Baltic Assist

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CFO and head of operations of SONECT, a fintech specializing in the area of cash technology. We facilitate cash withdrawals for users from retailers. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Baltic Assist?

Baltic Assist is doing full-scope accounting for one of our subsidiaries in Lithuania. Our subsidiary has an e-money license to provide services across Europe.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Baltic Assist is handling the company’s accounting, controlling, and reporting. They’re helping us with everything related to accounting and taxes for governmental bodies.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with an accountant and an assistant accountant.

How did you come to work with Baltic Assist?

I wasn’t part of the recruiting process but I believe that the head of our subsidiary was looking out for offshore accounting services.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about €1,000–€1,500 (approximately $1,100–$1,700 USD) per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Baltic Assist around January 2019 and our collaboration is still ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’re quite happy with them and we plan on going forward with Baltic Assist. They’ve provided great services so far and they’re willing to expand their involvement over the next few months. We don’t have any metrics, but I’d definitely give them an 8/10.

How did Baltic Assist perform from a project management standpoint?

To my understanding, there’s no project management as such. It’s purely the execution of accounting and legal tasks in an offshore model. Overall, we have no issues with Baltic Assist's timing and delivery.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re open-minded and willing to deliver in a timely manner. If Baltic Assist can’t meet a timeline, they’ll explain the issue to us and ask for an extension in advance. They’ve never missed a deadline. It’s been a great partnership so far.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The main accountant is my contact for support and others just work internally.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I’d refer Baltic Assist to any friends or colleagues in Europe that are looking for accounting services.

Please describe your company and your position there.

MATE Bike International is a start up E bike company based out of Copenhagen. Being a start up there were no resources to properly manage the daily operational tasks across departments.

Once the product established significant reach internationally, it was apparent that proper structure were required to service the thousands of customers across the globe. I am the Head of the Customer Service department and as such was hired to implement such structure and establish standards of operations.

For what projects/services did your company hire Baltic Assist?

MATE initially hired BA (Baltic Assist) for book keeping. The initial contract entailed BA managing the accounts. As MATE grew, the accounting contract grew to included a customer service resources. Both teams operated out of Lithuania and remained as such for the entire contract.

What were your goals for this project?

The account/book keeping side of the contract (With BA) was to have them manage the finance department and make sure the accounts were balanced and the bills were paid.

The customer service side of the contract (With BA) was to make sure that all customers were responded to in a timely manner and for MATE to gain reputable service recognition. BA was hired to have a team answer live calls and emails in regards to customer inquiries about the e bike.

These inquiries ranged from general logistical issues, to technical diagnostics of the electrical components of the bike to duty/VAT payments for the shipment of the product to pass through various countries.

How did you select this vendor?

The contracting of BA was already in play when I was hired. I am unable therefore to comment on the process of how it came to be.

Describe the project in detail.

The account/book keeping side of the contract (With BA) was to have them manage the finance department and make sure the accounts were balanced and the bills were paid.

The customer service side of the contract (With BA) was to have a team answer live calls and emails in regards to customer inquiries about the e bike. These inquiries ranged from general logistical issues, to technical diagnostics of the electrical components of the bike to duty/VAT payments for the shipment of the product to pass through various countries.

What was the team composition?

The accounting team consisted of a team lead, who then delegated and managed a team of 4 to 5 others who actioned financial transactions on behalf of MATE.

The customer service team consisted of 4 champions, each in charge of their own teams ; Logistics, Tech, WebShop & Shipping payments(duty/VAT). Each champion were experts in their own fields and managed fluctuating (depending on MATE requirement) a few individuals in each team.

The 4 champions then reported to me, MATE's Head of Customer Service in Copenhagen.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

As I am the Head of Customer Service I will not be able to comment on the accounting aspect of the agreement with BA, except to say that they always conducted themselves with the utmost professional conduct and executed tasks (having acquired approval from HQ in Copenhagen) in a timely manner.

As for the customer service aspect, the 4 champions , Monika (Webshop) , Ugne (Tech), Gabriele (Logistics) and Marija (Shipping payments/FIN.) have managed and executed tasks set to them with speed and accuracy. They required little (if at all) monitoring and demonstrated efficiency and were always prompt when delivering on tasks.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Smooth and productive, as with all teams, I believe if everyone respects and understands the qualities and capabilities of each other, the team prospers.

Which is what happened here. As a leader it was my job to provide support and guidance to ensure the team had whatever resources and information they needed to perform their tasks to the best of their abilities.

As team members, they were prompt and cooperative in communicating such needs to ensure the achievements of their KPIs. It ran like a well oiled machine.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The individuals hired are conducive to the roles they are to fill. Each individual has their respective strengths and are assigned to projects accordingly.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Hire more international candidates for roles in international companies. Expand to include services to Asia and the United States.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of Palliance. We develop and sell medical home care products to pharmacies, distributors, hospitals, and clinics in the Nordic region.

What challenge were you trying to address with Baltic Assist?

We wanted a scalable back-office operation and to ensure sufficient service in our shipping process and our order and logistics process. We engaged Baltic Assist to provide that support.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Baltic Assist provides low- and mid-level financial accounting and supply chain support. The team registers ledgers and vouchers, handles invoices, and does financial reporting services. They also provide customer support to our logistics branch. Baltic Assist receives and confirms orders from customers, communicates with our warehouses, orders products from our suppliers, informs customers of arrival dates, and sends invoices.

What is the team composition?

We work with an operations manager who serves as our intermediate point of contact. We’ve worked with two junior- to senior-level accountants, a senior managerial accountant, and a virtual assistant who handles customer service and logistics. Our retainer contract comprises a different set of team members.

