Discussion:Outsourcing amongst ourselves?

I have not enough time occasionally and too much time on occasion. I am also entering into an alliance with another CPA to do some niche marketing that may require the need for per diem staff.

And yes, while we are kind of unknown to each other within the concept of actually working, we are a pool of resources that we can use for more than just research and entertainment pleasure.

What I am proposing is that we can utilize each other and act as an informal networked alliance whereby those that need special projects done can hire those of us that have free time and need additional work.

I am sure that some of us have already used others to perform services, but I think we might be able to more loosely formalize something.

I'd love suggestions on how we could set this up. Maybe an off TA website that could be established. Hosted by us and used for and by us. We could post projects needing to be done, and also post availability of services. Hey, in some cases, travel is cheap enough that not all of it has to be off site.

I would think we could also provide a reference scenario similar to what ebay uses. As more work gets done between us we could post positive and/or negative comments as appropriate.

Anyone interested?

Possibly a true professional only forum. Something designed by professionals for professionals.

I'm figuring a small volunteer committee that could help set up maintain and monitor things.

What Fred mentioned today on another post makes a lot of sense. If you needed back up of some kind or that type of thing.

Again, talking out loud, it seems it would likely run well if the parties to each "transaction" were responsible for deciding the ethical and other limits and terms of that particular project or projects. To be a member of the site, you would pay a membership fee.

If all members were to share in the revenue of all members, then you do have a complex matter, and likely insurmountable problems, as many of you here would be the first to know.

I am not familiar with the ethical rules of all of these fields. In addition, I did not even touch upon discreet state licensing, which is where the EA's have a distinct advantage I do believe.

Say that you have a few accounting projects you need finished quickly and you don't have the time. You post the projects in the assistance needed area and those interested respond to you. The two of you determine how the revenue sharing would work from that project. As time goes on, people will get ratings similar to what ebay does via positive feedback and such.

I envision a centralized e-cabinet with various resources for all to use. Useful spreadsheets, documents and other things. Possibly the ability to get discounts due to organized volume purchasing.

Maybe down the line, some kind of across the virtual nation firm is always possible, but wasn't thinking that at this point. But, similar to way some research projects link multiple computers together to generate an internet supercomputer, we could plug all our accounting resources into the net and we could be like taxpreptransformers, the whole is stronger than the parts. lol.

In my opinion, all things work better on KISS, which sounds like your concept.

The parties themselves would enter into whatever transactions they deemed appropriate with other members, and would hold the site harmless for any violation, malpractice, or the like.

Couldn't Natalie somehow get this registered under some kind of Garden Club concept, those non-profit categories are swimming in my head. Anyway, whatever.

Then, everyone would pay a fee for the privilege of joining the site, and of course, there would be reasonable compensation to the site manager (a raise would be considered once he had his first and subsequent heart attacks, which with this group, could mean frequent raises).

Anyway Fred, this is your baby, and I'm throwing out some thoughts, please consider my comments in that vein.

For my email, just add an @aol.com to my screen name and we good to go.

I think if you put profiles and a search button, Kevin will be the first to sign up. I would also suggest this thing be private, meaning you need a login and password to access your account. No login/password, no access AT ALL. Not even to read posts.

It will defnitely be a members only place and in honor of our esteemed/steamed kevin, there will be a profile requirement. lol.

I am in the midst of a couple of projects that are taking up a good amount of my time, but I expect to have the website up by end of July/early august.