Work comes in faster than you can staff it, so the overflow lands on the partners — and partner hours are the most expensive way in the world to do a VAT return. Hiring solves it in theory. In practice you're looking at a recruitment fee, three months to competence, and a decent chance they leave within the year.
CountLeaf is the third option. You get trained accountants working to your instructions, in your systems, at a cost that makes the work profitable again. We sit behind your brand. As far as your clients are concerned, we don't exist.
Full detail is on the Engagement Models page.
One or more accountants assigned only to your practice. They learn your file conventions, your client base and your quirks. Managed day to day by us, reporting directly to you.
You send work as it arrives, we quote and turn it around. No minimum commitment.
Ever. All communication runs through you unless you explicitly set up otherwise.
Written into the engagement. [[TOKEN:non_solicit_terms]]
Your Xero, your practice management, your naming conventions, your templates.
Files come back ready for your review and your signature.
Work is done on locked-down machines with no local file storage and no removable media. Transfer runs through your portal or an encrypted channel you nominate. Every team member signs an individual NDA on top of the company agreement. UK client data is handled under GDPR terms. Details on the Data Security page.
Nothing reaches you unreviewed — a senior manager signs off every file. In the first month we expect you to send work back, and we document each correction so it doesn't recur. Start with a paid trial job. If the file isn't right, you've risked one job.
No. We adapt to your stack. If you run something we haven't used, we'll say so upfront and take the training time on us rather than billing you for the learning curve.
Job-by-job work carries no commitment at all. Dedicated resources run on [[TOKEN:notice_period]]. We'd rather you stay because the work is good.
We do — recruitment, training, appraisals, cover for leave. You direct the work; we handle the employment. If someone is off, backup staff step in without you needing to arrange anything.
That's the point of the model. Tell us the expected volume by November and we staff for it. Scale back in February without a redundancy conversation.
Pick something you're behind on. We'll turn it around at our normal standard and you can judge the file rather than the pitch.