The Ultimate Offshore Service Packages for CPA Firms: Inside Finsmart’s Accounting Seat Solutions

“There is no learning curve with Finsmart Accounting, so we don’t have to train anybody. They’re already trained.  It’s like having an expert sitting next to you.

We usually just assign our dedicated team members the accounting work, and once they finish it, their supervisor (my full-time staff) will review and get back to me. I usually glance through it because everything is always perfect.”

Mariko Hayashi-Hall, CEO of Chicago-based Brilliant Solutions Group

Most CPA firms fail to maximize the benefits of using offshore accounting services due to the wrong outsourcing model (dedicated vs. shared), which unnecessarily deprives them of operational control.

They blindly throw tasks to their offshoring provider, hoping to receive the same level of dedication and quality of work as they do with their in-house teams, which is difficult to achieve when the provider assigns projects to whoever is available at the time.

Each of their employees works across multiple clients (CPA firms), learning various systems, processes, and client needs simultaneously.

That is why we, at Finsmart Accounting, recommend the Accounting Seat model, where your offshore team serves you exclusively, making them practically an extension of your team.

In this arrangement, the team will be dedicated to you. They’ll clock in during your agreed working hours and work on your projects with your team, just like any other remote worker who is

working from another country.

In this article, we highlight how the different Accounting Seat packages help CPA firms to keep their staff engaged, maintain service quality, and grow more sustainably.

Introduction: Why Offshore Talent Is More Than Just Cost Savings

Cost savings have driven most offshoring decisions for most CPA firms in the past, but that has since changed.

Accounting firms have found several other benefits from offshore accounting services.

They include:

• CPA firms under pressure to scale without sacrificing quality

As the U.S. government tightens regulatory controls to improve financial transparency, client demands are growing, and so is the pressure on accounting teams to meet their evolving needs.

Meanwhile, the U.S. accounting pipeline has continued to shrink. Fewer students are graduating with accounting majors, and accounting professionals are changing careers due to pressure and burnout.

As of 2022, over 300,000 accountants had left the profession, which further increases the pressure on the remaining professionals to manage increased client demands.

This has made it difficult for CPA firms to add more talent to manage growth and increased client demands, which reduces their ability to deliver quality service.

• Outsourced accounting services as a modern solution

While hiring qualified talent is getting harder and the hiring cycle is getting longer, the talent pool in Offshoring destinations like India is growing faster than ever.

Thankfully, technology has advanced to enable remote accounting work. This has empowered offshore accounting companies to address capacity challenges in the industry with the expertise and a deep understanding of U.S. finance and accounting systems.

This has enabled firms like Collins & Ganley, P.C., and Advanced Professional Accounting Services to handle more clients and add revenue lines, while protecting service quality and growing their firms on their teams.

Meet the Service Packages: Finsmart’s Full Range of Accounting Seats

• Bookkeeping Seat

The Bookkeeping Seat gives you a dedicated bookkeeper to handle clients’ daily financial reporting needs, including recording, categorizing, and reconciling transactions.

This package is for CPA firm owners who want to enable their in-house teams to focus on advanced accounting services and client relationships. The service ensures they don’t have to worry about the completeness and accuracy of the underlying financial records.

Finsmart’s Bookkeepers hold a Bachelor’s degree and have a minimum of two (2) years of experience in international accounting standards.

Once you subscribe to this package, our bookkeeping experts will be embedded in your team, technology, and processes, making it easier for them to access the relevant client’s financial data. This also enables you to track their performance in real time.

This package includes:

• Preparation of bank and credit card statements.
• Bank and credit card categorization.
• Matching deposits to invoices and transaction records.
• Bank and Credit Card Reconciliation.

Price

• $2600 per month
• $25 per hour

• Senior Accounting Seat

The Senior Accounting Seat gives you a professional to manage your accounting processes from end to end, including the month-end close.

The senior accounting expert has at least five years of international accounting experience in relevant industries. They hold a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in accounting and a management accounting qualification.

The senior accountant will work within your team to ensure sound financial reporting and accurate month-end close, while you measure their performance in real time.

This package includes:

• Preparing bank and credit card statements.
• Bank and Credit Card Categorization.
• Matching Deposits to invoices or records.
• Bank and Credit Card Reconciliation.
• Full-cycle Accounting Management.
• Month-End Close & Journal Entries (JE).
• Sales Tax Reconciliation.
• 401(k) Reconciliation.
• Revenue Reconciliation.
• Accounts Receivable (AR) Aging Analysis.
• Accounts Payable (AP) Aging Analysis.
• Financial Reporting & Compliance.
• Process Optimization & Efficiency.

