Frequently Asked Questions

We help European accounting firms add capacity by placing qualified IFRS-trained CPA accountants from Kenya as long-term members of your team. They work inside your organization, under your direction, as a natural extension of your firm.

Every FairChain accountant comes with built-in support:

• a Business Unit Manager in Kenya for daily workplace supervision, coaching and quality support
• a dedicated Account Manager in the Netherlands for onboarding, regular check-ins and a local point of contact

You keep full ownership of client work, review and final sign-off. We take care of employment, supervision and continuity, so you are never managing an offshore team on your own.

Think of it as hiring a team member, with managed support behind them.

With outsourcing you hand over a task and wait for a deliverable. With a recruitment agency the relationship ends the moment a candidate is placed. FairChain sits in between, and goes further than both: you get a dedicated professional who becomes part of your daily workflow, and our involvement continues for as long as they are with you.

That ongoing support is the difference:

• daily workplace supervision in Kenya
• a local account manager in the Netherlands
• coaching, quality monitoring and continuity planning throughout the engagement

The result is the reliability of an employee with the flexibility of a managed model.

Our accountants are CPA-qualified and support the full range of bookkeeping, reporting and year-end work. Depending on their seniority, they can handle:

• IFRS financial statements
• general ledger accounting and reconciliations
• month-end and year-end close
• management reporting and consolidation support
• audit preparation and working papers

They work across many industries through your client portfolio, from professional services and manufacturing to retail, NGOs and international groups. Your firm sets priorities and handles final review and sign-off; we make sure the work behind it is solid.

We work exclusively with accountants who have a strong formal foundation. Most:

• hold a bachelor's degree in accounting or finance from an accredited institution
• are CPA qualified, or in the final stages of certification
• were educated in an IFRS-based framework, since IFRS is the national reporting standard in Kenya

On top of their qualifications, every accountant receives ongoing training through FairChain to align with European accounting practices, quality standards and your firm's specific tools and workflows. That combination is what lets them contribute as long-term team members from early on.

Both. IFRS is their foundation, and it is a strong one for Dutch work: Dutch GAAP, the Richtlijnen voor de Jaarverslaggeving under Title 9 of Book 2 of the Civil Code, is built on the same principles as IFRS, so the core of the work carries over directly.

We bridge the Dutch specifics in two ways:

• through the FairChain Academy, where accountants are trained on the Dutch reporting context and your firm's way of working
• through Dutch Register Accountants (RA) who provide technical guidance on the Dutch side

Your firm sets the standard, reviews the work and signs off, so you get an accountant who is well equipped technically and tuned to the Dutch context.

Yes. Tax compliance work, including VAT, income tax and corporate tax returns, is well within what they can take on, and the FairChain Academy covers the Dutch specifics.

As with all the work, your firm directs what gets done and how, applies its professional judgment, and reviews and files the result. The accountant does the preparation inside your systems; your firm stays responsible for the content.

The FairChain Academy is our own training programme, and it is the bridge between a Kenyan CPA's IFRS foundation and working inside a Dutch firm. It is a big part of why our accountants integrate as long-term team members rather than generic remote staff.

The programme covers:

• the Dutch reporting context, including Dutch GAAP (the RJ guidelines) alongside their IFRS base
• Dutch tax specifics and compliance work
• European quality, documentation and professional-ethics standards
• your firm's specific software, workflows and way of working

The curriculum is shaped together with Dutch Register Accountants (RA), so it reflects current Dutch practice. Training runs intensively through the first three months and continues as ongoing development, so your accountant keeps growing with your firm.

Kenya offers a rare combination of factors that make it well suited to long-term collaboration with European firms:

• IFRS is the national reporting framework, so it is built into university education, CPA certification and professional training
• a deep and growing talent pool, with more than 40,000 qualified CPA accountants
• high English proficiency, as English is the language of education, business and professional examinations
• strong cultural alignment with European business practices and professional ethics
• a time zone (EAT, UTC+3) with substantial overlap with European working hours

Together these make it possible to build stable, capable teams that integrate naturally into European organizations.

Quality is supported on several levels, so nothing rests on one person alone.

In Kenya, your Business Unit Manager oversees a group of CPA accountants and handles performance monitoring, attendance, coaching, training and a first technical review of the work.

In the Netherlands, your Account Manager supports onboarding, joins regular check-ins (weekly at first, then monthly and quarterly) and steps in for any escalation.

On the Dutch professional side, a Register Accountant (RA) provides technical guidance, so the work reflects Dutch standards and your accountant has an experienced sounding board beyond the day-to-day supervision.

Your firm directs the work, reviews it and provides final sign-off. These support layers exist to make that easier and to give you a dependable local contact, something most offshore models simply do not offer.

Yes, and the process is built to save you time. Rather than sending a stack of CVs to sift through, we work from a pre-vetted pool of IFRS-trained accountants who are already tested, trained and ready to join.

It works like this:

• we start by aligning on the role, your expectations and your working context
• we select one carefully matched candidate from our talent pool
• you meet them to confirm both technical and cultural fit
• if the match is not quite right, we propose an alternative

Because every candidate has already been assessed and trained, you get the confidence of a careful choice with the speed of someone who is ready to start.

A carefully matched candidate is typically ready to start within about 2 weeks. From there, the first 3 months are an intensive support and integration period, so your new team member settles into your systems and workflow quickly and starts contributing with confidence.

During those first months we combine structured training through the FairChain Academy with close guidance from both your Business Unit Manager in Kenya and your Dutch Account Manager. The result is a start that is well supported on both sides and a smooth handover into your workflow.

Any package works, because your accountant works directly in your firm's own systems and IT environment. There is nothing for you to change about your existing setup.

