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Whether starting out in practice for the first time or trying to build an established accounting business, growth is something every accountant strives to achieve. However, delivering growth can be more complex than simply attracting more clients. As a practice grows, so does the pressure on people, processes, and resources to deliver work. More clients means more deadlines to hit, more administration, more recruitment, and more strain on the teams.
For many practices, the real barrier to growth isn’t attracting new clients – it’s capacity.
When your team is already stretched, tasks quickly become urgent. Deadlines converge, errors are more likely, and senior accountants spend their time working through backlogs instead of focusing on clients.
The capacity challenge
Most firms reach a point where their teams are stretched to the limit. Typically, this means:
- People consistently working at or near capacity
- Senior staff spending too much time on routine delivery work
- Recruitment taking longer and costs more than expected
- Peaks in workload that last longer year on year
- Deadlines becoming increasingly difficult to achieve
- New opportunities are missed because there isn’t enough resource to deliver
- Technology isn’t delivering promised efficiencies.
Hiring temporary or permanent staff may seem like an obvious solution, but it takes time to secure any benefits. Finding the right people can be difficult, and bringing someone into the business requires onboarding, ongoing management and continuous professional training. The need for additional capacity can be temporary or unpredictable. A particularly busy period, a new client win or a sudden increase in workload doesn’t necessarily justify adding a permanent role.
Outsourcing offers a reliable, flexible solution that allows accountants to increase capacity without the overheads and administrative burden of new appointments. Outsourcing work enables accountants to stay agile, efficient, and competitive throughout the year. Over time, outsourcing becomes not just a reactive solution to peaks in work, but a proactive strategy for growth.
Outsourcing as an extension of your practice
Many accountants begin outsourcing work with the single objective of reducing costs. However, handing work to an external provider and waiting for it to come back rarely works as an effective solution. Outsourcing work helps build capacity, enables access to specialised skills and professionals, improves service delivery, and strengthens resilience to regulatory changes. Aligning offshore partners to onshore priorities, whether to grow the number of customers or improve profitability, will help accountants make the most of a new outsourcing relationship.
Established Mutli-Partner Practice
Unison Globus UK began providing outsourced services to a Multi-Partner Firm based in the South-east of England in 2018. The Managing Partner was seeking to increase the firm’s capacity without compromising on quality or client experience.
After a successful trial, the Firm began using full-time offshore accountants to deliver bookkeeping, VAT accounting, and year-end accounts preparation services.
Long-Term Partnership
The long-term partnership has enabled the Firm to scale operations and achieve their growth plans. Clients benefit from accurate and timely financial records, allowing the Firm to focus on strategic tax and advisory services that add real value.
Building capacity without compromising quality or control
One of the biggest concerns firms have about outsourcing is quality. To overcome this, outsourcing providers typically offer:
- Reactive delivery models
- Dedicated team members
- Structured workflows
- Quality control processes
- Secure data handling procedures
- GDPR-compliant systems
- Effective communication channels
- Performance monitoring.
A well-designed outsourced model is built around clear processes, agreed responsibilities, quality controls, and effective communication.
The role of technology
Accountants are increasingly using tech-driven solutions to deliver bookkeeping, accounting, financial forecasting, and data analysis more efficiently than ever before. Most modern accounting software platforms now incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI) capable of processing large volumes of financial data instantly and significantly faster than manual methods.
While technology continues to evolve and “learn” through automation and algorithmic improvement, it cannot yet replace the need for human expertise, professional judgement, and client-focused services. The costs, complexity, and risks of technology can often outweigh the immediate benefits.
Modern cloud-based systems, secure document sharing, workflow management, and real-time communication make it possible for onshore and outsourced teams to collaborate effectively, offering a more flexible delivery model that can adapt as demand changes. This can be especially valuable during busy periods, staff shortages, or periods of rapid growth where additional in-house recruitment may not be commercially viable.
Offshore accounting teams can manage delivery, review work, handle exceptions, and provide the operational support that onshore Practices need to scale effectively.
Integrating Onshore and Offshore Teams Successfully
Our customer contacted Unison Globus UK in 2024 to discuss options to help deliver work through the busy winter months. The completion of monthly bookkeeping and preparation of management accounts were particular ‘pinch-points’ the Practice was looking to resolve.
The Practice decided engaging two full-time equivalent accountants to work as part of the onshore team offered the best solution. This solved the dual problem of managing recurring work while freeing capacity to help the onshore team deliver the advisory services clients needed.
One Unified Team
The Practice invested time and resources to help integrate the offshore accountants into the day-to-day work of the onshore team. Using daily video calls and updates and setting clear objectives for the offshore accountants helped build effective communication channels and ensured the effective delivery of work. When deadlines are looming, the offshore accountants also help with the preparation of year-end accounts. The onshore team has additional capacity to focus on growth and supporting clients knowing recurring work is completed effectively by the team at Unison Globus UK.
Turning fixed capacity into flexible capacity
Practices may have periods where the team is fully occupied, followed by quieter periods. Instead of maintaining enough permanent resource to cover every potential peak, accountants can supplement the onshore team when additional capacity is required.
Many firms begin with bookkeeping, payroll, or accounts preparation before expanding into additional services. They refine workflows, assign responsibilities, set quality standards, and establish communication protocols from the outset. The also track turnaround times, quality levels, efficiency gains, and financial outcomes to ensure outsourcing adds value. This helps practices:
- accept new clients and opportunities without immediately expanding the permanent team
- reduce the pressure created by sustained periods of high workload
- maintain consistent delivery even when volumes increase
- create more time for client relationships, business development, and strategic work
- introduce additional resource according to actual demand.
Outsourcing is not a one-size-fits-all solution
- Identify work suitable to outsource
- Select a partner with experience of UK accounting and tax
- Start small with bookkeeping or year-end accounts services
- Establish clear processes for transferring data
- Measure performance.
How do I find out more?
At Unison Globus, we have been providing offshore services to accountants since 2006. Our customers include sole proprietors, as well as small and medium sized UK Accountancy Practices. Our outsourced tax, accounting and payroll services are suitable for all client engagements – from sole traders and micro businesses to SMEs and large companies.
We provide a free trial of up to 10 hours of accountant time, with turnaround in 72 hours. If you’re looking to outsource services for the first time, increase margins, and help your clients thrive, you can book a video call with one of our expert advisors or email us at [email protected].
