The term ‘outsourcing’ is derived from ‘outside resourcing’. It involves the contracting-out of a business process or service to a third party. Jobs are outsourced domestically and, increasingly, to professionals in another country (called nearshoring and offshoring).

You can outsource any accounting function, e.g., bookkeeping, year-end accounts, payroll, tax returns, or even your whole accounting operation. We advise starting small though, perhaps with a year-end accounts review. That way you can test the waters before deep diving into other accounting functions.

The most effective form of outsourcing is hiring a member of staff to work for you full-time. This person is like an employee, just without the expense and hassle associated with recruiting, training, managing and providing equipment or office space. Outsourcing to dot comes with the added benefit of technology; all of our dotPros are trained to use powerful software that will improve the efficiency and efficacy of your accounting at the same time as filling a resourcing need.

The potential cons are if you choose a cheap provider, or one without an established track record in accountancy outsourcing. This can really cost you in the long run because you end up spending more time rectifying mistakes than doing actual client work.

You need to ask the following questions:
Do they have the necessary experience?
Do they have a UK-based team?
Do they have a good track record?

We can connect you to people using outsourcing to share their experience.

We’re UK-based, tech-driven outsourcers who develop and provide accounting software to support our outsourced teams. That way we can fill your resourcing need and improve the way your business runs at the same time. Our well-recognised founders, Arun Ravindranathan and Kehul Patel, each have 20 years’ experience in accountancy outsourcing. We’re experts in our field and know what accountancy firms do and don’t want in a staff member.

We believe the path to great performance is people working in harmony with technology. Technology such as automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning can accelerate processes and cut costs, but these are just the tools we give to our POD's - Professionals On Demand, so that they can do their jobs faster and smarter. In effect, we offer the best people, equipped with the best tools, to deliver the best service.

First, check if outsourcing is the right thing for you and your business (because it may not be). We can give you free and honest advice on this, so don’t hesitate to get in touch to ask.

Then you’ll need to get buy-in from your core team and make sure everyone is committed to accept a change in how you do things. You’ll be able to do a lot more but you’ll also do some things differently. Remember that successful outsourcing involves team work and that you’ll need to positively engage with your outsourcing partner.

Our founders, Arun Ravindranathan and Kehul Patel, have 20 years each in the accountancy outsourcing space. They previously ran a team of close to 200 staff and worked with numerous firms in the UK Top 100.

First, we’ll chat to you about your accounting operation and make recommendations on how best to fill your resourcing need. Then we’ll set up your team of POD's - Professionals On Demand, the outsourced accountants that are hired, trained and managed by us, but work exclusively for you. Our onboarding process will also involve a technical lead who will look at how software could be used to bolster your accounting output. We’ll equip your POD's with everything they need to do the work you give them, and we’ll front all the training, office, hardware and management costs. You pay a fixed price per month per POD or per job, which includes access to CRM software. We have a technology-driven team, in which we have full confidence and in order for you to share that confidence, you can utilise a trial period with our POD's. This trial period is based on a pay per job option, which enables you to test our services before committing to a longer-term contract.

We’re UK-based and yes you can. Once you’ve expressed your interest in dot, we will arrange a call with one of our executives to run through outsourcing options with you. We can do virtual meetings or face to face at your offices or ours in London or Milton Keynes.

dot hires experienced accountants. Some are formally qualified, and many are qualified by experience. As a minimum we look for commerce graduates with a few years’ accounting experience and retrain them. dot has a robust training and staff development programme called dotSkills, which brings our accountants in line with the dot standard. The brightest minds are also offered study support and inducted into our graduate trainee programme to encourage them to take on a UK accounting qualification.

You’ll have full control of your POD's - Professionals On Demand. Although they sit in dot’s offices in India, they take their instructions directly from you. We have a monthly feedback mechanism that enables you to rate your POD's. We manage the POD's for you, but you evaluate their performance so that they can adapt to your specific requirements.
Your POD's will also become part of your internal training program and if needed, we can provide them with additional training based on your feedback. They become part of your wider ecosystem by working on your company’s systems and emails.
We also encourage you to visit India and spend some time with us to get to know your team better, and you could consider bringing them over to the UK, too.

Your data is absolutely safe. The vast majority of the work is done on your servers, with your email. We have strict internal control checks in place to ensure that all processes and data flows are GDPR-compliant.

We have our own team of programmers working on a suite of innovative accounting products to be introduced soon. We work closely with various technology partners to share insights and best practices. Automation and artificial intelligence in an accounting context are a key focus for dot’s current and future product development.

We use our dotSkills programme to train our POD's- Professionals On Demand. This includes training certifications, monthly performance evaluations, career progression within dot, study support (ACCA/CIMA), internships, secondments and soft skills training. They also become part of your internal training and we can provide them with additional training based on your feedback.

Just fill in the form on our contact page or call us to arrange a free consultation. We look forward to providing you with a unique solution to your resourcing needs!