Our accountants are experienced across a wide range of accounting and reporting platforms and adapt quickly to yours. Systems we regularly work with include Odoo, Exact Online, Yuki, CaseWare, Adv+ and SnelStart, alongside Excel, reporting tools and cloud-based platforms.

During onboarding we set up access within your environment, align permissions and workflows, and your two support contacts make sure the integration is seamless.

All FairChain accountants work professionally in English. English is an official language in Kenya and the language of education, professional training and accounting examinations, so communication is fluent from day one.

We work with transparent, all-inclusive hourly rates based on the accountant's experience level and the number of hours per week:

The rate covers far more than the individual: salary and employment costs, ongoing training, workplace supervision by your Business Unit Manager in Kenya, support from your Dutch Account Manager, and all infrastructure and operational support. One rate, everything included. In practice this typically runs around 30 to 50% below the cost of hiring the same capacity locally.

Yes, you can scale, and the model is designed around long-term team building rather than short-term staffing. Our accountants are meant to function as an extension of your firm, comparable to hiring an additional employee with managed support behind them.

• scaling up is straightforward, including during peak seasons, by adding accountants in a structured way
• adjusting capacity downward is possible with notice
• continuity, knowledge retention and team integration are always the starting point

Because of this, we work with a minimum weekly commitment. Your Dutch Account Manager helps plan capacity and timing so expectations are aligned from the start, and your Business Unit Manager in Kenya ensures smooth transitions. This stability is a key advantage over traditional outsourcing.

Yes, and we keep the start low-risk on purpose. Every engagement begins with a free first month, a guided onboarding period in which you see the quality of the work before committing to anything longer.

After that, the engagement is cancellable per calendar month. Notice runs to the end of the following month, so if you give notice in mid-August, the engagement ends at the end of September. There is no long-term lock-in.

The model is still built around long-term team building, so this flexibility sits alongside a minimum weekly commitment rather than ad-hoc, short-term staffing.

Continuity is actively managed, with clear agreements so capacity stays predictable.

Each accountant has a defined number of annual leave days, planned in advance and coordinated with you. Dedicated training days are scheduled and communicated ahead of time to keep professional quality high.

If someone falls ill, your Business Unit Manager in Kenya monitors short-term absence. If illness continues beyond five consecutive working days, we arrange a replacement or continuity solution in consultation with you. Throughout, your Dutch Account Manager keeps you informed and supports planning and coordination.

You are supported the whole way. If something is not working, your Business Unit Manager addresses it locally with coaching and a clear improvement plan, and your Dutch Account Manager supports any escalation. If needed, we arrange a replacement. The shared goal is always a strong, lasting fit with your team.

Security and confidentiality are built into the model contractually, technically and operationally.

Every accountant signs an employment contract with GDPR obligations and strict confidentiality clauses, and matching data protection agreements sit in our client contracts. They work from secure office environments and exclusively within your systems, using role-based access and client-approved permissions.

On compliance with European standards, IFRS is embedded throughout Kenyan accounting education and CPA training, so your accountants arrive already fluent in the framework. We add training and technical review on top, while your firm keeps responsibility for authorization, access rights and final oversight.

It is a fair question, and one most firms raise early. Kenya is a third country under the GDPR, so we have built the model specifically to keep your data protected and your firm in control.

The starting point is simple: your client data stays in your own systems. We do not copy it to Kenya or store it there. Your accountant works inside your EU environment through secure, role-based access that you grant, monitor and can revoke at any time.

Around that, the collaboration is covered end to end:

• a data processing agreement (verwerkersovereenkomst) is in place, under which your firm remains the data controller and FairChain acts as processor
• every accountant signs an employment contract with GDPR-aligned confidentiality and data protection obligations
• Kenya has had a comprehensive Data Protection Act since 2019, closely modelled on the GDPR and overseen by its own Data Protection Commissioner
• Kenya and the EU are in an active adequacy dialogue, with Kenya on course to become the first African country to receive an EU adequacy decision

In short: your data stays where it is, access is controlled by you, and the legal basis for the collaboration is documented from the start. That is exactly the clarity your clients and your own compliance team will want to see.

Yes. The accountant stays employed by FairChain and works remotely as an integrated member of your team. FairChain supplies managed team members, not accounting services, so your firm keeps client acceptance, supervision, review and final sign-off.

This is a well-established way for firms to add capacity, and the support around it, your Business Unit Manager in Kenya and your Dutch Account Manager, keeps it structured and compliant from the start.

Employees. Every accountant is employed by FairChain on a long-term contract that includes confidentiality and GDPR obligations and defined working hours.

That is a deliberate difference from freelance platforms and ad-hoc arrangements: it is what makes the stability, accountability and long-term commitment possible, backed by workplace supervision in Kenya and your Account Manager in the Netherlands.

Fair jobs, built to last. That principle is the reason FairChain exists, and it is also why the model stays stable for your firm.

• accountants earn at least what the Big Four pay locally, combined with a Dutch-style work-life balance
• they are employed on long-term contracts with real career development, not placed and forgotten
• the impact is structural, not charity: stable, well-paid work that builds local capacity

For your firm this is not a side note. Well-treated people stay, and that continuity is what sits behind our strong twelve-month retention. FairChain is part of the wider FairChain group, known from Moyee Coffee, which has been building fair supply chains in Africa for years.

A simple way to picture the partnership: we provide the people and the support around them, your firm provides the professional judgment.

FairChain employs the accountants and supplies managed team members rather than accounting services, which means your firm always holds professional judgment, client acceptance, review and final sign-off. This clear division is what keeps the model compliant and easy to work with, and it lets you add capacity with full confidence.