Located in the heart of the “Ironbound” section of Newark, Pereira & Azevedo, LLC is one of the largest CPA firms in New Jersey’s largest city. The firm provides full accounting services to clients that span many different industries, from construction to restaurants/bars to auto body shops. The firm employs eighteen full time accounting professionals, in addition to its two partners.
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The People Problem
Over the past 10 years, Pereira & Azevedo experienced exponential growth in its business through the acquisition of new clients, as well as additional services for its existing clients. However, the firm faced challenges in its efforts to hire enough qualified professionals to handle the increasing workload. Upon investigating alternative resources, the partners decided to outsource bookkeeping work to Xpitax, LLC.

Tapping New Resources
“We chose Xpitax’s bookkeeping services for its consistency and reliability in offering customers the same high quality service that we take pride in delivering to our clients,” said Anthony Azevedo, Managing Member, Pereira & Azevedo, LLC.

At first, the notion of outsourcing was met with some resistance by members of the firm’s bookkeeping team. The firm was also in the process of undergoing major technological changes as it adopted secure, ASP-based software programs in its move toward a paperless environment. Both were catalysts in shifting the firm in a whole new direction. Once the outsourcing began, employees soon saw the big picture and how this technique fit into the firm’s long term success. Afterall, it’s this leading edge philosophy that has helped to forge Pereira & Azevedo’s rapid growth over area competitors.

Developing the Process
Pereira & Azevedo enrolled in Xpitax’s bookkeeping services in August 2006 for the write-up of client data. The firm selected one of its bookkeepers to spearhead the project because of her firsthand knowledge of the firm’s existing practices and clients, and as a means to help assimilate the other five members of the bookkeeping team to the outsourcing process.

She worked closely with Xpitax to learn about its process and workflow software, and served as a primary liaison for the CPA firm. As a result, she became the in-house expert on outsourcing accounting work and developed a best practices manual, which could be used by any department within the firm for any type of work. One of her charters was developing a set of criteria the team uses to assess whether a project should be outsourced or performed in-house.

The in-house expert then trained the rest of the team on how to use Xpitax’s outsourcing services. At first, the firm selectively sent work out. However, it quickly ramped up based on its initial successes and made it a priority to send out bookkeeping work to Xpitax’s India team, until it was sending out most of its monthly client work. The looming tax season created a sense of urgency to fully engage all members of the bookkeeping team into the outsourcing process, as the firm needed to utilize its in-house resources in other daily tasks. The end result was a fairly quick and smooth transition to an outsourced bookkeeping process.

Reaping the Benefits
In addition to resolving the issue of finding qualified in-house resources, Pereira & Azevedo views its ability to cost-effectively increase its overall productivity as one of the largest advantages to its outsourcing arrangement with Xpitax.

“The ability to get more work done without a lot of additional overhead translates to greater business growth, increased agility, and strengthens our competitive advantage,” said Azevedo.

Now, as the firm approaches its monthly and quarterly sales tax return deadlines, the bookkeeping is performed for most clients in record time using Xpitax’s outsourcing services. Additionally, Xpitax’s XCM workflow software, used to facilitate the collaboration process between the firm’s bookkeeping staff and the India-based accountants, gives a real-time view of where each project is in the process established.

“We view our use of Xpitax’s outsourcing services as an integral component of our business strategy and have incorporated outsourcing into our business plan,” added Azevedo. “We intend for Xpitax to play a major role in our future operations.”

Best Practices Tested
On the heels of its success with bookkeeping work, Pereira & Azevedo put their outsourcing best practices to the ultimate test in outsourcing tax preparation work during the height of busy season. The firm felt that it could replicate its achievements in the bookkeeping area in outsourcing tax returns at a time when additional qualified resources were most valuable.

The firm was equally satisfied with the results of its first tax season using Xpitax. The services matched its own standards of professionalism and attention to detail, enabling Pereira & Azevedo to deliver its trademark high quality service to its growing client base. Xpitax’s tax return services enabled the firm to increase its productivity throughout tax season without hiring additional resources.

Confident that its own best practices in outsourcing are transferable to other areas, Pereira & Azevedo intends to take full advantage of other options Xpitax offers in outsourcing services. “We are always looking to the future, identifying new ways we can serve our clients and new capabilities to help us do so successfully,” concluded Azevedo.

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The slower summer months offer CPA firms time for reflection - to ponder questions about how well you fared during the busy season that just passed: How many returns did we complete? How many extensions had to be filed? Did we have enough people? Will we have enough people for next season? And, ultimately, when thinking back to the long hours and seemingly endless flow of work, you wonder how could we get more done in shorter days with fewer people? You might think, short of starting now, you can’t.

Well, no need to sacrifice your tee time preparing or even thinking about the upcoming busy season. A little advanced planning (very little) and creative resource utilization can help your firm manage the workload more efficiently and effectively during the 2007 tax season.

What’s the gimmick you may be wondering by this point? No gimmick – just a new resource strategy: developing virtual teams comprised of in-house and outsourced accounting professionals. Many firms that were initially hesitant about outsourcing have realized the advantages it affords them (see Pereira & Azevedo, LLC case study) in offering staff more flexibility and demanding fewer hours, fewer extensions for improved client service, and even enabling greater business growth by giving them the resources to take on new clients and offer additional services.

Outsourcing tax preparation work to seasoned professionals with a proven track-record (we’re talking 96.3 percent client satisfaction rate*) can help you better utilize your in-house resources and focus on more value-driving work during the busy season. Additionally, outsourcing year-end write-up and bookkeeping work to a trusted source can also free up precious internal resources at the time your firm needs them most – during busy season.

At this point, with the rest of your foursome waiting on you, you may be thinking that will take me more time to set-up than it will save me in the long run. Who has time for that? You don’t want to spend a lot of time planning for next season when you finally have a breather from the last. The steps are simple and quick with the right outsourcing partner.

First, you go play a round while you put all the worries and stress of the busy season behind you. Second, you mull over your options for additional resources, creative work schedules, and high tech tools with your colleagues…and, maybe throw in the outsourcing option just for good measure. Next, you review your options for outsourcing providers (then, call Xpitax, of course, because we turned you on to the idea and have a 96.3 percent client satisfaction rate). Maybe you wait a few months after that – after all, nobody likes change, then realize you’re out of options and call for a demonstration.

Once you sign the contract, it takes as little as three business days to set-up your secure XCM workflow software account, assign you a dedicated team of accounting professionals, and train your staff on the workflow software to begin sending out your work. So, you may now be thinking, I can wait until mid-December to start seriously thinking about outsourcing. The truth is you can, but we wouldn’t advise it. Get it off your mind and enjoy your game…and the rest of your summer.

*Xpitax, LLC continues to enhance and improve its flagship tax outsourcing service based on collaboration with and feedback from its client base. To that end, Xpitax conducts an in-depth, annual client survey to help measure the quality of its services. Initial survey results for FY2006 show that 96.3 percent of respondents were positive about the quality of Xpitax’s tax preparation services. Visit www.xpitax.com to learn how Xpitax helps CPA firms manage the tax preparation process.

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