I am a sole practitioner and am about to start using the help a of part-time accountants who will be home based.
I was going to exchange letters to define that the work will handed out on a job by job basis.
Does anyone have experience of this and if so, could you share any important issues that arose?
Or even those who haven't done this might have observations?
Replies (3)
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Our first two employees were part time. Extremely helpful, as they'll likely require a lot of babysitting in the early days, with plenty of "what do I do next". When you've got a million things to do, not many of which can be delegated without half an hour's explanation first, part time is a godsend.
As for them being home based...not so sure I'd be happy about that. Guessing this is someone who should have a good idea what they're doing then? How are they billing you? By the hour or by job? You're never going to know how long it took them, so I'd suggest extremely easy for them to diddle you...and/or try to pinch client a little down the line.
I'm very trusting of my staff, we have no timesheets, we have no restrictions on what websites they can access...and perhaps someone who we'd employed a few years I might be open to discussing some remote working, but I wouldn't be comfortable with it from day one.
Yes, I agree with Maslins
I am about to look for a part-timer. I have had many over the years, but because of the nature of the work I used to do, when I lost several large clients at a time, as occasionally happened I had to make them redundant.
Now I'm doing more tax work I don't feel so vulnerable. I have tried for an experienced bookkeeper in the past, but all I can say is there aren't any good enough for me round here. Most candidates had either never worked in practice before or if they had were not very bright.
So I'm going back to my belt and braces approach of highly intelligent person, almost certainly with no experience who I can train reasonably quickly. Such people really are a joy to work with. In time I might let one of them work from home, but I couldn't trust anyone I didn't know to do this as I wouldn't know for myself what their standards were like.
I'm guessing you also work from home and you don't want an employee in your house?
I think you have to get over that if it's true or take on office space somewhere. You will want to work with an employee to ensure that they follow your 'house-style' of working, share your values, communicate with clients the way you do etc.
Once they are up to speed with your systems and methods you might consider how it could work with them working from home, but not before.