Frequently Asked Questions

I run a small business. Will bookkeeping outsourcing work for me?

Though outsourcing was originally adopted by large corporations, the technology and communications has evolved so much these days outsourcing is an option for small businesses and even start-ups. We work with several small businesses in USA and Canada and will be glad to help you as well.

Are your bookkeepers professionally qualified?

Yes. All our bookkeepers are professionally qualified and are carefully selected by us to work for you. All of them have either graduate degrees or post-graduate degrees from universities in India. They are also trained on the US, Canadian, Australian, UK bookkeeping standards and also trained on various bookkeeping software including QuickBooks, PeachTree, Quicken, Simply Accounting and others.

We are an accounting firm serving hundreds of local clients. Our fear about outsourcing is that you could easily steal away our clients. How can we trust you?

This is the most common concern amongst the accounting firms. We fully understand this and that is why we are set-out to remove this very important concern. To begin with, our agreement includes a mutually binding non-solicitation clause.

Moreover, our strength is handling the back-office bookkeeping work and we do it very well. Your strength is in addressing accounting needs for your local businesses. Combining these two will provide the best possible solution. So, we don’t want to compete directly with you and we never will. That’s why our agreement includes the non-solicitation clause in detail. So, you have nothing to worry about and you can trust us 100%. We have grown from being a start-up into a 1300+ strong team because of this trust.

We will stay behind as the trusted overseas partner and do all the work, while you do the client communication and charter your growth plans.

We have some bookkeeping requirements and this will require a team of bookkeepers. Can you give us an exclusive team?

Yes. We can give you an exclusive team that will work only for you. We will also nominate a team leader amongst the team and you can communicate direct with the team leader for daily operational communications.

We are a small accounting firm and we hope to grow our business quickly within the next 24 months. Can we start small with you and grow bigger as we grow?

That is absolutely fine. We work with several small accounting firms and have supported their growth. You can start small and then plan your expansion. We will fully support you, even if you have rapid growth plans.

How can you provide your bookkeeping service at such low prices?

We can offer this price, because our bookkeepers work from our office in India. The salaries in India are much lesser when compared to the salaries for a bookkeeper in USA. That’s the reason why we could offer bookkeeping services at such a low price in spite of the high reliability and quality of service.

I only have a few small bookkeeping tasks. Can you work for me on a temporary basis?

Yes. We have both pay monthly and pay as you go plans. If you do not have regular work then you can very well choose pay as you go (temporary) plan.

Can you guarantee security of my data?

Absolutely. Data protection and confidentiality is the most important part of our bookkeeping outsourcing business. We have implemented very high levels of security to protect the security of your data. We are a US corporation and so we adhere to the same data privacy laws as you do. For more information, take a look at our data security and confidentiality page.

We already have accounting software installed on our computer. Can you work directly on our computer using remote connection?

Yes. Our bookkeepers can remotely connect to your computer and work directly on your computer. We have experience of using remote connection software such as GotomyPC, Logmein and do the bookkeeping. Our IT team can also help in setting it up.

Isn’t scanning a time consuming process? I have done scanning before and it was very slow. What do you suggest?

Scanning used to be a difficult and time-consuming task with flat bed and slower scanners. Till a few years ago, those were the kind of commercial scanners widely available in the market.

But scanning technology has evolved so fast. These days flat bed scanners are a history and are replaced by document feed scanners. These are very fast and scans about 20-30 pages per minute. You just have to stack up all the papers in the document feeder and push a button. The scanner will do the rest. There are several videos available in YouTube that demonstrates the speed of these scanners.

The prices are also very affordable and a good quality scanner is now available from just $400. You can also send us faxes if you prefer. We have toll free fax numbers that we can provide you using which you can send us your information.

Can I speak to a reference before?

Yes. You can definitely speak to a reference. However, we ask you to enter our service agreement beforehand. Of course, the agreement will include the disclaimer that this agreement is valid “subject to satisfactory reference”. So the agreement becomes valid only after you are happy with our reference.

What is your bookkeeper to client ratio?

It depends on the type of client. We have scenarios where a dedicated team of bookkeepers is assigned to single client and also the case where one bookkeeper looks after many clients. It depends on the volume and the frequency of work.

Would you assign one person to my account or would it be done some other way?

You will have a single point of contact at our office in India. Your bookkeeping task would typically be done by the same bookkeeper. Only on rare occasions, and unavoidable circumstances a different bookkeeper may pick your task. However, we have a very stringent review process, which will ensure the quality of the delivered work always remains the same.

Can your bookkeepers also invoice my clients on my behalf?

We can prepare and send invoices by email to your clients. If it needs to be sent by post then, we will work together with an invoice mailing company in USA to have the invoices printed and posted.

Most of my client take 30 days to pay me, can I also pay after 30 days?

Our terms are either pre-payment or 7 days from the date of invoice. Because our prices are highly competitive, we have to ensure the cashflow and so we cannot extend 30 day credit.

If your bookkeepers work India day time that would be our nights. What is the procedure for communication, questions, training, etc?

Even though our bookkeepers work India day-time, we also have team covering US hours. We use instant messengers for quick and instant communication. During the initial period and for training hours, we will have bookkeepers during your day and communicating with you through phone, Email or live chat. So communication won’t be an issue and you will not notice any time delay.

Is my agreement going to be with an Indian company?

No. Your agreement will be with a US Corporation. Integra Global Solutions is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania corporation with our own branch office in India. So, when you enter into an agreement with us, it will be with a US corporation and not with a foreign company.