Supporting a Boston, MA based CPA firm in review and compilation assignments

About the firm:

A typical CPA firm with around 10 employees having a mix of clients around MA, RI, CT, ME. 3 full-time CPAs working with the firm. Apart from the routine bookkeeping and tax work, they were also doing few audits, reviews and compilation assignments.

The problem statements:

During the first meeting, it was identified that:

1. The firm was growing at a decent pace.
2. They needed some outsourced bookkeeping support.
3. At one point, they faced a situation where they have to deliver few review and compilation assignments and one of the CPAs went on maternity leave. This created a vacuum and an immediate need for a senior accountant or auditor was felt.

Solutions provided:

1. Altobooks team started with some bookkeeping assignments on flexible staffing model.
2. When the firm faced CPA-level staff member shortage, Altobooks deployed senior team members to complete some review and compilation assignments.

How the relationship was scaled up:

1. Week 1 – Onboarding calls for total 2 hours were conducted with the owner himself and it was straight start to various bookkeeping assignments on a flexible staffing model.
2. Week 2 & 3 – The bookkeeper started working for around 10 clients (a mix of different businesses) and entire bookkeeping function for these clients was handed over to Altobooks team member.
3. Week 18 – As it was going great, there was a vacuum created due to one of the CPAs going on a maternity leave. And realizing potential of the Altobooks team, the owner decided to test 1 compilation assignment with Altobooks.
4. Week 19 – The firm started outsourcing various review and compilation assignments from Altobooks (total 9 assignments were supported by Altobooks).

Challenges:

1. 1. Initial hiccups w.r.t. connectivity of virtual machine set up by the firm.
   2. Expectation mismatch regarding some review and compilation assignments.

Reasons for success:

1. The firm owener was willing to start outsourcing, esp. with the humble bookkeeping assignments.
2. The firm owner put faith in Altobooks team for review and compilation work.
3. Great coordination from Altobooks team and immediate deployment of experienced team members as per the changing requirements of the firm.

Top services provided:

1. Bookkeeper on flexible staffing mode working on Thomson Reuters Accounting CS, QuickBooks Online
2. Review and Compilation work on temporary staffing model