How much does it cost to outsource accounting services? A clear, no-surprise breakdown for small firms

Your firm has 30 people now. Ten months ago, it was 15. Your bookkeeper still comes in on Tuesday and Thursday mornings like she did when you had six employees. Your payroll runs automatically through Gusto. You personally approve every vendor payment because nobody else knows what's actually due.

Last month, things cracked. Your fractional CFO spent 40 hours closing the books. Your part-time bookkeeper missed three payments. You spent Saturday morning hunting down a $12,000 bank reconciliation error that turned out to be a duplicate entry from two months ago that no one had caught.

The system that got you here won't get you where you're going.

Now you're considering outsourced accounting services. But every provider website says "custom pricing." You need real numbers. You need to know if this makes financial sense before you can justify it to yourself, much less your partners.The harder part isn’t just pricing. It’s understanding what “good” actually looks like in outsourced accounting. For service firms, the best providers aren’t the cheapest or the biggest, they’re the ones built around recurring revenue, project-based billing, and multi-state compliance.

Here's what outsourcing actually costs: $1,500 to $4,500 per month for most small firms. That's 40–60% less than hiring equivalent in-house talent, and you get better compliance, real-time books, and zero surprises.

What drives the cost

Three factors determine your monthly price: the number of transactions you process, the complexity of your operations, and the services you need.

Your transaction volume

Every invoice you send, every bill you pay, every payroll you run, and every bank transaction you record requires human attention. Someone categorizes it. Someone reconciles it. Someone reviews it.

Process 50 invoices and 100 bills monthly? You're at the lower end, probably $1,500 to $2,000. Process 200 invoices, 400 bills, and run weekly payroll? You're closer to $3,000-$4,000. Most providers tier their pricing around monthly transaction counts. Log in to QuickBooks right now and export a transaction report. You'll see exactly where you stand.

Your operational complexity

Single-entity firm? One revenue stream? Operating in one state? You pay less.

Multi-entity firm? Three LLCs? Operating across five states? You pay more.

Complexity demands expertise. A bookkeeper can handle straightforward transactions. Complex revenue recognition rules, multi-state payroll tax requirements, or SOC-2 compliance requirements require specialists who know those areas cold. Count your entities. Count your states. Count your regulatory requirements. Each one adds hours to your monthly service because it requires knowledge most bookkeepers don't have.

Your service scope

Bookkeeping only? That's transaction coding, bank reconciliation, and basic reports. Costs $800 to $1,500 monthly because you only need bookkeeper-level skills.

Full-service accounting? That's bookkeeping plus month-end close, financial statements, and variance analysis. Costs $1,500 to $2,500 because you need an accountant and controller expertise.

Comprehensive finance operations? That's everything above, plus payroll, AP/AR management, tax planning, and fractional CFO advisory. Costs $2,500 to $4,500 because you need a complete finance team.

Figure out what you actually need before you start shopping. Paying for a CFO-level strategy when you only need clean books wastes money.

Your integration requirements

Connecting your accounting system to your other tools, your CRM, project management platform, payment processors, and banks, creates upfront work. Providers typically charge $500 to $2,000 for complex integrations.

But integrated systems eliminate significant manual work. Bank feeds pull transactions automatically, invoice data imports from your CRM. Expenses upload from receipt photos. You cut monthly transaction processing time by 40–60%.

Most firms recoup integration costs within three months. Bank feeds and payment platforms usually offer the highest ROI.

What you're already spending

Most small firms overpay for fragmented, lower-quality financial operations when they build in-house. Let's look at the real numbers.

Some firms attempt to solve this by hiring offshore bookkeepers to reduce costs. That can work, but only when paired with strong oversight, clear documentation, and senior-level review. Without that structure, cost savings often come at the expense of accuracy and timeliness.

Your full-time bookkeeper

Salary: $50,000 to $65,000. Benefits (health insurance, 401k, payroll taxes): another $10,000 to $15,000. Actual cost: $60,000 to $80,000 annually.

