Building a Remote Team of Seven: How an Irish Practice Fixed Recruitment and Reduced Growth Costs
Introduction
Recruiting and retaining skilled bookkeepers and accountants is one of the most persistent challenges facing accountancy practices in Ireland. This case study looks at how Byrne & Byrne Accountants, an established Dublin-based practice, worked with Hunter Marshall to break a costly recruit-train-progress-replace cycle by building a dedicated remote accounting team.
What began as a cautious trial with two remote bookkeepers has grown into a seven-person accounting and support team that operates as an integral part of the practice — giving Byrne & Byrne experienced professionals, greater capacity, long-term continuity and a significantly lower cost of growth.
Client Information
Byrne & Byrne is an established accountancy practice serving clients primarily across Dublin and the surrounding region, together with businesses elsewhere in Ireland.
Led by two senior accountants and supported by a small locally based team, the practice provides accounting, taxation, bookkeeping and business advisory services to its clients.
Like many growing accountancy practices, Byrne & Byrne had plenty of work. The challenge was finding and retaining the right people to deliver it.
Company Name: Byrne & Byrne Accountants
Industry: Accountancy & Professional Services: Accounting, Taxation, Bookkeeping and Business Advisory
Location: Dublin and the surrounding region, with clients across Ireland
Job Title: Accountants, Bookkeepers, and Administrator
Led by two senior accountants and supported by a small locally based team, Byrne & Byrne provides accounting, taxation, bookkeeping, and business advisory services to clients primarily across Dublin and the surrounding region (together with businesses elsewhere in Ireland). Like many growing practices, it had no shortage of work; the challenge was finding and retaining the right people to deliver it.
Roles & Functions Required
Byrne & Byrne needed dependable capacity across the day-to-day accounting work that underpins a busy practice, delivered by experienced people who could integrate into an Irish professional-services environment. The remote team recruited through Hunter Marshall covers the following roles:
- Senior Accountants x 4: - Accounts preparation, taxation and higher-level accounting work for the practice's clients.
- Bookkeepers x 2: - Day-to-day bookkeeping and accounts-production work.
- Accounting Administrator x 1: - Additional accounting support capacity at a lower cost, freeing up the senior team.
Each role was defined precisely so that candidates could be matched not only on technical ability, but on whether the position genuinely suited what they wanted from the next stage of their career (a factor that later proved central to retention).
The Challenge
One of the biggest challenges facing the practice was staffing at the bookkeeping and accounts-production level.
Recruit, Train, Progress and Start Again
Traditionally, Byrne & Byrne recruited younger accountants and trained them. Initially, they undertook bookkeeping, accounts preparation, and other day-to-day work while building experience.
As people developed professionally, they understandably wanted their careers to progress. After a year or two, many no longer wanted bookkeeping and lower-level accounting work to represent a significant part of their role.
Byrne & Byrne then had two choices: progress them into more senior accounting positions or risk losing them to another employer offering the progression they wanted. Either way, the original bookkeeping requirement remained.
Recruit → Train → Develop → Progress or Leave → Recruit Again
Experienced bookkeepers were also increasingly difficult to find locally. The result was a recurring staffing problem. The partners were continually investing time in recruitment and training, only to find themselves needing to recruit again as people progressed through the practice. They needed a more sustainable model; one that gave them reliable capacity at these levels without the constant churn.
Implementation & Experience
Byrne & Byrne approached Hunter Marshall to explore building part of its accounting team remotely.
Through Hunter Marshall, the typical annual cost of an experienced bookkeeper was approximately €16,000 + VAT per person. For a senior accountant, the typical annual cost was approximately €24,000 + VAT per person.
That represented a substantial saving compared with recruiting equivalent experience locally. But lower cost was only useful if Byrne & Byrne could maintain the professional standards its clients expected.
The real question was whether it could access experienced people at those costs who could successfully integrate into an Irish accountancy practice.
How Candidates Have Strong Skills
An important part of the Hunter Marshall model is the talent pool it can access.
