From the corner office to building something of our own

People often ask us how werk:out came to be. The honest answer is that it did not follow a straight line. It followed three decades of curiosity, a few leaps of faith, and one very memorable conversation in a corridor.
This is our story. And it is also the story of why we believe outsourcing, done the right way, genuinely changes businesses for the better.

Eric's Story: From audit to offshoring, the long way around

My professional career started over 35 years ago with a hint of aspiration as a young graduate at Ernst & Young. I had no grand plan. I had ambition, a reasonable amount of nerve, and a willingness to put my hand up for things before I felt ready.

From my initial role in Audit, one opportunity led to the next. The turning point came when I spotted the then-CEO of Serco in a corridor and stopped him to make the case for why I should be posted to the UK office. Oh to be young and to be bold. He said yes. That trip took me to the United Kingdom and Europe as a Financial Analyst, and later to the United Arab Emirates as Regional Controller. Those years did not just sharpen my technical skills. They completely rewired how I saw the world. You cannot immerse yourself in that many business cultures and walk away unchanged.

Back in Australia, I joined Citrix as Regional CFO when it opened its first APAC office, and then moved to Wolters Kluwer (CCH), where I was part of a team leading the digital transformation of the tax and accounting division alongside strategic acquisitions. Each chapter added something. Finance strategy. Global operations. Technology. The ability to walk into a boardroom in a country I had never been to and understand what the business actually needed.

By 2014, I had enough. Enough experience, enough conviction, and enough restlessness to go out on my own.

The first venture: YourBookkeepersOnline

Small businesses and accounting firms were only just beginning to hear about business process outsourcing as a real option for them. The technology was ready. The talent was there. But someone needed to bring it together in a way that actually worked for smaller operators who could not afford the big end of town.

So Dudy and I built YourBookkeepersOnline (YBO) in 2014. Dudy brought her deep background in advertising and management. I brought the finance and operations. Together we found a market that was genuinely underserved and we set about serving it properly.

Those years taught us a great deal. About what clients actually need versus what they think they need. About the extraordinary quality of the Filipino workforce when they are given the right environment to thrive. And about the fact that we wanted to build something smaller, more personal, and more ambitious than what YBO had become.

Becoming werk:out

In January 2020, we started again. werk:out was born from a very deliberate decision to go smaller, not bigger. To be boutique. To be the kind of outsourcing company that the founders of actually know your name, know your business, and show up like a partner rather than a vendor.

We embraced our identity fully: an Australian business, built on Filipino talent, bridging two cultures we know intimately and love equally.

Then the pandemic hit. And here is the thing: we were ready. We had been running a work-from-home model before it became mandatory. While many businesses scrambled to adapt, our clients kept moving. That period proved what we had always believed. Outsourcing, when it is built on real relationships and proper systems, does not just survive disruption. It weathers it well.

Today, werk:out provides finance leadership and operational support as a service. We match the varied requirements of our clients to offshore solutions across accounting, administration, bookkeeping, compliance, and financial planning. We do it with a team we are genuinely proud of, spread across the Philippines, and supported by principals who remain hands-on with every client.

Every experience and knowledge I have gained across 35 years has enriched the conversations I have with business owners today. I can share meaningful insights on offshoring, educate the uninitiated about cloud technology, uncover business opportunities, and find solutions to problems they did not even know they had.

*Eric in a night out with Sapher and EY team!*

Dudy's story: marketing, management, and the making of a business partner

Growing up in the Philippines in the 70s and 80s, my path was shaped as much by the world around me as by any plan I had for myself. I studied Broadcast Communication at university, dreaming of being a news correspondent. But under Martial Law, the major networks were government-controlled and the doors were firmly shut. So I did the next best thing and walked into the magical world of advertising.

I started at J. Walter Thompson Manila, one of the biggest multinational agencies in the Philippines, where I found my footing in Account Management. It was the perfect role for me: the bridge between clients and the creative teams behind the work. It was here that I developed the skills I would carry for the rest of my career. Managing relationships, coordinating moving parts, thinking strategically, and always keeping the bigger picture in view. A highlight was being selected for the inaugural Asia-Pacific James Webb Young Seminar, an intensive program in creative thinking and advertising craftsmanship. After that, I could never look at an ad the same way again.

