Build an offshore team for accountants, hired by your practice

When preparation work competes with client advice, deadlines tighten and the review queue grows. Seniors end up coding transactions, and partners pick up the workpapers nobody else had time for. An offshore hire can own defined parts of the workflow and bring organised, review-ready work to your senior team. Be specific about client mix and technical level, because tax preparation, business services and SMSF administration are distinct skills.

Accounting offshoring, from source documents to sign-off

Source documents and the ledger. A bookkeeper codes transactions captured in Dext, reconciles bank feeds, runs accounts payable and receivable, prepares payroll and Single Touch Payroll information for approval, and prepares BAS working papers with GST queries flagged for your reviewer.

Workpapers and year-end. An accountant builds supporting schedules and draft financial statements, prepares workpapers that document open queries, drafts tax return information under supervision, and handles SMSF fund accounting in Class or BGL Simple Fund 360 where it’s in the brief.

Jobs and clients. An executive assistant runs partner diaries, sends engagement letters, chases missing client information and keeps jobs moving through Xero Practice Manager or Karbon.

Systems. An IT support hire looks after user accounts, Microsoft 365, devices and software issues, documenting each fix and routing security changes to whoever you authorise.

What stays with your partners and registered agents

Professional judgement stays onshore. Partners and registered tax or BAS agents review and sign off returns, lodgements, financial statements and advice. The hire prepares, reconciles and follows up. They don’t lodge, and they don’t advise clients. Your clients may need to know that their information is handled offshore, so check the Tax Practitioners Board’s guidance and your professional body’s requirements first. Tarino doesn’t give tax, legal or compliance advice.

How we screen accountants and bookkeepers

A typical search starts with 1,000+ candidates. About 400 pass CV screening and 200 the video screen, and roughly 100 reach the practical assessment. For an accountant, that task could include preparing a workpaper from sample records with queries noted for the reviewer. For a bookkeeper, it could include a bank reconciliation and transaction coding in the software you use. About 50 go on to a structured interview and 20 to finalist review, and you meet the best 3–4. The five screening stages explain what each step tests. Six months after starting, more than 95% of Tarino placements are still in the role.

Your Xero, your practice files, your logins

Your hire works in your Xero, MYOB and practice management files under accounts you create and control. Give them access to the client files they work on, require multi-factor authentication and remove access when they leave. Because you hire the person directly, client data stays in your systems rather than an agency’s. You remain responsible for how client information is handled under the Privacy Act. The offshore staff security checklist sets out access, MFA and offboarding step by step.

The cost of building a team, not renting one

An agency’s monthly fee is charged per person, so it grows with your team. Staff Domain’s published Scale rate is A$1,099 per person per month, about A$13,188 a year, plus A$1,200 per hire (checked October 2026). A team of three on that model costs about A$39,564 a year in fees, plus A$3,600 to hire, before salaries. With Tarino you pay a one-time recruitment fee for each hire, nothing monthly, and your hires keep their full salary because you pay them directly. Model your own team in the offshore staff cost calculator, and budget for 13th month pay in the Philippines, which businesses hiring directly pay.

Build the team in the order your year demands: a bookkeeper before the next BAS quarter, then an accountant in place before the tax-return peak.