“Nothing succeeds like success” says Nick Michaels who runs Jeffreys Henry’s Business Support Department. The increasing number of businesses that have reaped tangible benefits by outsourcing their accounts department to us is evidence of the theory of outsourcing working even better when put into practice. “When you think about it,” says Michaels, “the advantages are obvious. Who would not jump at the opportunity of being relieved of the headaches of personnel, administration and management of your accounts department on payment of an agreed fixed fee?”

“Typically, businesses utilising our Business Support Department facilities,” says Michaels, “are subsidiaries of non-UK companies or businesses in an early stage of development. In both cases management resources will be focussed on establishing the business in its market place and it is an unwelcome distraction to have to recruit and monitor accounts staff and ensure that you are complying with the regulatory and registration requirements which pour through your letterbox in brown envelopes courtesy of H. M. Government’s Inland Revenue and PAYE departments and H. M. Customs & Excise VAT officers.”

This Government’s promise to reduce the “red tape” for small businesses seems to be a myth, but I am pleased to say that it does make us seem like an angel of mercy when we say to potential clients that we will be able to deal with all of this as part of the service.

A very useful benefit of outsourcing your accounts department to us is that if the business does not flourish as hoped the outsourcing facility can be switched off at the end of the month without having to worry about severance or redundancy issues. Equally importantly growth of the business and increasing accounting support requirements are readily accommodated .

In a number of cases as our Business Support Department’s clients’ businesses have become established we have passed over a "turn key" accounts department to the client, in some cases assisting with the staff recruitment. However, there are many examples where we are continuing to provide the accounting support resource. Even though the company is well established, said Michaels, they are happy to continue with the relief from the headaches of running their own accounting department by continuing to utilise this accounting support resource. Let me give you a couple of practical examples of how this works.

In November 2000 we were approached by the Geneva member firm of Jeffreys Henry International and asked to form a UK company for their client, a multi-national banking software company. The client had a number of offices in French speaking Europe but wanted to use the UK as a springboard to expand its operations into the UK and USA. We formed the company and advised on the tax position of the manager who was being relocated from Switzerland. We introduced the company to Barclays Bank and helped to open bank accounts. Jeffreys Henry were instructed to operate the company payroll for approximately 25 staff and to manage the payment functions, we were therefore given signing powers over a separately designated bank account and after preparation of the monthly payroll we advise head office of the funds required and then make the payments using the Barclays electronic payment system. We set up the company’s accounting systems using Sage Line 100 software and established a system for monitoring and receiving the accounting information on a weekly basis. Each week we prepare a cash report in a format required by the head office in order to assist in the group cashflow management and within 5 days of each month end we prepare and submit monthly management accounts using the Group’s chart of accounts to head office. On a quarterly basis we prepare the VAT Returns and on an annual basis we prepare an audit pack and statutory financial statements for the company’s external auditors, Deloitte Touche, to carry out the annual audit.