Frequently Asked Questions
General FAQ
- A professionally qualified team with a proven track record since 2006.
- One-stop solution provider offering end-to-end services with an emphasis on payroll processing right up to full-fledged finance including treasury, costing and advisory/consultation.
- Strong technical fundamentals tied to integrity and honesty.
- Affordable expertise at your fingertip.
- Headquartered in Penang. Penang is one of the new emerging IT-BPO (Information Technology – Business Processing Outsourcing) destinations that lets companies diversify their global operations and lower business costs.
- Understands the Malaysian SME (Small & Medium Enterprises) business growth needs.
You can outsource your payroll, HR administration, finance and accounting needs to us while minimising your costs for these responsibilities.
Some of our clients enjoy 25% or more of direct savings while others appreciate the ability to redeploy their time and people to other higher revenue areas.
As an SME ourselves, we have a lean organisational structure which means you get direct access to our management team. This is in contrast to large outsourcing service providers where you may not even get to speak to someone who can help you with your problem. As we’re an SME, we have made work delivery and quality the benchmarks of our team. Our team understands resource planning and is dedicated to meeting your deadlines.
We start by hiring people who are professionals and we have extremely stringent employee screening. Apart from that, all our employees must sign NDAs on a yearly basis. We let them know the legal recourse and disciplinary action if there are violations.
Clients’ data are highly restricted on a need-to-know or need-to-access basis. For example, Finance team members do not have access to Payroll data and vice versa. Employees only access and process data within their client portfolio.
Additionally, we have put in place IT infrastructure such as firewall and network intrusion prevention to prevent risks of external compromise. We work closely with clients on IT security priorities, and we participate in IT security audit conducted by clients.
You’ll work with Synergy 101 team members who are matched with your needs. Our team consists of experienced executives to senior level accountants with deep industry experience. They’re professionally accreditated members of The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), U.K, The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), U.K, and Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA).
Our fees for outsourced work is based on 2 models. Fees can be based on time spent by our team or fees can be based on fixed monthly retainer amount, plus a volume-based fee. All fees are inclusive of fully loaded employee costs and overhead costs such as IT infrastructure and software licenses.
We will need to determine how ready you are at your end. On our side, we will look at the team that is available. But fear not as every client is important to us and we will do our best to help you with your needs as fast as we can.
Please contact us. Once we get your email, we will give you a call within 24 hours to discuss your needs.
Outsourcing FAQ
Read this article on the benefits of outsourcing.
We communicate regularly and openly with you on business matters via our monthly reports and review meetings. Our typical outsourcing service agreement is for a year, you can easily let us know your comments and feedback on service level and service engagement anytime.
We won’t be sending people to your office. That said, you will enjoy the full benefits of getting expert help.
Your financial controller and accountant may lack the skill sets needed to meet your business growth. They may not be fully committed to your business objectives but at the same time, you aren’t too sure about replacing and re-training another in-house accountant. In other cases, you may hire us from the day you feel you need a better-structured finance department.
Remember, outsourcing is a sustainable solution as it eliminates the costs of re-hiring and re-training. Through outsourcing, you enjoy the benefits of freeing up your current employees and their time and putting them in areas or departments where their expertise is even more valued.
Outsourcing is about getting trusted external help and expertise when you need it most without digging into your own resources. You will never lose control because you will always be the final decision-maker.
We work as your trusted advisor and we offer our best skills and expertise through face-to-face meetings (via monthly finance reviews) and KPI updates (via weekly or monthly reports). We are just a phone call away and you can reach us anytime you have questions. While we assist you in making decisions, the ultimate decision still rests with you and your Board of Directors so you will always be in control.
The best type of outsourcing contract or engagement is one built with high trust. Outsourcing may fail sometimes based on these reasons:
- Processes and ownership rights aren’t clarified properly and are misunderstood by the client. This happens when clients expect the outsourcing service provider to offer services outside the originally agreed scope of work or expect special treatment.
- Old habits die hard. Often, an outsourcing service provider is engaged as a “change agent”. However, clients maintain old ways of doing things, especially in non-compliant manners. We carry out our services fully compliant to regulatory and statutory requirements and expect you to deliver the same.
- Your retained team lacks needed skills and commitment or resent that you’ve outsourced the work to us. It is difficult to work if we don’t have the trust and commitment from your staff.
Absolutely possible! We understand that sometimes you may decide to bring the function back in-house based on certain circumstances. The transition will be a smooth one in the rare event that you decide to bring the function in-house.
Some time ago, we experienced this when a client was acquired by another company. The new parent company wanted to adopt an in-house strategy and we helped them transition their finance and payroll functions internally. What’s interesting is that due to our excellent track record and service levels, the client is still with us as we are helping with some non-core services.
We’re pleased that we’ve seen our clients grow over the years and we’ve partnered successfully with them throughout their growth cycles. Many of our clients are those who have been with us since the day they established their businesses. We’ve been partnering with them and seen them through their start-up, growth and maturity phases. We’ve successfully managed their life cycle milestones such as acquisitions, mergers and joint-ventures, and continue to deliver our services seamlessly even after the acquisitions or joint ventures.
One reason for outsourcing is to reduce software costs. To fully enjoy the benefits of outsourcing, you’d be asked to migrate your data to our software platforms. This way, you don’t need to maintain core applications at your business site other than support applications (such as time and attendance system). Our applications can integrate and process data received from your support applications.
You’ll enjoy our industry standard, multiple software platforms which are capable of supporting your demanding requirements, and across a multiple industry spectra. Your data is protected by our quality IT infrastructure (firewall, backup software) and we have specific disaster recovery procedures in place.
When you partner with us, know that we continuously assess and invest in the most up-to-date technologies such as cloud and virtualization to keep your data safe and secure.