Following on from my previous post regarding finding work I have contacted a couple of accountants asking if they outsource their bookkeeping work and I have meeting with one company on Thursday.
Can anyone give me some advice on what kind of questions I should ask in the meeting, what I should take with me and anything I need to be aware of regarding accepting outsourced work?
Well done on getting a foot in the door, what is your secret.
You need to find out what work they would offer you, would this be carried out at your premises or theirs. Make sure that you only accept work that you feel comfortable in accepting, don't just take something because you think it will help get you more work, if you can't do it say so. You could take along with you any copies of relevant certificates, copies of similar work that you have carried out for your clients, any client testimonials that you may have. If they are outsourcing the work to you, would you be billing the accountant or their client.
Hope this is the sort of thing that you are looking for
Further to Mark's response you may also want to let accountants how you would do work, on excel, sage, VT etc. If on excel will you produce an ETB? Are you looking for the one off types of jobs or regular monthly/quarterly bookkeeping and to prepare VAT returns? You may want to offer a free trial so they can see quality of work, with any luck the accountant will see this as a sign of your integrity and pay you anyway (in any case don't do too much for free if you go down that route).