My next stop was Ace/Saatchi & Saatchi, where I handled major brands for the biggest food and beverage conglomerate in the country. And where, in a moment that had nothing to do with advertising at all, I found myself standing on EDSA during the People Power Revolution, helping form the human barrier against the military tanks. It was a defining moment. Being on the right side of history has a way of clarifying what you stand for.

By 1991, it was time to join my family in Australia. I eventually moved away from advertising, got married to Eric, and spent years living between the UK, the UAE, and Sydney, building a life and eventually a family.

It would not be until 2014 that I found myself back where it all began. The Philippines. This time as co-founder of a little business with Eric that set out to connect Australian businesses with Filipino talent.

Eric was the finance expert that clients wanted to talk to. But on the other side of the equation, our Philippine team needed someone who understood Filipino culture deeply and could help them navigate the nuances of serving Australian clients with confidence. That became my mission: to build a work environment that brought out the best in our people, and a culture that treated everyone with humanity and dignity.

My advertising years turned out to be the best possible training ground for it. The skills are the same. Relationships, strategy, understanding what people need before they can articulate it themselves. The context just changed.

The business has evolved enormously since those early days, but my role has always come back to the same thing: building bridges. Between clients and solutions. Between cultures. Between the business werk:out is today and the people who make it work.

I may never have become a news correspondent. But I can report, from where I sit, that things are looking pretty good.

*Great working relationships have a way of becoming great friendships. Dudy and Eric in a dinner with IHG3 founder and good friend, Alain.*

What outsourcing actually means at werk:out

The word outsourcing carries a lot of baggage. People hear it and think of impersonal call centres, cookie-cutter templates, and teams you never actually meet. We understand that hesitation. We have spoken to enough business owners who have been burnt before to know it is real.

So let us be direct about what outsourcing means at werk:out, because it looks quite different from the standard model.

We do not match you with a body and move on. We build you a team. We recruit rigorously, integrate that team deeply into your business, and stay for the long haul. Your offshore team members understand your systems, your clients, your way of working. They are not completing tasks from a distance. They are part of your operation.

Every client engagement is personally managed by Dudy or me. Not handed to an account manager you have never met. Not processed through a portal. We are accessible, we are invested, and we genuinely care whether your business grows.

We are also transparent about how we scope and price our work. Everything is agreed clearly upfront. You know what you are getting, what it costs, and what success looks like. That is a standard we hold ourselves to without exception.

What makes this possible is the team behind us. The Filipino professionals who work with our clients are talented, motivated, and deeply committed. We invest in their growth and their careers because we believe that when your offshore team genuinely thrives, your business feels the difference.

werk:out today: A team worth talking about

Twelve years of building offshore teams across the Philippines has taught us what works and what does not. What works is culture. What works is giving people ownership, autonomy, and the genuine respect they deserve as the professionals they are. What works is building teams that stay, rather than teams that churn.

We are proud of what our team has built. The businesses we support span listed companies, growing boutique firms, start-ups scaling quickly, and accounting practices that needed a trusted back-office partner. The common thread in every engagement is the same: clients who trust us and teams who care.

Some of the brands that have chosen to work with us include Storage King, AFAE, and Sapher. Across each of these, the feedback we hear most often is some version of the same thing: the seam between their inshore team and our offshore team is practically invisible. That is the goal. That is when we know we have got it right.

Small businesses do not need a big outsourcing machine. They need a partner who actually knows their name. That has always been the werk:out way.

Where we are headed

werk:out has always been a deliberate business. We have grown carefully, chosen our clients thoughtfully, and built a team we are genuinely proud of. That will not change.

What is new is the clarity of what we offer and how we offer it. Our new website at werkout.com.au reflects the business we have become: a boutique finance and operations outsourcing partner, built on real expertise, real relationships, and a team that shows up every day ready to make your business better.

We are excited about what is ahead. And we would love for you to be part of it.

Let's find a solution for your specific need

If you are a business owner who is ready to stop doing everything yourself, or an accounting firm that is stretched thin and needs a trusted back-office partner, we would love to have a conversation.

Head to werkout.com.au to learn more about what we do and how we work. When you are ready to take the next step, fill in our client intake form and we will be in touch to understand your specific situation and how we might be able to help.

There is no template waiting for you on the other side. Just two founders, a genuinely excellent team, and a real interest in making your business work better.

Visit us at: www.werkout.com.au

Get in touch: www.werkout.com.au/contact

We're excited to werk some magic with you!