DHV Accountancy wasn’t looking to fill a gap with just anyone. As a small firm, fit and onboarding mattered as much as capability. De Wit was clear about what he wanted: “We chose someone who isn’t just strong on substance, but who also fits our culture well.”
The Solution
De Wit first heard about Gapstars Finance through a client. After concluding that finding good people locally would “remain difficult,” he had his first conversation with Gapstars in January, 2025. Interviews ran online, and within a week, the firm had five strong candidates to choose from. As de Wit explains, the professionals Gapstars puts forward aren’t junior staff working remotely. “The professionals Gapstars proposes are university graduates. They often have Big Four experience. The knowledge level is really high.” One of the proposed candidates, Rafath Zaroush fit the bill.
Before joining DHV, Rafath spent six to seven years in accounting and audit. That included time at KPMG, where staff rotate across companies and industries as a matter of course, and a stint at a UK-based BPO supporting a major insurance client, a standardised, process-driven environment. As he puts it: “The accounting itself was never really the barrier. Tracing a number, structuring a file, knowing what an auditor’s going to ask before they ask it, that travels across borders a lot easier than people assume. What took real work was the layer on top of it: the language, the VAT specifics, the exact standard a Dutch file gets held to.”
Implementation & Collaboration
DHV Accountancy invested early in getting the relationship right. In March, de Wit and a colleague flew to Colombo to onboard Rafath in person.
That was a fantastic week. Gapstars had everything perfectly arranged: our own office space with our logo on it. You feel it immediately. This isn't a call-centre environment. It's a professional workplace with well-trained people.
Brian de WitPartner, DHV Accountancy
Rafath’s first task wasn’t a client file. It was translating DHV’s general ledger, across more than 50 entities, from Dutch into English before any of the actual accounting work could begin. It doubled as the fastest way to learn the business from the inside, and a year on, he no longer needs to translate every new entity from scratch. He’s picked up enough of the recurring Dutch terminology to work directly in it.
That week also produced one of de Wit’s favourite stories. “We went to grab coffee, and when we came back, Rafath had already made a list of questions. He’d translated a whole set of Dutch invoice terms himself, invoice date, reference number, all of it. But there was one word he couldn’t crack. He said, ‘I looked it up, but I have no idea what this means: Tikkie.'”
The relationship has stayed personal since. Rafath is part of the team’s group chats, colleagues speak with him daily, and DHV sends him a birthday gift through Gapstars each year. “Those things might sound small,” de Wit says, “but they’re exactly what makes the difference.” He’s equally direct about how he frames the arrangement: “I don’t like the word outsourcing. There’s a stigma to it, as if you’re handing your work to some anonymous factory. That’s not what this is. Rafath is a full colleague, just one who happens to sit a little further away.”
Rafath’s responsibilities have expanded steadily since that first week. He now processes full administrations in Exact Online, works with structured control workflows, and is being trained toward preparing annual accounts. VAT complexity was one area that needed extra support. “We underestimated that a bit,” de Wit admits. “VAT in the Netherlands is already complicated, and for investment funds even more so. But that’s not a question of level. That’s purely local regulatory knowledge.” Language, by contrast, was never really a hurdle. A couple of months in, Rafath now applies the correct VAT rates on routine invoices independently, and only brings the more complex, fund-specific VAT treatment back to his Dutch colleagues.
Impact & Results
- A manual process eliminated by Rafath himself. A few months into the role, the team was looking for a better way to handle manually entered bank transactions. Rafath explored the accounting system, found a way to import transactions directly, and built a master Excel template to standardise the process. It’s been running for a year now and still saves the team time every month.
- Growing scope of ownership. Rafath now independently handles full client administrations across Exact Online, with structured control workflows built in.
- A path to annual account preparation. De Wit expects Rafath to take on full annual accounts next, and is confident in the outcome: “I even expect quality to go up, because he’s very strict, very precise.”
- Genuine team integration. Daily contact, shared group chats, and small cultural touches (like a birthday gift each year) have made the working relationship feel like an extension of the team, not an external resource.
- Positive client reception. DHV’s clients, many of them investment funds already familiar with international structures, responded well once the arrangement became public, including coverage in a national financial newspaper.
Looking Ahead
DHV Accountancy is already thinking about what comes next. De Wit sees Rafath eventually leading and onboarding new colleagues in Sri Lanka himself, and the firm is exploring bringing him to the Netherlands for an extended visit, something he’s genuinely excited about. “For him, that would be the crown on his work.”
That next step, full annual account preparation, is already underway. Rafath has completed training on CaseWare, the platform DHV uses to prepare annual accounts, and is already rolling forward prior-year files, pulling in statements, and checking balances independently.
De Wit doesn’t hesitate to recommend the model to other firms like his own. “If you have a firm similar to ours, I’d absolutely recommend it. The combination of digitalisation, good people in the Netherlands, and good people abroad is how you move into the future. One doesn’t rule out the other.”
FAQ
Yes. DHV Accountancy's offshore accountant processes full client administrations in Exact Online and is moving on to annual account preparation in CaseWare. Core skills like tracing numbers and structuring files transfer across borders. The work to learn is local: language, Dutch VAT rules and Dutch file standards.
Gapstars places candidates in less than 30 days. DHV Accountancy first spoke to Gapstars in January 2025 and had five strong candidates in less than a month, hiring Rafath in just eleven days.
The full finance function, from accountants and bookkeepers to financial controllers and fractional CFOs. Firms can add a single specialist or build a dedicated team. At DHV Accountancy, that meant a senior accountant with Big Four experience, now handling full client administrations and moving into annual accounts.
No. Gapstars Finance embeds dedicated professionals into your team. They work full-time for you, in your systems, to your workflows and under your direction. Gapstars carries the operational load around recruitment, HR, IT, payroll and facilities, and keeps each professional connected to the wider Gapstars community through events and team activities. As Brian de Wit puts it: "Rafath is a full colleague, just one who happens to sit a little further away."
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Discover how Alicia transitioned from an in-house team to outsourcing, achieving a seamless, high-performance remote tech team with Gapstars.with their vision.
Download the full case study now
Discover how Alicia transitioned from an in-house team to outsourcing, achieving a seamless, high-performance remote tech team with Gapstars.with their vision.