How did you come to work with Baltic Assist?

I found them online and reached out to their managing director. Our initial conversation impressed me, so we accepted their quote and oversaw a test period with their team. We then contracted them for this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together two years ago, and the partnership is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Baltic Assist helps reduce the level of detail and number of transactions I need to involve myself in, which is extremely helpful. We’re thrilled with their work so far, especially for accounting and financial reporting. They’ve run into some challenges with order logistics on occasion, but that’s a complicated process to learn, and they’re always willing to address their mistakes. We’re increasing their involvement and giving their team more responsibility in our day-to-day functions.

How did Baltic Assist perform from a project management standpoint?

The team is open to feedback and willing to understand and solve challenges. They excel at communication and keeping deadlines. We use Slack for daily communication, Asana for task management, HubSpot for time reporting, and Skype or Appear.in for online meetings. Once a year, we meet face-to-face.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They provide high-quality service and always try to solve problems as they come up.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve mentioned this to them on several occasions, but I would like them to take the initiative more often in their role. That way, I wouldn’t have to manage every task and follow up as often. As it is, things sometimes fall between the cracks. However, this is not an unusual issue, and we’re otherwise happy with our collaboration.

Any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that your communication is open, consistent, and clear.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Orderyoyo does software development for takeaway restaurants. Our software packages include an app and a website, which they can use to collect customer orders online. There is also a marketing package that focuses on search engine ranking, customer engagement, social media, and so on. I’m the finance manager.

What challenge were you trying to address with Baltic Assist?

Three years ago, our company was a startup in the seed funding stage. At the time, we had an external accountant doing all our financial reporting, but she wasn’t a good job. We had to find a replacement.

We later expanded this to include outsourcing our customer onboarding to them. It had previously been done by a different outsourcer, but, again, the quality wasn’t good.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They do all our book-keeping, VAT reporting, monthly financial reporting for the board, and an audit preparation once a year.

We also outsource some of our customer onboarding to them. Each of our customers’ menu needs to be imported into their website and app. That involves data-entry and transferring all the contents to digital, including the logo. There’s QA to make sure that all the prices and menu options are correct. We have standard templates that can be customized for each restaurant.

For a short period of time, they also provided customer support. We had a remote manager working alongside their resources, but we decided to bring this service fully in-house.

What is the team composition?

In accounting, we have four part-time people and for the onboarding, it’s 15. Of these, 7–8 were added in October 2018. For the onboarding team, there’s a team leader who has experience with leading a team.

Baltic Assist can scale up quickly, in terms of the full-time equivalents (FTEs) they can provide, which we really appreciate.

How did you come to work with Baltic Assist?

I researched accounting companies in Denmark and abroad. Baltic Assist seemed to have the best quality/price ratio. We got some very good reviews from the customers they already had. That meant that even though I didn’t know them personally, I was comfortable with proceeding.

Since then, I’ve found that they have very good pricing, compared to Denmark, and the quality is also really good.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Baltic Assist in the summer of 2016 and the relationship is ongoing for accounting and onboarding.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

On the accounting side, their work has increased the speed and accuracy of our monthly reports to the board. That’s created confidence with the finance department. Since we’ve been using their services for several years and across several fund rounds, Baltic Assist has definitely positively impacted our company.

On the onboarding side, the quality of the menus and the fact that there are limited mistakes in their work contributes to us gaining a competitive edge over other companies that do the same thing. In moving from our old outsourcer to Baltic Assist, the quality has dramatically improved.

How did Baltic Assist perform from a project management standpoint?

The performance of the accounting team is excellent. We work based off of a checklist every month. I send them tasks, and they always deliver on time.

They’re very responsive. We use Slack for communication, even during weekends and sometimes after office hours. They promise 24/7 availability for accountants on their website. If we write to them at midnight near a deadline, they will respond. I’m very happy about that.

The menu part isn’t my responsibility, but my department manager is very happy. The KPIs defined for that department are mostly met. As we’ve grown, we’ve found it a challenge to recruit new people who are right for the job. That’s another benefit of working with Baltic Assist.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their work ethics are impressive. They’re committed to what they do for us, despite being an outsourcing company. We feel that they’re part of our organization and we have a good relationship with them.

They’re smart, and they’re able to attract talent. In terms of accounting, I’m working with two people in particular, who are very good accountants and book-keepers. It’s impressive that Baltic Assist can recruit talent so fast and so effectively.

Are there any areas they could improve?

After some rotation in 2017, the accounting teams are now stable, which is good. Even when there was a rotation, the replacements were done on time. It was only the fact that we had to do the training all over again that was a bit annoying.

On the customer support side, the discontinuation was only due to the manager’s preference. However, he wasn’t happy about the communication, with regards to a termination. There was also some rotation there that he wasn’t notified about immediately.

It seems the communication about these things at a senior level could be improved. Baltic Assist’s agents or virtual assistants are very responsive, but, when it comes to more senior resources that implement big changes, there could be better responsiveness.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Heavy lifting services company, compliance position

For what projects/services did your company hire Baltic Assist?

Help with design and distribution of internal mailing

What were your goals for this project?

Create nice and user-friendly design

How did you select Baltic Assist?

Long-term relationships

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Prepare the graphic and text outlay of communication materials, distribution

What was the team composition?

Edvinas Saviciunas

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

They prepared a nice layout of materials, which received positive feedback from users.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Easy to communicate, fast and well-organized

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Good and flexible approach, creative thinking

Are there any areas for improvement?

Everything is good