Stage Front Tickets is a US-based ticketing and technology company serving the live entertainment industry â ticket distribution, dynamic pricing, box office systems and stadium access. The business is complex and the accounting volume that comes with it is heavy. The finance function that carries it is deliberately lean. Stage Front works with SMEtek’s offshore accounting team to remove the busy work and add genuine capacity. Here is how that maths works.
Peter Koscielski runs accounting and finance at Stage Front. The accounting side has staff under him. The finance side is Peter and a fractional CFO. That is the whole function.
The business it supports is not simple. Ticket distribution, dynamic pricing, box office systems and stadium access mean high transaction volume. It brings tight monthly, quarterly and annual close cycles, with genuine structural complexity behind every number.
Peter’s agenda since taking the role has been straightforward: faster and more accurate, at volume. The question every finance leader in that position faces is how to get senior accounting capacity at that scale without building a senior onshore team to match. For Stage Front, that answer is SMEtek’s outsourced accounting solutions.
Peter took ownership of the SMEtek relationship and set his standards early. He is exacting about method, and the team adapted to it quickly.
“The first couple of months, it was: Pete wants it differently. Pete wants it differently. Pete likes this. Kind of creating that new normal for the crew.”
Peter now works day-to-day with Muhammad, his single point of contact, who manages the wider team of 4.5 FTEs across accounts payable, reconciliations, treasury reporting, depreciation and amortisation entries, payment application and cash flow support.
“I know who’s available, and I know it’s going to get done if I assign it by a date. And if it doesn’t, I know it’s not going to, because they’ve communicated it.”
The SMEtek team delivered its assignment list accurately and on time from the outset. Peter wanted more than delivery. His experience of offshore teams is that they execute precisely and rarely challenge the brief, and he pushed Muhammad’s team to do both â to flag inefficiencies and contribute to how the work gets designed, not just complete it.
“I’ve been challenging Muhammad with taking some risks, and he has embraced it. The whole team is taking those leaps to try to make things better.”
The team now works actively toward greater efficiency across the function, including where that reduces its own workload. That shift, from executing tasks to shaping how they are done, is what changed the value of the relationship.
Stage Front pays around $190,000 to $200,000 a year for 4.5 FTEs through SMEtek. This is not a junior bench. Muhammad brings senior-level experience and most of his team are not junior accountants either. Peter is direct about what the equivalent hire would cost in the US.
“If you paid for four and a half FTEs that were senior staff accountants in America, we’d be talking $400,000 to $500,000 potentially.”
And that comparison is before benefits and the overhead of hiring.
“You don’t have to pay benefits. You don’t have to pay double the salary. That is a huge â probably the main reason companies use outsourced accounting services â the total headcount cost.”
Peter works day-to-day with Muhammad. Rashmi sits above that as senior lead. The authorisation matrix is clear, Peter rarely needs to go above Muhammad, and when he does the message lands.
“If Muhammad’s out and I give Rashmi a message, it’s going down and hitting where it needs to go. I never feel like it’s lost in translation.”
He compares it to asking for something at a restaurant that never arrives at the table. With SMEtek, it always does. Just as importantly, the structure means Peter manages one relationship rather than eight.
“I’m really glad Muhammad’s my point of contact. I’m really glad I don’t need to manage seven to eight people.”
Peter’s view is that offshore teams want to be treated as part of the business, and the SMEtek crew has met that halfway.
“I don’t think they want to feel like they’re just a sticker on the board. They’re more like part of the actual operations, and they talk to people and they work with people, and it’s collaborative.”
Peter expenses team dinners for the SMEtek crew and asks them to send photos. When he noticed one of the team was missing from a dinner, Muhammad thanked him for noticing â the colleague had just had a baby.
“Just having that microculture is humongous, and they’ve embraced that.”
It is a working culture he rates highly on its own terms.
“Working with the India offshore crews is one of my favourite zones accounting-wise to work with. There’s a lot of really good effort and work ethic built within the culture.”
Peter’s advice to other businesses is precise, and it is really a statement about fit. SMEtek is built for standardised, high-volume work that needs to be run well. A business still deciding what its processes should be will get less from any accounting outsourcing partner. A business that knows what needs doing gets a senior crew that picks it up and runs.
“If you have work that is ready to be organised and pushed through, it’s great. They can pick it up and run with it pretty quickly.”
For organisations at that stage, the value is clear: volume covered accurately, a clean line of accountability, and a senior offshore accountant team at roughly half what the same bench costs onshore.
Ready to remove the busy work and add capacity to your finance function?
