The Client
This UK-based company supplies temporary and permanent recruitment services to employers across multiple sectors. Like most staffing businesses, its margins depend on tight control of back-office cost, and its finance function carries a steady load of transactional bookkeeping work — the kind of essential, repeatable activity that keeps the business compliant but rarely justifies the cost of a full-time domestic finance hire.
The Challenge
The client’s Head of Finance came to 1840 & Company with a clear and specific objective: reduce cost. Bookkeeping had to be handled reliably and on time, but paying UK market rates for transactional finance work was holding back the wider budget.
Key challenges included:
- Reducing the cost of the finance function without losing quality of work
- Keeping bookkeeping accurate and on schedule during a period of growth
- Hiring offshore for the first time, without an internal recruiting capability in those markets
- Onboarding a remote finance hire into existing processes and systems quickly
They needed a partner who understood finance roles specifically, not a generalist staffing vendor.
The Solution
The client found 1840 & Company through a combination of online search and a referral, and selected us on culture fit, value for cost, aligned company values, and the strength of that recommendation.
Our approach included:
- Targeted Finance Recruiting: We sourced and vetted finance talent in the Philippines specifically for bookkeeping ownership, rather than presenting general administrative candidates.
- A Single Dedicated Resource: We placed one outsourced finance professional to manage the client’s bookkeeping responsibilities end to end, giving them accountability in a single named person.
- Hands-On Onboarding: Our team took the time to understand the client’s needs and objectives before onboarding, then embedded the hire into their existing finance workflow.
- Thorough Communication: We stayed in close contact through virtual meetings, email, and messaging apps across the hiring, onboarding, and stabilization phases.
The Outcome
The engagement gave the client the cost reduction they were targeting without compromising the quality of their finance operation.
They gained:
- A dedicated bookkeeper owning day-to-day finance responsibilities
- Meaningful cost savings against the equivalent UK-based hire
- A hiring and onboarding process delivered on time, with objectives understood up front
- Roughly £29,000 in annual payroll savings against an equivalent UK-based bookkeeper
- Thorough, consistent communication throughout the engagement
The client rated the engagement 4.5 overall — including a perfect 5.0 for cost — and said there was nothing they would have had us do differently.
