Chief accountant
Services:
About the company:
An international company founded at the beginning of the last century, headquartered in Milwaukee, USA. The company's offices are located in 22 countries.
The office has existed in Russia since 1990. We came here a very, very long time ago. At first there was a representative office, and since 2010 we have operated as an LLC. The company is small (it has never had more than 50 employees) but very stable. We have people who have worked for 20-25 years. The overall focus is promoting our head office's products. The company works with industrial equipment: controllers, drives and complex systems for solving tasks in various areas of production.
And as I said, the company was founded to promote, sell and support the head office's products. The LLC was founded somewhat later, because the company's clients needed training and support in implementing complex projects. We have a training centre in Moscow where we teach clients to use both existing and new equipment. In addition, our engineers go out for preventive maintenance and audits of installed equipment. And not only across Russia: our office is also responsible for the former CIS countries, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Belarus.
Indeed, until June 2019 our payroll was in-house. It was one of the responsibilities of the deputy chief accountant. Then the head office decided to move payroll to an external provider. Of course I strongly supported the idea, because payroll means a person is constantly tied to work and it is very hard to plan vacations. And legislation changes quite often.
Our global provider, which all our offices work with, recommended you.
I would of course like to thank Svetlana Petrova, our project manager. The decision to move was made very quickly and unexpectedly, and within literally two weeks we had to get up to speed and understand the specifics of our payroll. So we started talking, I think, around mid-June 2019, and by June the salary had already been paid on time and in full.
HR records remained on our side; our employee is responsible not only for Russia but for several regions. As far as I can see, there are no problems with that arrangement.
First, speed, and that is definitely your strong point.
We of course have a payroll schedule, but all sorts of surprises happen. For example, something needs to be changed quite urgently. We have strict rules for paying vacation pay, three days in advance, but sometimes, for operational reasons, an employee says they are going on vacation tomorrow. And thanks to the colleagues we work with, all changes are made very quickly. Second, timeliness. We always receive the calculations on time on the data exchange portal.
And, of course, professionalism. When we approach your employees, they always give us the necessary advice professionally.
I do not remember any difficult settling-in period. Svetlana came to our office, I told and showed her what nuances we have, and that was it. The adaptation period was very quick.
We have an agreed payroll schedule. A day before payment the necessary registers are posted on the portal, to which all employees interested in that data have access. The project team has access to our database, they see all the HR documents and prepare everything needed for inter-payroll payments themselves. The calculation is posted on the portal in the same way. We simply take that file and send it to the bank for payment.
Honestly, I do not even know. In my view everything is good as it is. The best, as they say, is the enemy of the good.
We are genuinely very pleased with working with your company, and everything goes smoothly and promptly.
Keep working professionally and supporting your clients, and you have business secured for the next 25 years!
25 years is a very respectable age, especially for a Russian company and especially for such a complex area as payroll, the most sensitive part of accounting.
It shows the professionalism of your employees and the right choice of strategy for operating in the Russian market.
Good.
I would of course very much like to say that we have big news and big projects. But unfortunately this year all our projects are exposed to very large external risks due to the pandemic. I just want to note that our business is standing firm, which is very important, because many companies were forced to close their businesses. The main thing is to come out of this situation with dignity.
For me what matters above all is clarity in the work, speed and professionalism. If a provider delivers its services in line with these three principles, then yes, I would recommend it.