What you get: Someone who categorizes expenses, reconciles accounts, and generates basic reports. What you don't get: month-end close, financial analysis, compliance reviews, or strategic planning. When your bookkeeper takes a vacation or calls in sick, your books stop moving unless you've cross-trained someone else (you probably haven't).

Outsourced bookkeeping: $800 to $1,500 monthly ($9,600 to $18,000 annually). Includes built-in backup coverage and controller-level review. You save $40,000 to $60,000.

Your accountant or controller

Add someone for the month-end close and financial statements? Another $70,000 to $95,000 in salary plus $15,000 to $20,000 in benefits. You're now spending $135,000 to $175,000 annually for two internal people.

You still don't have payroll expertise, tax planning, or CFO-level strategy.

Full-service outsourcing delivers all of that for $30,000 to $54,000 annually. Better quality control, too, because multiple specialists review the work. You save $80,000 to $120,000.

Your software stack

QuickBooks Online: $70 to $200 monthly. Bill.com: $45-$70 monthly. Gusto or ADP for payroll: $40-$150 monthly, plus per-employee fees. Expense tools: $10- $20 per user, per month. Reporting dashboards: $50 to $200 monthly.

Total annual spend: $4,000-$8,000.

Outsourced providers include these tools in their monthly fee. They maintain the integrations so that everything talks to each other. You don't troubleshoot broken connections at 10 PM anymore.

Your hidden costs

Training new hires takes 6 to 12 weeks before they're productive. Turnover creates recruiting costs, onboarding time, and delays in knowledge transfer. PTO means someone else covers the work (or it doesn't get done). Quality control requires oversight to catch errors.

These hidden costs add 20–30% to your visible salary figures.

Outsourced providers absorb these through their team structure. Your accountant has backup. Onboarding is systematized. Controller-level review happens on every account. You pay for output, not infrastructure.

What you get beyond cost savings

The financial comparison tells part of the story. These operational improvements often matter more because they reduce stress and improve decision quality.

No more single points of failure

Your primary bookkeeper has a backup bookkeeper. Your accountant has a controller reviewing their work. Your fractional CFO consults with a senior advisor on complex questions.

When someone is sick, on vacation, or leaves the company, your books keep moving. Your payroll runs on time. Single-person accounting departments create fragility. One bad hire, one unexpected departure, or one extended illness disrupts your entire financial operation.

Expertise when you need It

Multi-state payroll tax question? Your team knows the answer. Confused about revenue recognition rules? Your accountant applies them daily. Facing your first financial audit? Your team has done hundreds.

Building this expertise in-house requires hiring senior staff with broad experience. That costs $100,000+ per person. Outsourced providers aggregate expertise across their entire team and deploy it where you need it. You get controller oversight and CFO strategy at a fraction of the cost of a direct hire.

Infrastructure included

Secure document storage. Real-time dashboards. Automated workflows. Bank feed integrations. Expense capture tools. All included.

Your provider maintains the systems, updates the software, fixes broken integrations, and trains new users. In-house teams must buy, configure, and maintain these tools themselves. Most bookkeepers lack the technical knowledge. The infrastructure benefit alone saves 10 to 15 hours monthly in troubleshooting.

Scalable capacity

Acquire a new client? Your accounting team absorbs the work. Expand to a new state? No problem. Need fractional CFO help for a financing round? Your provider assigns someone immediately.

No job postings. No interviews. No 6-week onboarding periods. Building scalable in-house teams requires hiring ahead of need (expensive) or scrambling when you hit capacity (risky). Outsourced teams scale with your actual requirements.

What this means for you

Most consulting firms with 10 to 50 employees and $1M to $5M in revenue pay between $2,000 and $3,500 monthly for comprehensive outsourced accounting services. That covers bookkeeping, month-end close, financial reporting, payroll, AP/AR, tax planning, and fractional CFO access.

Compare that to the $135,000 to $175,000 you'd spend building the equivalent capability in-house. You save $80,000 to $120,000 annually while getting better expertise, built-in redundancy, and included technology infrastructure.

The question isn't whether you can afford to outsource. It's whether you can afford not to.