About · How We Work
How an engagement moves from first call to delivery
Every engagement follows the same path: a discovery call, a written scope, onboarding, a matched team, delivery through a review layer, and ongoing communication.
Nothing skips a step because a deadline is close. The path holds whether the engagement is a single reconciliation clean-up or a dedicated finance team.
The people and credentials behind this path sit on About Saramis Global.
The engagement path
Six steps carry an engagement from call to delivery
Each step hands off to the next. The team assigned in step four is matched to whichever of the Services lines your engagement draws from, not pulled from a general pool.
The intake note from step one does the connecting work: it carries through onboarding, so nothing needs re-explaining once fieldwork starts.
Discovery call
Day one
A discovery call opens the engagement. Saramis Global asks about your current systems, your reporting calendar, and what keeps slipping. No pitch deck. The call runs before anything is quoted, so scope reflects what you actually need. Three answers get recorded on the call: the platforms you run (Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, or Zoho Books), the deadlines on your reporting calendar, and the one gap the engagement exists to close. Those answers become the intake note that travels with the engagement from here on.
Artefact: A written intake note recording systems, calendar, and the gap.
Scope and proposal
Before either side commits
Requirements from the call turn into a written scope naming four things: the service line the work draws from, the deliverable and its format, the working rhythm, and the figures the engagement runs to, including the 4 business hour query response. Read it, question it, mark it up. The proposal becomes the engagement only once you confirm it in writing. Nothing starts on a verbal understanding alone.
Artefact: A written scope and proposal, confirmed by both sides.
Onboarding
Within 5 business days of sign-off
Onboarding runs within 5 business days of sign-off. Access opens the window: credentials for each platform in scope, granted from your side and logged. Folder structure and naming conventions get confirmed against your existing file next, so nothing is renamed mid-engagement. The window closes with a named point of contact on each side and a confirmed handover date for the first deliverable. Then the work moves.
Artefact: An access register and a confirmed first handover date.
Team assignment
Dedicated teams stand up within 4 weeks
A team is assigned to match the engagement on three counts: the qualification the work calls for, drawn from Chartered Accountants, MBA and BCom professionals, and part-qualified ACCA and CPA members; familiarity with the software you already run; and the standard your reporting follows. The same people stay assigned until the engagement closes. A dedicated finance team stands up within 4 weeks; a single-project team moves as soon as onboarding closes.
Artefact: A team sheet naming roles and credentials.
Delivery and review
Every deliverable, every cycle
Work moves through a review layer before it reaches you. A senior reviewer checks output against the written scope from step two. Open points get resolved at this stage, recorded, and returned with the deliverable rather than left for you to flag. On audit engagements, review notes clear within 24 hours. Each service line runs to its own delivery rhythm, including the monthly close covered on Bookkeeping & Accounting.
Artefact: The deliverable plus a record of what was checked and what changed.
Ongoing communication
For the length of the engagement
The engagement does not end at delivery. Status updates land on the schedule written into the scope, queries get a response within 4 business hours, and the working rhythm gets adjusted as your requirement changes. Feedback from one cycle shapes the next. The full cadence, and the live overlap windows that make same-day calls possible, sit further down this page.
Artefact: A status update on the agreed schedule, every cycle.
Before the first call
The onboarding checklist: 6 things ready before the call
Six items cover everything the discovery call and onboarding draw on: platforms, calendar, history, templates, an access owner, and the gap itself. None of them take long to gather.
All six shorten the distance between sign-off and the first deliverable, because the answers that shape the written scope are already in the room when the call starts.
- Platform list: which of Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, or Zoho Books you run, plus anything else the books touch
- Reporting calendar: the deadlines your month, quarter, and year already answer to
- Prior file: the last close, the last set of accounts, or whatever an incoming team inherits
- Template set: the chart of accounts and report formats your output follows today
- Access owner: the person on your side who grants system credentials once onboarding opens
- Gap statement: one sentence on what the engagement exists to close
Nothing on this list commits you to anything. It makes the call concrete and the scope faster to draft. What each side owns once the engagement is running sits under Who does what below; this checklist covers only what makes day one faster.
Communication rhythm
One contact, a fast response, and real overlap hours
One named contact owns communication for the length of the engagement. Questions do not wait on a handover or bounce between inboxes.
The response clock starts when a query lands, not when someone finally opens it. Live overlap runs across three time zones, so a call can happen inside your own working day.
