This case study examines how the organisation successfully implemented 3 x offshore accounting staff to achieve significant cost savings.

An Australian national manufacturer with operations in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia approached us to potentially outsource a couple of their accounting team. They were pressured to maximise their shareholder return and meet the bank covenant. They were looking to save costs in their business processes without sacrificing their output quality. Their finance and administration team consisted of the CFO, 2 x Financial Accountant, 1 x Treasury Officer, 1 x Payroll Officer, 2 x Accounts Receivable, 2 x Accounts Payable and 2 x Factory Administration Officers. Their total company headcount was 155, spread out across Australia, and the Finance Administration team was around 7% of the total headcount. This happened during the pandemic, when Australian had issues with the workforce and the business had difficulties finding people to recruit skilled accounting staff.

The CFO approached us to identify areas where cost savings could be achieved without compromising output quality and efficiency. The CFO and our team held an hour discovery session to identify the problems. As this was the first time the organisation outsourced an offshore role, we suggested the role with the most mundane and repetitive task. Most importantly, the organisation must also consider the pros and cons of offshore outsourcing, especially from the organisation’s cultural point of view.