How to Evaluate an Offshore Accounting Partner
A partner's checklist, built around the questions that actually protect your signature.
Run it against any provider, including us. Don't trust us. Test us.
A checklist that protects your signature
Most "how to choose an offshore partner" guides are sales pages with a checklist bolted on. This one is built around the questions that actually protect your signature. If a provider cannot answer these cleanly, the price does not matter.
Your name is on every return and every set of financials you release. That is the standard the six questions below are built around. Ask them of every provider on your shortlist, write down the answers, and compare the answers, not the pitch decks.
What to ask before you hand over a client file
Each question has a clean answer and a warning sign. If a provider dodges any of the six, that is your answer.
Will they prove the work before it goes live?
Ask for a pilot on your own returns. If the only option is "trust us" or a free trial that samples a stranger's work, keep looking. Proof on your files, checked by your reviewer, is the only test that counts.
How many reviews does the work pass before it reaches you?
One pass is not enough on a signed return. Ask to see the review chain, who checks what, and at which stage. If the answer is vague, the review is thin.
What happens if a placement is not a fit?
You want a real 30-day replace-free policy, in writing, not "we'll work it out." A guarantee that lives only in the sales call is not a guarantee.
Who built the offshore model, accountants or recruiters?
A CPA who has signed returns trains to a different standard than a BPO. Ask who designed the training and the review, and whether they have sat a review cycle themselves.
What happens when someone rolls off?
You want shadowing and handover during the notice period, not a knowledge cliff. Ask what continuity looks like the week a person leaves.
Is the security frame the one your firm is held to?
You want named controls, not a generic "we're secure." Ask about access, encryption, confidentiality, and where client data lives. Vague answers here are a real risk.
How Accountably answers each one
The checklist is the test. Here is how we answer it, so you can hold us to the same bar as anyone else.
Read the answer, not the brochure
A clean answer sounds like
- A pilot on your own work, graded by your reviewer
- A named, multi-stage review chain
- A replace-free policy you can read in the agreement
- A model designed by someone who has signed returns
- Shadowing and handover named up front
- Specific, named security controls
A warning sign sounds like
- "Trust us" or a trial on a stranger's work
- "Our people are very experienced" with no review chain
- "We'll work it out" instead of a written policy
- A recruiter or BPO with no accounting standard behind it
- Silence on what happens when someone leaves
- "We're secure" with nothing named
Questions firms ask while comparing partners
Whether the partner will prove the work on your own returns before it goes live. A pilot on your files, checked by your reviewer, tells you more than any pitch. If the only option is "trust us" or a trial that samples a stranger's work, keep looking.
No. If a provider cannot answer the six questions in this checklist cleanly, the price does not matter. The cheapest offshore is the most expensive once you count the rework and the review time it costs your seniors.
Yes. Run it against any provider, including us. We built our model to pass it: a Free 40-Hour Proof Pilot on your own work, four-stage review, a 30-day replace-free guarantee in writing, a CPA-founder-built standard, shadow-and-handover on rolloff, and SOC 2-aligned controls.
Don't trust us. Test us.
Run this checklist against any provider, including us. We built our model to pass it. Start with a Free 40-Hour Proof Pilot on your own work. Not a fit in 30 days? Replaced free.
Book a Discovery Call