India has a large population of highly qualified accounting and finance professionals. Within that market is a particularly valuable group for Irish and UK businesses: professionals who have previously studied, lived or worked in Ireland, the UK or similar international markets before returning to India.
People return home for many reasons, including family commitments, marriage, or simply deciding that India is where they want to build their long-term lives. But they bring their international experience home with them.
They understand the working culture of Irish and UK businesses. They have experienced professional-services environments, client expectations, communication styles, deadlines and standards firsthand.
From the candidate's perspective, a well-paid professional position in India that allows someone to work remotely with an established Irish or UK business can be a highly desirable role. It allows them to continue an international professional career while living in India, often closer to family and without the substantial commuting associated with many of India's major employment centres.
These positions can therefore attract very strong applicants, allowing Hunter Marshall to be highly selective about who progresses through its recruitment process.
Hunter Marshall's Role
Finding the Right People and Access to a large international talent pool is only valuable if you can identify the right people within it.
Byrne & Byrne did not want hundreds of CVs landing in the partners' inboxes. Hunter Marshall undertook the sourcing, identification, screening and assessment process before candidates were presented to the practice.
Candidates were assessed against the specific requirements of each position, including relevant accounting experience, technical capability, previous employment, communication skills, systems knowledge and suitability for working remotely within an Irish professional-services environment.
The objective was not to generate a large volume of applicants. It was to identify the small number of candidates who genuinely matched what Byrne & Byrne needed.
The partners were then presented with a short, carefully vetted shortlist of candidates who had already demonstrated the relevant skills and experience. Their job wasn't to search the international market. It was to choose between a small number of strong candidates.
Onboarding Process
Hunter Marshall managed the full sourcing and selection process so the partners were never buried under hundreds of CVs Candidates were sourced, screened and assessed against the specific requirements of each role, including relevant accounting experience, technical capability, previous employment, communication skills, systems knowledge and suitability for remote work in an Irish professional-services setting, before any were presented. The partners received a short, carefully vetted shortlist and simply chose between a small number of strong candidates.
The practice deliberately started small, with two experienced bookkeepers, both of whom had spent several years living and working in the UK before returning to India. Once appointed, the professionals were employed through Hunter Marshall's overseas operation, which handles their employment, payroll and associated employer administration, while Byrne & Byrne manages their day-to-day work. Having proven the model, the practice then scaled up in stages, moving on to recruit increasingly senior accounting positions until the team reached its current size of seven.
Starting with Two Bookkeepers
Byrne & Byrne deliberately started small. Hunter Marshall initially recruited two experienced bookkeepers for the practice. Both had previously spent several years living and working in the UK before returning to India.
That experience proved particularly valuable. They understood the professional expectations, communication styles and working culture of UK and Irish businesses, while Byrne & Byrne benefited from the economics of employing the roles remotely.
Working successfully with a remote team required some changes in how the senior accountants operated. Instructions needed to be clearer. Work allocation became more structured. Processes that could previously happen informally across an office had to become more deliberate.
Once those changes were made, the model worked extremely well.
Flexibility Without Adding Employees to the Byrne & Byrne Payroll
The professionals are employed through Hunter Marshall's overseas operation rather than directly by Byrne & Byrne.
Hunter Marshall manages their employment, payroll and associated employer administration. Byrne & Byrne contracts with Hunter Marshall for the staffing service and manages the team's day-to-day work.
This meant Byrne & Byrne could test the model without immediately adding permanent employees to its own payroll. It also provided flexibility as workloads changed.
If the practice needed additional capacity, more people could be recruited and added to the team. If requirements changed or workloads reduced, the size or composition of the team could be adjusted.
For Byrne & Byrne, there was no Irish payroll or employer PRSI associated with these remote team members and no requirement for the practice to administer their employment directly. Instead, Byrne & Byrne pays an agreed service fee to Hunter Marshall.
Results & Impact
Having proven the model with two bookkeepers, the practice began using Hunter Marshall to recruit for increasingly senior accounting positions.
Today, the practice has a seven-person remote accounting and support team working alongside its Irish operation.
