Offsite working?

Gone are the days when the default assumption was that we would work onsite. At BookCheck, the norm nowadays is that we will naturally work offsite. This is mostly because of the big move in our client base to Xero - meaning one of the reasons for being onsite has gone. Our Sage clients are nowadays used to offsite working

Onsite working?

It's possible that there are very special reasons why you may wish us to work onsite. We are happy to consider such with you

The benefits to our clients with BookCheck working offsite include:

•    The best fit choice of staff resources – we’re not limited by geography
•    Allows our staff to be assigned more easily and quickly to new clients
•    Useful for expanding clients
•    Ability to team any number of staff rather than be limited
•    Avoidance of sub standard working environment
•    No travel charges – more time working

All we need to work efficiently offsite:

•    Good communications
•    An administrator go between

Leave the rest to us – we’re very experienced

Canary Wharf Client - a Case Study of a client we converted to offsite working which demonstrates some initial prejudice and just how successful the transition can be

The company needed an immediate start and wanted someone to work totally onsite, full time, for two weeks in Canary Wharf for Phase 1 – the sort out. This included working closely with the Director of Finance on a particularly complex task. The company felt that all this work had to be handled face to face i.e. onsite. We questioned this, as our 25 years experience told us that none of this work needed to be done that way if the client would provide efficient assistance, as would be necessary onsite as well. We therefore suggested that some initial work could be done onsite but most would be completed remotely, otherwise we would have to decline

This work was urgent and set to a very demanding timetable which could not be extended. It was a very pressurised situation for whoever would handle this, being completely new to the numbers

The company was attracted to our offering and advised that they would be interested in us handling Phase 2 – the ongoing work, however, they decided to use an onsite contractor to handle Phase 1. This resource was a single person. Half way through the job, he left without any notice and BookCheck picked up the baton, totally offsite. The work had been left in a poor state and the compounded need (with unpicking and correcting) was even more demanding. BookCheck completed this to the clients total satisfaction and achieved this within the extremely tight deadline

The point is quite simple. We were totally successful, to the great satisfaction of the client, to the extremely tight timetable without any onsite working and any of our staff ever meeting anyone from the client. It was just as we said it would be but we understand that a prospective client who doesn’t know us might not have sufficient trust in such circumstances

Working offsite allowed:

•    Our staff (from 70) were split into teams, allocated to different streams of the work in order to get up to speed quickly and within the completion deadline 
•    We worked extremely long hours, including a full weekend and pulled together to complete Phase 1. This included a two year VAT reconciliation - transactions from Sage had to be manually ticked back to transactions migrated to Xero to ensure the first VAT return was completed accurately and on time
 The FD and financial manager of the company provided great support with our tasks – this was essential to our success

Conclusion

Offsite is the new way of working, the new norm