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Ashfords Accountants and Advisory:
‘Speak to People Who Have Outsourced’

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Adaptable teams achieve more. A great example of that is Ashfords Accountants and Advisory, whose current team of 90 professionals includes 15 offshore team members in the Philippines. 
 
“Finding (accounting) talent locally has been an ongoing challenge, which I don’t think is just in our business, but a worldwide issue,” Ashfords Business Services Partner Caroline Atonio said in an interview during TOAcon 2023 on the Gold Coast. 
 
Her advice for firms that want to grow and are considering outsourcing or offshoring is this: “Give it a go and speak to other people who have done it. Learn from their experiences to see what works, what doesn’t work, and how best to approach it.” 
 
Ashfords has grown so fast that both their offshore and Australian teams have almost doubled, again showing that outsourcing with the right strategies in place will empower firms to keep creating jobs locally as well.  
 
Since 2016, they’ve operated their head office in Dandenong, a suburb of Melbourne with about 30,100 inhabitants.
 
They’re a multidisciplinary firm with divisions that include audit and assurance, bookkeeping, business advisory, finance and lending, self-managed super fund (SMSF) services, and tax and compliance. Ashfords is affiliated with AGN International, which has nearly 200 member firms across 80 countries.

Deep global and local connections

This global outlook is complemented by deep local connections, as seen in their consistent efforts to share advice that helps businesses in their community grow. 
 
At their community events, such as their Building Business Value seminar in September 2023, they’ve invited thought leaders to talk to business owners about challenges like attracting and keeping talent and examining Australian employment trends.

On September 19th, Ashfords hosted the latest Building Business Value seminar, Maximizing Business Value: Break Through Barriers. It was a fantastic morning of valuable insights around talent, marketing and finance from a diverse panel of experts, alongside networking amongst attendees from across a variety of industries.

We’d like to thank our speakers Brenda Garrard-Forster from HRAnywhere, AB Smith from Roadmap and Ashfords’ own Marc Di Genova, for sharing their invaluable knowledge and time.

In November 2022, they also hosted sessions on international recruitment to guide Australian business leaders who wanted to protect themselves from a labour shortage and gain connections to skilled, diverse talent. 

Their commitment to developing talent shows their core values (CARE) in action: 

  • Collaboration – as shown in leveraging collective expertise; 
  • Adaptability – being guided by the emerging needs of their people and clients; 
  • Respect – excellence anchored on empathy, integrity, inclusion; and   
  • Enjoyment – loving what they do.

These values shape the day-to-day work of their offshore team as much as their Australian team, something that Ashfords Accountants and Advisory’s CEO Greg Cusack reminded the team of when he visited TOA Global Clark in May 2023.

We’re taking a quick pause from the daily grind with a few photos! Sharing some snaps of Ashfords Accountants & Advisory’s CEO – Greg Cusack as he visits his global team over at the Clark Office. Always glad to have our clients meet and spend time with their team, either inside or outside the office – or both! 😉🎦🎳🍴

Create a culture of operational excellence

The team at Ashfords are also big believers in creating systems and processes, which is a strategic decision for businesses that offshore. “Establishing efficient systems sets your business free and creates a culture of operational excellence that enables seamless scaling,” the firm said in a LinkedIn post.  
 
“With a clear system in place, new staff members can be trained faster, achieving full productivity in no time.” These investments in efficient systems and sustained training were most recently shown when Ashfords’ Thomas Bot, CPA, visited the Philippines for a week-long training event with their TOA Global team.

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I recently had the incredible opportunity to travel to the Philippines to conduct a week of training with our offshore team. I want to express my gratitude to TOA Global and Ashfords Accountants & Advisory for such an extraordinary experience. I’d like to extend my thanks to the entire team for their warm hospitality. Everyone was extremely accomodating and kind during my stay. The skills exhibited by every team member and their eagerness to learn were truly remarkable. #Ashfords #TOA Global

More than 1,000 thriving practices like Ashfords have unleashed sustainable growth by increasing capacity through a global team. Curious about how professional services outsourcing can support your strategies for your business growth?  
 
Ask us about outsourcing. At TOA Global, we have connected more than 3,700 elite accountants and bookkeepers with the most adaptable and innovative accounting businesses.