Price

• $3200 per month
• $25 per hour

• Reviewer Seat

The Reviewer Seat provides financial experts for high-level review and analysis of your client’s financial activities, ensuring that the client’s data is complete, accurate, and compliant.

This package is for CPA firm owners who need a detail-oriented professional to help identify and address discrepancies in financial records and recommend cost-saving opportunities and room for improvement.

The Reviewer role is held by senior accountants with a Master’s Degree in Accounting and a minimum of eight (8) years of experience serving the U.S. and other western markets across industries.

These professionals integrate into your team to provide oversight functions and ensure tax and audit-ready financials and tax compliance.

This package includes:

• Monthly review of the chart of accounts.
• Transaction and journal entry review.
• Monthly balance sheet, AR, AP, and Payroll Reconciliation.
• Sales tax reconciliation.
• Financial statement review (Monthly/Quarterly/Yearly).
• Budget vs. Actuals analysis.
• Management reporting.
• Prepare CPA Workpapers for audits and year-end reviews.
• Year-end tax readiness.

Price

• $3600 per month
• $30 per hour

• US Tax Seat

The USA Tax Preparation package gives you CPA-level tax accountants who will work 40 hours a week (like a full-time staff) to apply their specialized knowledge of federal, state, and local tax laws to help your clients meet their tax requirements.

This professional has a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and a minimum of three (3) years of experience providing tax preparation services that meet the U.S. tax requirements.

They will be integrated into your workflow tools and systems to analyze your clients’ financials and determine their tax liability to ensure error-free tax preparations.

This package covers:

• Client onboarding.
• Tax return preparation: (individual tax returns (Form 1040) and business tax returns (Form 1065, 1120, 1120S, Form 1041, Form 706).
• Data collection and documentation.
• Communication and collaboration with your team and clients.
• Confidentiality and data security.

Price

• $3200 per month

• Cleanup Seat

The Cleanup Seat provides CPA firms with a bookkeeping expert who will conduct a thorough review of your client’s books and create and implement a plan to review, reconcile, and restore messy financial data to give your clients a fresh start in financial reporting.

This allows you to transition the client engagement into a routine bookkeeping service afterwards.

This service is delivered by a bookkeeping expert with a Master’s degree in Accounting and a minimum of five years of experience, which enables them to bring clarity, accuracy, and completeness to the most complex financial records.

“The Finsmart team was excellent at communicating and ensuring the QuickBooks Cleanup work was done thoroughly. They provided spreadsheets, followed up diligently, and worked efficiently. If you have a financial project that needs attention, just try it – you’ll find they are accommodating and reliable. You can feel confident that you’re in good hands.”

Susan Cook, President of Accounting Ability Consulting

This package includes:

• Review and re-design of the chart of accounts.
• Preparation of bank and credit card statements.
• Updating of missing bank and credit card entries.
• Reconciliation of bank and credit cards.
• Accounts payable and accounts receivable (AR) invoice mapping.
• AP and AR Balance Confirmation.
• Loan Reconciliation.
• Un-deposited Funds GL Clean Up.
• Uncategorized Expenses GL Clean Up.
• Uncategorized Income GL Clean Up.
• Review and Confirmation of Owners’ Contributions.
• Updating Opening Balances in GL.

Price

• $25 per hour

• Workflow Seat

The Workflow Seat provides accounting and CPA firms with accounting process experts to help them set up customized workflows in their project or practice management tool.

This service is delivered by accounting professionals who hold a Master’s degree in Accounting and have a minimum of 10 years of experience creating structured, efficient, and scalable workflows and implementing practice management software solutions.

The package has two options:

• Workflow Customization

This service lasts for four weeks and includes creating or converting 10-15 workflow templates to standardize your procedures and ensure consistent service quality.

This also includes the implementation of customized workflows in your practice management software.

Price

$2499 per month

• Workflow + Practice Management Software

This option lasts for eight (8) weeks and includes creating or converting 10-15 workflow templates to standardize your processes, the design (and implementation) of custom dashboard views for workflow reporting to track efficiency across your team.

It also includes support in selecting and implementing a suitable practice management software for your CPA firm.

Price

$5000 per month

Transparent Pricing Models That Fit Any Firm

Dedicated vs. Hourly Seats

Aspect	Dedicated Seat	Hourly Seat
Engagement model	Dedicated team	Shared team
Work Hours:	40 hours per week or (160 per month)	Starts with 10 hours per week (or 40 hours per month)
Meeting	Review Video Calls – 30 mins per week	Review Video Calls – 30 mins per week
Support	Unlimited Email Support	Unlimited Email Support
Price	$3200 per month	$25 per hour

Embedded Workflow: Seamless Integration with Your Tools

The effectiveness of Finsmart’s Accounting Seat offshoring model lies in your ability to leverage:

Remote accounting staff working as part of your team

With the embedded workflow offshoring model, you won’t have to worry about disruptions in your workflows. Your offshore team will seamlessly integrate into your existing tools and systems.

