Our Values and What They Mean for You
No-one wants to work for, or do business with, people they don’t trust. And it’s impossible to trust someone you don’t know.
So when the Red Office leadership team met to identify our organisational values, the intention was clear: we want our clients and team to know this is who we are.
The bookkeeping industry has existing standards and criteria we must meet when dealing with clients, their accountants, the IRD and the industry’s professional body. But as a business, we also have our own standards that we want to live up to.
These are our values. They mean more than words on a page. Everyone on the team understands and acts on them.
Excellence: We are committed to providing exceptional service to our clients and fostering ongoing learning for our team and ourselves.
We strive to be excellent, better than great or good, and definitely not average. We’ve spent years building and growing our business to a high level and have set a benchmark.
In the past 18 years the industry has seen significant change. We don’t do things out of habit. Our value of ‘Excellence’ drives us to continually adapt and challenge the status quo. We have changed from a retrospective GST preparation and daily data entry focus to a forward-focussed accounting engine for our clients’ businesses.
Clients appreciate that we go that extra mile for them. They know they can come to us with simple problems as well as complex ones, and we can help by working out a solution. We don’t grow by merely being OK. We increase our business and our team’s skills by striving for excellence.
Teamwork: Teamwork sets us apart in the industry and drives our business processes. By prioritizing support and personal development, we ensure our team’s growth and the success of our business.
We match clients and their needs to a suitable Account Manager as their main point of contact. But there’s a whole team behind that Account Manager.
Red Office is not a place to be a back-room keyboard warrior. We like the people aspect, and we want our team to enjoy coming to work. We’re lucky to have a diverse range of ages and races on staff, and people from various employment and academic backgrounds who bring their unique experience to work.
How do we work as a team? Processes help a lot. Plus, we’ve got an array of channels we use daily in MS Teams, including ‘Xero Updates’, ‘IRD Updates’, and ‘Payroll updates’. If someone has a juicy snippet of information or has found something useful they think the wider team should know, this is where it is shared.
Many helpful tips and tricks have been passed on this way, along with the knowledge gained from using various features in Xero, app integrations, Excel formulas, navigating myiR, and more.
Ethics: We adhere to industry standards while delivering high-quality support to our clients, ensuring their businesses maintain accurate, audit-worthy accounts.
Ethics are incredibly important in our industry and for everyone representing our business. To earn the respect and trust of our clients we act in a transparent manner, hold ourselves accountable, and stay true to our word.
We want to be remembered for what we do and how we made a positive impact on our clients and their operations. Our values may not be unique, but they empower our team, promote a positive culture where staff can be engaged in their roles, and allow us to grow our business.
We commit to being our clients’ ‘gatekeepers’ for both legislative and internal process requirements. Many clients delegate financial authority to our team so we can ensure their compliance needs are met.
We’re also proactive with advice and recommendations, alerting clients with payroll issues that they are heading into grey areas and opening themselves up to possible employment problems.
As a further ethical safeguard, we maintain separation of duties within our team to ensure clear and transparent approvals levels are always in place.
Our values protect all-important relationships
Excellence. Teamwork. Ethics. These three values encapsulate the way Red Office treats staff and clients alike. We’re sharing them with you as our guarantee of openness and honest dealing.
So while it might be true that no-one wants to work with people they don’t trust, and you can’t trust someone you don’t know, you know us a little better now. And if you can recognise our values in your own, let’s work together. We’re pretty sure we’re going to get along!