From Two Bookkeepers to a Seven-Person Team
What began as a solution to a bookkeeping recruitment problem has developed into a seven-person professional accounting and support team:
- 4 x full-time Senior Accountants
- 2 x full-time Bookkeepers
- 1 x full-time Accounting Administrator
The Commercial Impact
- 4 Senior Accountants × €24,000 = €96,000 + VAT per year
- 2 Bookkeepers × €16,000 = €32,000 + VAT per year
- Combined: approximately €128,000 + VAT per year for six full-time accounting professionals, with the Accounting Administrator adding further capacity at a lower cost again.
Remote on Paper. Part of the Team in Practice
The flexibility of the arrangement did not result in a temporary workforce. Several of the professionals recruited through Hunter Marshall have now been working with Byrne & Byrne for years.
They know the practice. They understand its processes and expectations. They work with the same people and become increasingly familiar with the work and clients. Operationally, they are part of the Byrne & Byrne team.
Hunter Marshall employs the people. Byrne & Byrne manages the work.
Hunter Marshall Team To Seven People
For an accountancy practice operating in the Dublin employment market, this has enabled Byrne & Byrne to build substantial additional capacity at a significantly lower cost than building an equivalent locally based team.
The savings go beyond headline staffing costs. Hunter Marshall undertakes sourcing and screening, reducing partner time spent advertising positions, reviewing CVs and interviewing unsuitable applicants.
Hunter Marshall also manages the employment and payroll administration associated with the remote team.
The commercial benefit is therefore broader than salary savings alone: more capacity, experienced people, less recruitment burden, greater flexibility and a significantly lower cost base.
A Different Retention Dynamic
The original challenge was partly created by natural career progression; locally recruited junior accountants would develop and understandably want to move beyond bookkeeping. Because Hunter Marshall recruits for clearly defined roles and matches them to what each individual actually wants, several of the professionals have now been with Byrne & Byrne for years. The cost advantage has not come at the expense of continuity; remote on paper, they are part of the team in practice.
For a practice operating in the Dublin employment market, this has enabled Byrne & Byrne to build substantial additional capacity at a significantly lower cost than an equivalent locally based team. The benefit is broader than salary alone: Hunter Marshall's sourcing and screening reduces partner time spent advertising, reviewing CVs and interviewing unsuitable applicants, and it removes the employment and payroll administration entirely.
The people recruited through Hunter Marshall have become long-term members of the Byrne & Byrne team.
For Byrne & Byrne, remote staffing wasn't ultimately about finding cheaper people. It was about finding a better way to build the practice.
Conclusion
For Byrne & Byrne, remote staffing was never simply about finding cheaper people; it was about finding a better way to build the practice. The model broke the recurring cycle of recruiting and training people for roles they would quickly outgrow, gave the practice access to experienced international professionals, substantially reduced the cost of adding capacity, cut the partners' time spent sourcing and screening, and removed the associated payroll and employment administration.
Most importantly, the lower cost has not meant a transient workforce. The people recruited through Hunter Marshall have become long-term members of the Byrne & Byrne team; proof that experienced, remote and permanent are not mutually exclusive.
Could Your Accountancy Practice Benefit from a Remote Team?
Hunter Marshall helps Irish and UK accountancy practices recruit experienced remote accountants, bookkeepers and accounting support professionals.
We manage the sourcing, detailed screening and selection process and present you with a carefully vetted shortlist of candidates matched to the specific needs of your practice.
Once appointed, the professional works as a dedicated member of your team, while Hunter Marshall manages the underlying employment and payroll.
Typical annual costs: Experienced Bookkeeper: approximately €16,000 + VAT per year. Senior Accountant: approximately €24,000 + VAT per year.
If your accountancy practice is finding it difficult to recruit, needs additional capacity or simply wants to explore whether a remote staffing model could work for your business, get in touch with Hunter Marshall for a no-obligation consultation.
We can discuss your current staffing challenges, the roles that may be suitable for remote delivery and the potential costs and savings (with no commitment to proceed).