When the division of labour between the accountant and an outsourced bookkeeping team is drawn properly, both sides gain. Here is where the lines sit.
Most of our conversations with certified public accountants (SMMM) open the same way: a significant part of the day goes to operational requests that call for no professional expertise at all. "Can we invoice this company?" "What is this incoming invoice for?" "Has the payment been posted?" "What is my balance with this customer?"
Almost none of this relates to accounting expertise. It relates to the company's daily operation. The problem is that no one has been defined to do that work, and when a gap appears it flows towards the nearest professional the company has: the accountant.
A workable division of labour
| Area | Bookkeeping team | Accountant |
|---|---|---|
| Invoicing and invoice tracking | Runs it | Reviews it |
| Customer and supplier ledgers, reconciliation | Runs it | Uses it at period end |
| Bank reconciliation and collections | Runs it | — |
| Document collection and filing | Runs it | Receives the set |
| Statutory books and tax returns | — | Runs it |
| Regulatory interpretation and tax | — | Runs it |
| Day-to-day contact with the client | Runs it | As needed |
How the document flow is set up
Whether the division of labour works comes down to how documents move. The arrangement that holds up in practice looks like this:
- A single collection point: documents arrive through one channel, closing off the fragmented flow of different people sending things different ways.
- Defined naming: file names follow a standard, so searching and matching take no time.
- A weekly rhythm: documents are processed steadily through the week, not in a batch at month end.
- A pre-close checklist: missing documents are identified and chased before the month ends.
- One consolidated handover: the accountant receives a checked set, not a pile of loose files.
What the accountant gets out of it
- The traffic of day-to-day operational requests drops noticeably
- The close period runs with fewer corrections
- The client relationship refocuses on technical matters
- More clients can be served, at a higher standard, with the same capacity
Details of how we work directly with accounting practices are set out on our For Accountants page.