Outsourced accounting crucial to Nordlo Group's growth journey

Faster reporting, better quality and more time internally to focus on core business. That is how Jenny Åström, Group Finance Director at the newly formed IT group Nordlo Group, describes the collaboration with Accountor, which handles both accounting and payroll. They are now expanding their cooperation to encompass the entire group.

The IT company, Nordlo, was formed in 2018 through a merger of Zetup, Office IT-Partner, Dicom and the Norwegian company IT total. With a focus on consulting and local ties, the new group will become a strong Nordic challenger in cloud services, infrastructure and digitisation for both national and international organisations. Today, Nordlo has 575 employees in 34 locations in Sweden and Norway, as well as an annual turnover of 1.2 billion. Accountor came in to perform regular accounting and has come to handle larger parts of the Nordlos finances.

Took over the accounting during the growth phase

When Nordlo acquired many companies at a rapid pace, it was soon discovered that greater harmonisation of companies' accounting and faster financial reporting was necessary. From certain companies only providing annual accounts once annually, they are now reporting full financial statements every month in a short period of time – something that has set high demands on well-functioning processes.

In order to create more efficient flows, Nordlo appointed Accountor’s consultants in several companies. They were brought into some branch offices as financial managers, dealing with everything from entering, approving and paying invoices to current bookkeeping, financial statement bookings, reporting to the group, annual reports and income tax returns.

"Since Accountor’s economists took over the responsibility, we have not had to add as many extra controls. We can feel reassured with what they deliver. I have 26 companies reporting to me and if something goes wrong it can take us a long time to solve. We have really saved time here", says Jenny Åström.

Sounding board on accounting matters for the branch offices

The fact that Accountor is represented at several locations around the country and has the possibility of providing representatives to the branch offices has been significant for the employees at Nordlo.

"They have the massive security of a partner that they can juggle issues with and who can help. Because there are people at Accountor who know our business and our systems, we always have a backup. If someone gets sick or disappears, we know that someone else can jump in and deal with the ongoing management of any company in our group", says Jenny Åström who wants to pay particular tribute to the Accountor team in Karlstad.

"Everything is all sorted and in order and there are seldom errors. I am very pleased with the team!”

The security of a professional accounting firm for fast-growing companies

Accountor has been a security blanket for Nordlo during the expansion. According to Jenny Åström, it has been invaluable to be able to use them for financial organisation at a local level, as a sounding board for employees and as interim staff before recruitment for the finance functions.

“Accountor has a very good balance between being a professional office and still not as administrative-process heavy.”

Quality in financial reporting saves time

What Nordlo likes about Accountor is their great commitment, that the consultants have high competence and that they are good at communicating. The cooperation with Accountor has made financial reporting faster, gained higher quality and given Nordlos employees the opportunity to focus on essential tasks instead of correcting mistakes.

"They send emails when needed and pick up the phone when needed. They are always in good time and have good internal procedures that allow them to always report in time. It is invaluable to me!"

Develops cooperation throughout the group

When Nordlo was in need of outsourcing their payroll management, Accountor was quick to set up the process. Everything is managed through a portal, where they can upload contracts and download accounting documents. For Nordlo’s part it has minimised the risk of mistakes and created a safe and good solution – because Accountor stays updated on current regulations and legislation. In the future, Nordlo will be expanding its cooperation with Accountor.

"I have recently signed a new framework agreement for all our companies. We will be using Accountor’s services for the entire group – those companies that need help with end of year accounts, annual accounts, cash flows and so on should turn to Accountor, instead of everyone going to different consultants."