Offshore accounting services for US firms
Offshore accounting for US firms
Offshore accounting services without the hand-holding
Your offshore team shouldn’t need constant supervision. Accountant Staff provides highly skilled offshore accounting services with senior oversight, from Cape Town, South Africa.
CA oversight
on all material items
Timezone overlap
improves communication
English-first
reduces errors
Secure access
overseen by our CTO
When offshore accounting doesn't work
Many US firms have experienced this – you get questions on things the offshore accounting team should know by now, silence on things they should be raising, and constant reworks. In the end your US staff stops using the team.
You pay 100% each month but don’t get 100% back in hours or quality of work.
Every hour your US staff spend correcting offshore work is a straight hit to your bottom line.
Your controllers don’t trust important work with the offshore team anymore, so they end up doing it.
Senior oversight
How it should work
Most offshore providers send sub-standard work straight back to your controllers.
Accountant Staff works differently.
STEP 01
We start with a clear understanding of your business, and your client’s, and how the numbers ties together.
STEP 02
We document the deliverables, month end cadence and agree on deadlines and reporting structure.
STEP 03
Our afternoon is your morning. We execute while you sleep with an overlap for calls and reviews.
STEP 04
Our senior accountants oversee material deliverables making your review process smoother.
What our offshore accounting services include
Accountant Staff can help you plug the gap with one person, or support you with a team that handles the entire month end close for your clients. Our senior staff will save you time and money in more advanced financial areas such as advisory, reporting, forecasting, FP&A and financial modeling.
Accurate, up-to-date books for every client, every month.
Month-end closed on time, every time, ready for your controller.
Bills paid on time, invoices collected, and aging kept under control.
Payroll prepped and reconciled, ready for your filing provider.
Monthly financials and KPIs, ready to send to your clients.
Besides monthly accounting our team can also support you with –>
Year-end financials and filings, prepared to the required standard.
Insight on cash, margins, and performance, ready for client conversations.
Cash flow forecasts and budgets, updated against actuals monthly.
Models for pricing, hiring, investment, and growth decisions.
Ways to work with us
Start with one, or build a pod
For smaller, growing firms
A dedicated offshore accounting staff member covering one function – bookkeeping, AP, AR, payroll – integrated in your workflow. Solves your challenge of balancing the budget against growth objectives.
For larger CPA firms
Pods can be customized to your firm’s needs. Typically they include a full monthly-close team per controller group, under a senior accountant, built around your close calendar. Grow as you add responsibilities or clients.
Why South Africa
What makes Accountant Staff different to other offshore accounting service providers is the high standard of accounting in South Africa, same language, and culture fit – similar to what you’d expect in the US.
| What others do | What we do | |
|---|---|---|
| Time zone | Their day is over before yours begins, so a day is lost per exchange | A live window at the start of every US business day |
| Language | Written English fine, live calls hard work | English-first team, on calls with your controllers or clients if needed |
| Standards | Same questions month after month on the same client | Trained under one of the world's most demanding CA qualifications |
| Culture | Says "Yes, no problem" - then corrections at month end | Pushes back, asks questions, flags issues early |
| Integration | A vendor you send work to | Part of your team, and on the client call when it helps |
| Oversight | Your controller is the first reviewer | Senior oversight on cadence and material items, then your team |
| Scope | Complex clients stay onshore because you can't risk them | Reporting, forecasting and more complex work can move across as trust is earned |
Case study
LBMC W Squared: 12+ offshore accountants they stopped trusting
LBMC W Squared had offshored before. Over 12 people hired through an overseas provider, supporting 70 monthly close clients across 8 controller teams, and the work kept coming back below standard no matter how much feedback they gave. They eventually added a senior accountant just to check the outputs. It didn’t fix the problem, and their US team was worn down by it.
They came to us and we started with a 180-day pilot: a pod of four accountants and a small group of their clients. The feedback was positive straight away.
Their team liked working with ours. Culturally it was a fit, but what mattered more was that they could trust the work. Our pod picked up the load quickly and now joins client calls alongside their controllers. Two months in, they have added two more people to the team and are still growing.
“Testimonial from a managing partner — ideally naming the controller resistance they expected and didn't get.”
Chris Morgan, CEO
LBMC W Squared
Founders
Michael de Ravel
From an accounting family. Fractional CMO to US CPA firms since 2017.
SPECIAL ADVISOR
Stephen Fahy
A CA and CFO who has run 100-person finance teams across 18 jurisdictions.
How an engagement starts
Test it out for 6 months.
01
Tell us the gaps you’re trying to plug and how our offshore accounting team can support your growth.
02
Security protocols, scope and terms are agreed upon up front. Our teams run off a clear statement of work.
03
An initial call with your team and ours makes it easier for them to work well together.
04
Start with a 180-day pilot and see how we support you. Add roles and team members once you trust us.
Contact us
Where can we support you?
Questions
US firms ask us
Who reviews the work before it reaches our team?
A chartered accountant oversees the monthly cadence, close and the higher-risk items. Material items get a second review from a senior accountant before they come back to you. Most offshore accounting services skip this control entirely, which is why the quality of work is low and your US team has so many reworks.
How do you stop the rework our team is doing today?
Rework comes from incompetence, not asking questions, and not understanding your clients or how you work. Our team members are highly experienced and get this right quickly. One person owns a client’s full close rather than a slice of the balance sheet, so nobody hands over a partial file and assumes someone else caught the rest.
What happens when your team is not sure how to treat something?
They ask, in writing, on a call or on an agreed messaging platform. Deliverables include a short list of open questions and anything we noticed that you should look at.
How do you handle IT security and client data?
One of our directors is an experienced CTO and oversees all IT, cyber security and data governance across the firm and client environments. We can work with your IT department to establish security protocols, controls and access provisions.
How much overlap will we have with a South African team?
Our team works South African hours, which are 6–7 ahead of US Eastern. Our afternoon is your morning, so there is a live window at the start of your business day to ask a question and get an answer. Teams in countries further east have finished before your day begins, or worse – they’re tired, working at night for you in a second job.
Can we start with one bookkeeper instead of a full pod?
Yes. Growing firms often start with one offshore bookkeeper or a single function, such as AP or the monthly close on a defined client set, and add roles as the need grows.
What does the 180-day pilot cover?
We work on a defined set of your clients, run end-to-end as per an agreed scope of work. You can judge us on your experience working with us and our quality of deliverables, and scale from there if it works for you.
Work with an offshore accounting team you can trust
Book a 30-minute call and let’s discuss where we can help you most.