The 20-Hour Offshore Hire: The Right-Sized Way for Firms Under 5 People to Add Capacity

Most CPA firms with 2-4 team members are simply too busy to take on additional clients but don’t have enough work to justify hiring a full-time team member. That’s a lot of work for a full-time salary, benefits, and a dedicated office for someone who will only work 20 hours per week.

I want to explore the possibility of hiring an offshore part-time worker to cover 20 hours of work in your practice. This would mean that I would hire one person and they would work inside of the systems and processes that you currently have in place in your firm.

Why 20 Hours Works for Small Firms

20 hours of work per week is enough to add another set of hands and spread the load of the busy work you are doing to free up more time for you to grow your practice, pursue new clients and increase your revenue.

• Enough real capacity: Enough real capacity to take off your hands work that is repeatedly of a low pay value.

• Lower financial commitment: Less of a financial commitment as it relates to slow periods in a firm’s calendar.

• Rapid expansion capability: Start with 20 hours and scale to 30-40 hours as required by your growing client base.

• Same Person Power: With a part-time offshore hire, your firm can benefit from the work of one person that can become familiar with your clients, your processes and your way of doing things.

Is Your Firm Ready? A Quick Self-Check

• Your staff is spending 10+ hours of their time on tasks such as data entry, bookkeeping, document chasing etc.

• Your busiest people are doing work below their pay grade

• You have repeatable tasks that follow a standard process

• Your firm currently uses cloud-based software (e.g. Xero, QuickBooks Online, Practice Ignition, etc.) for its bookkeeping and accounting tasks. Alternatively, the firm is willing to transition to the use of cloud-based software.

• You are willing to write down how you want work done

• A licensed professional on your team can review the output

Many of the indicators on this list add up to a 20-hour hire opportunity if four or more are true for your firm.

What Can a 20-Hour Offshore Hire Do for Your Firm?

1. Bookkeeping and Write-Up

• Transaction categorization and bank feed review

• Bank and credit card reconciliations

• Accounts payable and receivable processing

• Monthly close support and cleanup projects

2. Tax Preparation Support

• Organizing client documents and building organizer packages

• Data entry from source documents into your tax software

• Preparing workpapers and supporting schedules

• Preparing returns for CPA review

3. Practice Operations

• Client onboarding paperwork and document requests

• Deadline and extension tracking

• Document filing, indexing, and naming

• Follow-ups on missing client information

Your licensed staff handles the review, sign-off, advice and client relationships while the offshore hire does the work and you approve it.

Sample Weekly Schedule for a 20-Hour Role

It is also possible to split a hire in a number of different ways to suit your firm’s work. For example:

• Monday (4 hours): Review new documents and set up the week’s priorities.

• Tuesday (4 hours): Bookkeeping and reconciliations

• Wednesday (4 hours): Tax prep data entry and workpapers

• Thursday (4 hours): Client follow-ups, document chasing, filing

• Friday (4 hours): Clean up, Review by Licensing Firm, Set up for next week.

While working hours are variable, firms generally prefer to split the hours of their hire on an everyday basis within a fixed window that overlaps with their own working hours in order to answer questions in real time.

Security and Compliance Checklist

Information Security and Compliance with regard to client data is your biggest concern. When you start hiring offshore staff make sure you go through the following checklist:

• Document client consent to offshore handling of tax return information, in accordance with IRC Section 7216 and related laws. Confirm exact language with counsel.

• Maintain a written information security plan that addresses your use of outside vendors (The FTC Safeguards Rule and IRS Publication 4557).

• Have the offshore hire sign a confidentiality agreement

• Restrict access to only the necessary clients and systems.

• Require multi-factor authentication on every tool

• Work in your secure portal for your firm or in a controlled virtual environment (e.g., their own virtual desktop) instead of personal email accounts.

• Restrict local downloads and storage where possible

• Review access logs periodically

• Remove access immediately when the engagement ends

How to Start Without Disrupting Your Firm

1. Start with one function. We have found that tasks such as bank reconciliations and tax return data entry are good starting functions for a client to test out with their team.

2. Document the process. Create a one-page checklist laying out the steps you currently take to complete a particular task or set of tasks.

3. Set up access and security. Set up access and security for your new hire before they start, such as creating accounts and setting up MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) and review their logins in the first 30 days.

4. Run a 30-day trial. Review all work in the first 3 weeks.

5. Track your results. Track your results (hours saved, rework rate, turnaround time etc.) for the first 30 days.

6. Expand slowly. Add task types or hours once quality is steady.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Neglecting to document how to complete tasks and expecting the offshore employee to “figure it out” as needed.

• Handing over messy files with no instructions

• Skipping review in the early weeks

• Giving too much system access too early

• Treat the offshore hire like a team member (and not just a temp).

• Forgetting client consent and disclosure requirements