This enables you to maintain control of your processes, timeline, and service quality. With a partner like Finsmart Accounting, your dedicated team members will technically be part of your team.

They will work in your time zone if real-time collaboration is a priority for you. They can also work in the Indian time zone, which gives you the advantage of overnight work. That enables them to work while your U.S. team is sleeping. Meaning that the work you assign today gets completed before your resume work tomorrow.

You will also be able to track their work to maintain accountability and improve performance.

Speed and Simplicity of Onboarding with Pre-Trained Pros

Here’s why using Finsmart Accounting reduces the time and energy spent onboarding and training your new team members.

Apart from their rigorous academic education in accounting, they undergo additional training to equip them with the soft and hard skills they need to serve accounting firms on a global scale.

For example, they receive specialized training in generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), international financial reporting standards (IFRS), and IRS guidelines.

“The requirements at Finsmart are much higher than the average bookkeeper requirement in the U.S. Their staff are trained as accountants, and most of them have a master’s degree in accounting. They are the equivalent of a CPA.”

Patricia Hendrix, Head of Coaching and Communities at Woodard

Offshore staff are also proficient in accounting technology, so you won’t have to teach them how to use your software to serve your clients.

Where you need to train them is on your firm’s unique operating procedures, best practices, and your client’s unique needs, to enable them to deliver services that are consistent with your client service.

This knowledge reduces their onboarding from several weeks to seven (7) days, reducing downtime during the busy season and providing immediate relief for your internal team.

“When I add offshore team members from Finsmart, I like that I’m bringing on somebody who already knows accounting. I just need to teach them about what’s specific to the client or industry.”

Rebecca Santiago,  Owner of Advance Professional Accounting Service

Use Cases: When to Consider Outsourced Accounting Services

CPA firms use outsourced accounting services in some or all of the following periods:

• During growth or hiring freezes

Growth and hiring freezes have two things in common: an increase in the volume (or complexity) of financial reporting tasks and a need to deliver excellent services without overworking in-house teams or increasing operational costs.

Both situations require CPA firms to add more staff to complete clients’ projects at scale or find capable accounting experts to manage complex financial reporting tasks. Outsourced accounting services address both situations by giving firm owners access to a global pool of accountants that are trained for any accounting support (from basic bookkeeping to CFO-level) you need help with.

This keeps you from turning away new clients without increasing your headcount and payroll costs.

“We used to get referrals, and we would turn them down because our team was at capacity. We don’t have that concern anymore. If we get a new client, I’m no longer worried about capacity issues. We can easily add another seat (staff) from Finsmart, so that we can continue to grow.”

Rebecca Santiago,  Owner of Advance Professional Accounting Service

• For tax season or cleanup projects

Even the best-staffed teams struggle with deadlines during tax season, so they proactively hire offshore staff to help with tax preparation, while their in-house team members focus on review and quality control.

Offshore staff are also helpful when it comes to cleaning up a new client’s messy books against tax season, financial audits, or other financial reporting needs.

When setting up systems from scratch

Many new CPA firm owners are just transitioning from being an operator to a business owner, so they have limited knowledge of staff, clients, and especially, workflow management.

This can result in avoidable mistakes in your foundational years, which may cost you clients, team members, and valuable opportunities.

After years of serving businesses of different sizes and industries, offshore accounting firms have the wealth of experience needed to set your systems, processes, and technology to make onboarding staff and clients, and meeting client deliverables smoother.

As you can see in Finsmart’s Workflow Seat, they can also train your in-house staff on the various tools and systems accounting firms need to complete their tasks efficiently.

Build a Smarter CPA Firm with Finsmart’s Accounting Seat Outsourcing Model

Here’s another reminder that busyness does not necessarily translate to growth. The growth that comes from your team working long hours or stretching beyond their limits will result in team burnout and employee turnover quicker than imagined.

Offshore accounting provides the volume and quality of the accounting talent you need to address hiring and seasonal workload challenges, enabling you to scale your CPA firm without worries.

With the Accounting Seat model, the Finsmart team will embed your offshore accountants into your workflow systems, so they work exclusively for your firm and clients on your terms.

This will make your staff happier, your clients more satisfied, and your firm will grow more profitable.

Let’s help you build a smarter CPA firm today with our Accounting Seat solutions. Click here to fix a meeting with our expert.