The file, stated plainly.
What the client company runs, what your desk is responsible for, the volumes it is sized against, and the standard delivery is measured by. Read this before the controls pages — the architecture only matters if the file is worth taking.
Who the work comes from.
The end clients are mid-market companies in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia — typically forty to four hundred employees, running Xero, QuickBooks, NetSuite or Sage, with a small internal finance team of two or three people who are drowning in transaction processing and have no time left for analysis.
They are not outsourcing judgement. They are outsourcing the preparation so their controller can review rather than key. That distinction shapes everything about how this desk is built, and it is the reason the control boundary is a selling point rather than a limitation.
Akontec holds the client contract, sets commercial terms and allocates companies to partner desks. Your company delivers the work. The client relationship, pricing and contract remain with Akontec throughout.
Allocation is by client company, not by transaction. You receive named clients with a defined ledger, chart of accounts and approval matrix, so your reviewer builds real familiarity with each set of books.
In scope, and firmly out.
| Cycle | In scope | Out of scope |
|---|---|---|
| Payables | Capture, coding, PO and GRN matching, duplicate detection, vendor query resolution, payment run prepared | Payment approval and release. Vendor bank detail changes. Spend authorisation |
| Receivables | Invoicing, cash application, aged debt analysis, dunning, dispute logging, credit note prepared | Credit limit decisions, write-off approval, legal recovery, factoring |
| Reconciliation | Bank, control account and intercompany matching, break investigation, proposed treatment | Sign-off and attestation. Journal posting without named approval |
| Expenses | Policy review, receipt and VAT validation, card matching, breach flagging, schedules prepared | Claim approval, policy setting, disciplinary action on breaches |
| Month-end | Accrual and prepayment schedules, depreciation runs, balance sheet recs, variance analysis, management pack | Close sign-off, judgemental provisions, accounting policy decisions, statutory accounts |
| Master data | Record maintenance, onboarding documentation, tax and KYC evidence collection, duplicate cleansing | Any bank detail field, in any record, at any time |
Anything not listed as in scope is out of scope until added by written change note with a rate attached. In finance the out-of-scope register is not administration — it is the boundary of your professional exposure, and it is maintained from day one.
Volume bands the desk is sized against.
Planning bases, not commitments. Actual allocation depends on client demand and on your desk's quality score.
| Monthly, per desk | Ramp | Standard | Extended |
|---|---|---|---|
| Client companies | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| AP invoices processed | 1,050 | 1,750 | 2,600 |
| AR items & cash applications | 650 | 1,100 | 1,650 |
| Reconciliation lines matched | 1,800 | 3,000 | 4,500 |
| Expense claims reviewed | 150 | 260 | 390 |
| Master data records | 26 | 45 | 68 |
| Month-end schedules | 6 | 12 | 18 |
| Indicative gross payout | ₹96,000 | ₹1,63,900 | ₹2,44,900 |
| Your income after running cost | ₹53,000 | ₹1,16,000 | ₹1,89,000 |
Bands are computed from the unit card, not set arbitrarily. The card and the worked calculation are on the statement.
What good looks like, measured.
| Measure | Threshold | Verified by |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice capture to coded | Within 1 working day of receipt | Ledger timestamp |
| Coding accuracy | 99%+ at reviewer acceptance | Weekly QC sample of 200 items |
| Duplicate detection | Zero duplicates released for payment | Payment run audit, monthly |
| Cash application | Within 1 working day of remittance | Ledger timestamp |
| Reconciliation breaks | Investigated with a treatment proposed, same cycle | Break register ageing |
| Month-end schedules | Delivered by working day 3 | Close calendar |
| Bank detail changes by an agent | Zero | Hard block in code; every attempt logged and alerted |
| Review queue clearance | Same working day | Queue ageing report |
| Composite quality score | 85+ holds your band · 90+ earns incentive | Monthly scorecard, shared in full |
The measure with no remediation path
Every threshold above can be missed and remediated except one. A duplicate invoice released for payment, or any attempt to alter a bank detail that is not immediately blocked and alerted, is a control failure rather than a service failure. It is reported to the client the same day, and repeated occurrence allows Akontec to withdraw allocation without the remediation window that applies elsewhere.
Akontec holds
- The client contract, pricing and commercial relationship
- The platform, model layer and control engineering
- Client allocation across partner desks
- The quality standard and QC sampling
- Client-facing escalation above your reviewer
Your company holds
- The desk, its data and its day-to-day operation
- Every review decision the desk prepares for a human
- Your reviewer, their finance literacy and their attestation
- Your own entity, GST and statutory position
- The income earned against delivered and verified work
Note what neither party holds: the client's own approval authority. Payment release, journal posting and reconciliation sign-off remain with the client's finance function or, where the client delegates it in writing, with a named person in your desk under a documented approval matrix. No agent is in that chain.
Read the controls next.
The engagement only holds up if the control boundary is real. That is the next page — how the desk is built, bound and tested, and why segregation of duties is a tool binding rather than a policy.