to save a couple of bucks vs the potential hazards of
shipping confidential information to a foreign company with no local
references that freely states that it will assume no liability in the
event of a problem? If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

[Rick Shaw]

Over many years, I have found you usually get what you pay for.
Rick

Post by Carol
Hi- I'm an independent accountant with 3 bookkeepers in my office. A
company has been offering to do my low level bookkeeping for half what
my employees cost - They give me a multi-document scanner which sends
my work them directly to them. This could double my net, so I'm
tempted. Does anybody have any experience with this sort of thing?

.

[david m wicker]

Post by Carol
Hi- I'm an independent accountant with 3 bookkeepers in my office. A
company has been offering to do my low level bookkeeping for half what
my employees cost - They give me a multi-document scanner which sends
my work them directly to them. This could double my net, so I'm
tempted. Does anybody have any experience with this sort of thing?

I have an associate who works similarly to yourself
however he networks with two other guys

1 provides state of the art document scanning
hence when he presents the accounts to his client,
if the client queries a value in the P&L , he can drill down and see
an image of the original invoice

2 provides a resource in India who can enter the documents into either
a csv file, or an accounting system
they can also validate any data, be it email addresses, Tel numbers
etc

my associate assembles a consolidation of all three activities to the
client as a seem less whole

the clients are happy, and the 3 net workers all earn and add value to
the total solution

In your case, all you've got to do is conduct a trial with them,
perhaps working on one straightforward low value client first
continue to do the work as normal, and in parallel, trial the new o/s
solution. Hence you're taking no risk

if you like what you see, always keep a copy of the scanned documents,
so if it goes pear-shaped, you can always recover with your own team
Regards

David M Wicker
www.reflexology-gemma.co.uk
Guildford UK