Engagement size changes none of it. A single project and a dedicated team get the same named contact and the same response window.
Published desk hours run 10am to 8pm IST. Email covers everything outside that window: send the query, and the answer comes back on your schedule.
4h
Business hours, query response
5h
UK overlap window
3h
US overlap window
4h
AU overlap window
Live overlap windows across 3 markets
The hour counts above translate into named working windows. Each one is live overlap: both sides at their desks at the same time, not an inbox relay across a 10 hour gap.
| Market | Live overlap | Window |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 5 hours | 13:30 to 18:30 IST covers 09:00 to 14:00 in the UK, on the summer clock |
| United States, Eastern | 3 hours | An evening shift in India covers the first 3 hours of the Eastern morning |
| Australia, AEST | 4 hours | 09:00 to 13:00 IST covers 13:30 to 17:30 AEST, the Australian afternoon |
A review call, a handover, or a scope question fits inside your own working day. Queries raised outside the window still get a response within 4 business hours.
The communication cadence, fixed in writing at step 2
The communication cadence for an offshore accounting team is only as strong as the document that fixes it. Saramis Global writes the cadence into the scope at step two: who reports, on what schedule, through which channel. Four parts hold for the length of the engagement.
- Status updates on the schedule the scope names, covering what moved, what is open, and what lands next
- Query responses within 4 business hours from the named contact, whatever the engagement size
- Escalation through one named contact on each side, so a blocked item has one route up
- Cycle review at the end of each rhythm, folded into how the next cycle runs
Most offshore engagements fail on cadence before they fail on competence. Fixing the rhythm in writing at step two is why step six holds. The controls underneath the channel, access scoping and the review layers, sit on Quality & Security.
Who does what
What you provide. What Saramis Global handles.
An engagement splits cleanly into two sides. Yours is access and context. Saramis Global's is delivery, review, and reporting.
Both sides stay fixed from onboarding to the last deliverable: the access list you set at onboarding, and the review layer Saramis Global runs underneath every deliverable.
What you provide
- System access and credentials for the platforms in scope
- Background on the engagement: history, prior file, or context a new team needs
- Existing templates, chart of accounts, or methodology already in use
- A named contact who can answer scope questions as they come up
What Saramis Global handles
- Day-to-day delivery against the agreed scope
- A review layer that checks output before it reaches you
- Status reporting on the agreed schedule
- Documentation and a record of what changed, for your own file
Questions
How Saramis Global works, answered directly
How do we start working with Saramis Global?
Every engagement opens with a discovery call. The call maps what you run today and where it falls short; a written scope and proposal follow before anything is agreed.
How long does onboarding take?
Within 5 business days of sign-off. Access, file structure, and the point of contact are all settled inside that window, before the first deliverable moves.
How fast do you respond to queries?
Queries get a response within 4 business hours, from the single point of contact assigned to your engagement.
Does anyone check the work before I see it?
Yes. Every deliverable moves through a review layer before it reaches you. See Quality & Security for how review layers apply across every engagement.
What are your business hours?
The desk runs 10am to 8pm IST. Anything landing outside that window goes by email, and the answer comes back timed to your own working day.
What time zone overlap can I expect?
Live overlap runs 5 hours with the UK working day, 3 hours with US Eastern mornings, and 4 hours with the Australian afternoon.
What happens if we miss a handover date?
The schedule moves; the checks do not. The named contact resets the timeline with you the day the gap appears, and no downstream step starts on incomplete inputs. Deadlines that sit outside the engagement, a statutory filing date for instance, get flagged on the same call and the reset plan is built around them.
Can we change scope mid-engagement?
Yes. A scope change follows the same path as the original proposal: the named contact records the request, a revised written scope follows, and both sides confirm it before the change takes effect. Work continues under the current scope in the meantime, so nothing stalls while the paperwork catches up.
What do we prepare before the discovery call?
Six items: your platform list, reporting calendar, prior file, current templates, the person who grants system access, and one sentence on the gap you want closed. The checklist on this page walks through each one. Gathering them commits you to nothing; it just means the call starts specific.
Start with a discovery call
Tell Saramis Global what you run and what needs covering. What follows is the written scope from step two, not a follow-up sales call.
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Tell us your requirements: bookkeeping, audit support, or a tailored finance solution. We'll suggest the right way to work together.
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