For accounting & CPA firms
Bookkeeping, tax preparation, audit support and payroll for your firm's clients, prepared in your systems and to your review standards. The client relationship and the signature stay with you.
Capacity that works under your name
An accounting firm is seldom short of work. What it lacks is trained hours at the moment the work arrives: recruiting for a peak is slow, and carrying extra staff through the quieter months is hard to justify.
We can work as a white-label extension of your own staff. The work is prepared in your software and to your checklists by a dedicated team, under the supervision of a named Pi partner.
What we prepare for firms
The work your own staff would otherwise do, delivered to your reviewers in the form they expect.
Client bookkeeping and accounting
Monthly bookkeeping, reconciliations and closes in QuickBooks Online, Xero or Zoho Books, with year-end files and financial statements prepared for your review. See bookkeeping, year-end finalisation and financial statements.
Tax return preparation
US federal and state returns for individuals, corporations and partnerships, prepared in your tax software with tied-out workpapers, then passed to your firm for review, signature and filing. See outsourced tax preparation.
Audit support work
Working papers prepared in your audit software and to your methodology: lead schedules, financial statement tie-outs, roll-forwards of fixed assets, borrowings and equity, and vouching of the samples your team selects, all directed and reviewed by your engagement team. See audit support.
Payroll
Payroll processed in your clients' payroll software or alongside their provider, with journals posted and liabilities reconciled to the returns filed. See payroll accounting.
Dedicated staff
Where your volume is steady all year, a staff accountant, tax preparer or member of audit support staff who works only for your firm, on hours agreed in writing. See build your team.
The same arrangement can cover Xero and QuickBooks clean-ups, sales and use tax returns, and draft responses to IRS notices.
How we work with your firm
Your clients, your systems and your standards. Our part is the preparation and the record behind it.
Your client, your signature
Your firm keeps the client relationship and signs. We contact your clients only if you ask us to, and what we prepare reaches them only through you.
Your software
We work in your practice, tax and audit systems, under user accounts your firm issues and can withdraw at any time.
Your checklists
Your checklists, workpaper conventions and review standards are the specification. Where something is unclear we ask, and record the answer for next time.
Review notes and query logs
Each file arrives with notes on the points that need your judgement and a log of open client queries. Your reviewers' points come back through the same log and stay open until cleared.
Confidentiality
Your clients' data is covered by a written confidentiality agreement between your firm and Pi, and only the partner and team assigned to you can see it. See security and confidentiality.
Partner review
A Pi partner reviews each file before it is released, so your own review starts from work that has already been checked once.
Starting with a pilot
A small batch of real work first, so that your reviewers can judge the fit before volumes grow.
A conversation
A 30-minute private conversation with a partner about the work you want to place, your systems, your volumes and your deadlines.
A written scope
We look at sample files and your set-up, then send a proposal for the pilot within three business days: which files, which dates, and how review points come back to us.
The pilot batch
Onboarding begins the week the engagement letter is signed. A small batch of current files is then prepared to your checklists and reviewed by your team as they would review their own staff's work.
Wider volumes
Your review points are written into our procedures for your firm, and volumes widen in stages, with capacity for the next peak agreed in writing.
Capacity for the busy season
Planned against your firm's calendar before the peak, rather than negotiated during it.
Filing deadlines, calendar year-end closes and audit fieldwork each bring a peak of their own, and they often overlap. We plan against your calendar as a whole: the volume expected at each peak is agreed in the scope, preparer time is reserved for it, and a batch that grows beyond what was agreed is raised with you when it arrives, not at the deadline.
Work that does not depend on the deadline can move out of the peak: prior-year workpapers rolled forward, client records requested and organised, bookkeeping brought up to date. Between peaks, the same team can carry bookkeeping, payroll and year-end work, so the people who learned your conventions are still on your files next season.
Questions
Will our clients know you are involved?
Your clients deal only with your firm. Whether they must be told, or must consent, before their information is shared with a service provider depends on the professional rules that apply to you. For US tax return information, the section 7216 regulations generally require the taxpayer's written consent before it goes to a preparer outside the United States; see outsourced tax preparation.
Which returns, states and frameworks does the work cover?
The tax return preparation described here covers US federal and state returns. For bookkeeping, payroll and audit support, the frameworks, states and filings involved are confirmed in the initial review and recorded in the scope before work begins.
Can you work on our audit engagements?
Yes, as support to your engagement team, which directs and reviews the work; your firm forms the opinion and signs the report. Where your independence policies require it, the people assigned to an audit file confirm their independence of the audited entity before they begin.
Speak with a partner
Every enquiry is read by a partner and answered within one business day. Meetings are held at our offices, at yours, or by video.