How a remote accounts senior fits into a UK practice

Most small practices do not have a hiring problem. They have a capacity problem that arrives every January and every autumn, and a recruitment cycle that takes longer than the peak it was meant to cover. A remote accounts senior is one answer. Here is what that looks like in practice, from my side of the arrangement.

Why practices bring in a remote senior

Capacity without the recruitment cycle. No advert, no months of interviews, no notice period. You get someone who prepares FRS 105 and FRS 102 Section 1A accounts, CT600s, VAT returns and self-assessment returns to review standard, and you scale the hours with the season.

It also frees your in-house people. Review-ready preparation from me means your seniors review rather than rework, and your partners sign off rather than chase.

Onboarding inside your systems

I work in your software, your templates and your review checklist, not in a parallel set of tools you have to reconcile with later. Xero, QuickBooks, TaxCalc, IRIS, Capium: whichever combination your practice runs, I log in as a user you control and can switch off.

No data leaves your environment. I do not download client files to my own machine, keep local copies, or email working papers around. If a job needs something your systems cannot do, that is a conversation, not a workaround.

The weekly rhythm

• Monday: work is queued. You tell me the jobs and the priority. I confirm what I can complete that week and flag anything the records will not support.
• Mid-week: progress is visible. Status in your practice management tool or a shared list, whichever you prefer, so nobody has to ask.
• Delivery: every file comes with a cover note. It lists the judgements I made, the open points, and anything I need from the client before the file can go further.

The cover note is the part that saves a reviewer the most time. It turns a review into a check of the decisions, rather than a hunt for them.

The review loop

You review. I fix. Nothing reaches a client until you sign off.

Review points come back to me the same way they would to an in-house senior, and I close them out in the file, not in an email thread. If the same point comes up twice, I change how I prepare, so the third time it is not there.

Data handling

Working inside your systems is the first safeguard. The rest is written down.

• A written data-handling agreement before any client data is touched.
• Your practice is the controller and I act as a processor. I understand what UK GDPR Article 28 requires of a processor contract, and I expect to sign one.
• A transfer to Sri Lanka needs a transfer mechanism, and the international data transfer agreement (IDTA) is the usual one. I will work through it with you rather than leave it on your desk.
• Anti-money-laundering: I work as a subcontractor under your AML supervision, and every HMRC submission goes through your agent authorisation. Your clients stay your clients; any contact with them is on your behalf.

Time zones

Sri Lanka is UTC+5:30 with no daylight saving. That puts me 5½ hours ahead of the UK in summer and 4½ hours ahead in winter. In practice it means work delivered before your day starts, and a UK-morning overlap for calls. The rest of my day is your quiet time, which is when the preparation gets done.

What week one looks like

1. A 20-minute call. What you need, which software, and what "done" looks like for your reviewers.
2. Access and paperwork. User accounts in your systems, the data-handling agreement, your review checklist and templates.
3. A first job of your choosing. Something representative, not the hardest file on the shelf. I prepare it, you review it, and each of us learns how the other works.
4. A short feedback call. What to keep, what to change, and whether the rhythm above fits the way your practice runs.

From week two it is the Monday queue, the mid-week update and the cover notes. That is the point: after the first week, nothing about it should feel new.

If you would like to see whether this fits your practice, book a 20-minute call.