Swish is less vulnerable and person-dependent with Accountor
Since its launch in 2012, Swish has gone from being a popular movement to becoming a vital part of Sweden's infrastructure, with more than seven million connected mobile numbers and over 200,000 company numbers. For a fintech company like Swish, no one day is like another and change is a part of everyday life. They are a tight team that has a strong focus on developing their services and the one type of change that becomes trickier to manage is staff changes. Here we get to take part in the Swish story and how they got help with their financial functions from Accountor.
The work to develop Swish started as a collaboration between six of Sweden's largest banks. Swish is jointly owned by Danske Bank, Handelsbanken, Länsförsäkringar, Nordea, SEB as well as Swedbank and the Sparbanks. Today, several more banks have joined Swish. Each bank is responsible for designing the offers, terms and any fees for the service to its customers.
”Getswish is the small company with the big brand” says Natalja Schneider, CFO of Getswish AB.
Fending off staff changes - difficult for smaller companies
When Getswish AB was started and had its first employees, the company got help with both accounting and payroll from an industry colleague, Bankomat AB. Bankomat AB already had an agreement with Accountor for payroll services. This agreement also came to include Getswish.
2 years later, when Getswish was faced with the need to review its financial function in connection with changes to personnel, it was chosen to outsource the entire function to Accountor.
"It is difficult to deal with, for example, dismissal, vacation or illness when a key person disappears temporarily or permanently. It is especially difficult for smaller companies such as ourselves, where each role often appears to have a specific area of responsibility", says Natalja Schneider. "It is not possible for us to find space for a separate finance department and to have only one person who manages the financial administration makes us vulnerable. We don't want to be that dependant on one person."
Outsourcing to Accountor has released a lot of time for Getswish. They have not had to go through the recruitment process, which both takes time and money. They do not need to coach or supervise anyone, as the consultants at Accountor are self-motivated and have extensive knowledge and experience.
"We have a close collaboration with a team at Accountor, which has all the competence and expertise we need."
Communication and a well-built foundation are the success factors for good cooperation
"The success is based on building a good foundation together", explains Natalja Schneider. Thanks to good joint planning, Getswish and Accountor could achieve a smooth handover and implementation. The companies worked together, in parallel, for 2 weeks and it helped to ensure that there were no ambiguities when Accountor took over the financial administration.
"It is a reassuring to know that the job will be done on time, that it will be correct and unaffected by holidays, illnesses or the like", emphasizes Natalja Schneider.
"We have open and direct, two-way communication that makes the process effective in every way. We have regular reconciliations and if anything is unclear, Accountor will get in touch and ask instead of guessing. It reduces the risk of errors and ultimately it saves a lot of time."
With the help of Accountor’s fast and efficient service combined with their extensive expertise, Getswish has been able to streamline the financial function both in terms of time and costs. Accountor does not just deliver according to the contract but also works proactively to develop the processes. They are not afraid to deviate from procedures it if means finding better solutions for Getswish, something that Getswish appreciates.
Read more about Swish on https://www.swish.nu/.
