Information and insight if you're thinking about outsourcing or offshoring
When it comes to outsourcing, the jargon can get a bit confusing. Using people overseas to do your work can actually count as both outsourcing and offshoring - it just depends on the setup. If you hire a provider within the UK, that's simply outsourcing. If you set up your own team or office in another country, that's offshoring, since it's basically your non-UK branch. But if you work with an overseas outsourcing provider - meaning they employ the people who do the work for you - then it's both outsourcing and offshoring.
You'll need to decide what's best for your practice and we've got some case studies to give you some insight into what other practices have done, and information on regulatory considerations.
Our From Practice to Business vodcast series has an episode on this topic in which host Carl Reader of the dt group talks to Alex Falcon Huerta of Soaring Falcon about life as a digital nomad, building offshore teams, and the importance of staying open-minded. Scroll to the bottom for a link to watch the vodcast, or if you prefer to listen on the go, there's a podcast version too.
This resource has been developed for the UK market – if you are not based in the UK then you should consider how the information and advice can be applied in your market.
The regulatory bits
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ACCA's Rulebook
Find out what ACCA's Rulebook says about outsourcing and offshoring
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PII
Any decision to outsource will impact on your professional indemnity insurance
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Data protection
Data protection and GDPR implications are significant when it comes to outsourcing and offshoring
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Cybersecurity
Any outsourcing will carry cyber risks simply because a third party is involved
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Anti-money laundering
Outsourcing work from your practice triggers AML considerations whatever model you choose to use
The practitioner lens
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Kevin Heaton
How outsourcing helped Heaton Vences grow smarter
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Joseph Cox
Building a global accounting team by outsourcing and offshoring
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Eriona Bajrakurtaj
Why people and systems matter more than geography
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Phil Ellerby
Integrating offshore and onshore teams for scalable growth
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Prakriti Singhal
The view from an ACCA member in an outsourced team in India
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Watch the vodcast
In this episode, Alex Falcon Huerta of Soaring Falcon joins host Carl Reader of the dt group to talk about tech, AI, global teams, and what it really means to be at the cutting edge of innovation in accounting
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Listen to the podcast
Want to listen to this episode on the go? It's also available as a podcast
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Register for the series
Our free four-part webinar series in partnership with AVN The Accountants' Network provides a step-by-step roadmap for scaling your practice in a sustainable way - reducing reliance on you while maintaining (or improving) service quality