A manufacturing company with $8 million in revenue had a full-time bookkeeper, a part-time controller, and an external CPA for taxes. Sounds like enough coverage. But the bookkeeper was three weeks behind on reconciliation, the controller was spending half her time on AP because the bookkeeper couldn’t keep up, and the CPA refused to file until the books were cleaned up. The owner was spending 10 hours a week approving invoices and chasing down financial data that should have been on his desk automatically.
The company didn’t have an accounting problem. It had a structure problem — and it’s the same one that pushes most growing businesses toward outsourced finance and accounting.
Outsourcing isn’t about cutting corners. It’s about recognizing that your financial operations have outgrown the system you built when the business was smaller. Here are five signals that the current setup isn’t working — and that it’s time to consider a different model.
1. You’re Spending Hours on Financial Tasks That Aren’t Your Job
This is the most common trigger, and it’s the one business owners dismiss the longest. You started doing the books because you couldn’t afford not to. Then you hired a bookkeeper but kept approving every transaction. Then the bookkeeper left and you picked it back up “temporarily.” Now you’re spending 8-15 hours a week on bank reconciliation, invoice processing, and financial reporting — time that should be going to sales, operations, or strategy.
The math is simple. If you value your time at $150 per hour (conservative for a business owner generating $3M+ in revenue), spending 10 hours a week on accounting tasks costs your business $78,000 a year in opportunity cost. A full outsourced accounting engagement costs $24,000–$72,000 per year and eliminates the time drain entirely.
It’s not just about the hours. It’s about the cognitive load. Every hour you spend thinking about uncategorized transactions is an hour you’re not thinking about your next hire, your pricing model, or your biggest customer relationship.
2. Financial Errors Keep Surfacing — and They’re Getting Expensive
Errors in small doses are normal. Errors that repeat are a system failure. If you’re seeing the same problems cycle after cycle — miscategorized expenses, unreconciled accounts, duplicate entries, late filings — the issue isn’t the person doing the work. It’s the process, the oversight, or both.
Common patterns that signal a structural problem:
Your bank balance doesn’t match your accounting software, and it hasn’t for months. Nobody can explain the discrepancy because nobody is reconciling consistently.
Vendor payments go out late or go out twice. AP isn’t being managed against a schedule, and there’s no approval workflow.
Tax filings require significant adjustments because the books weren’t maintained to GAAP standards during the year. Your CPA is essentially doing a mini-audit before they can file — and billing you for it.
Financial reports arrive late, arrive wrong, or don’t arrive at all. When you do get them, the numbers don’t match what you see in your bank account.
These errors have real cost: overpaid taxes, missed deductions, penalties, wasted CPA fees, and decisions made on inaccurate data. An outsourced accounting team brings standardized processes, built-in review layers, and the kind of procedural discipline that’s hard to maintain with a single in-house bookkeeper operating without oversight.
If your books are already in rough shape, a bookkeeping cleanup is usually the first step before transitioning to an ongoing outsourced model.
3. You’ve Outgrown Your Current Financial Team — But Can’t Justify the Next Hire
This is the awkward middle stage that most growing businesses hit between $2M and $15M in revenue. Your bookkeeper is maxed out but you don’t need a full-time controller. Or you have a controller but the strategic questions piling up require CFO-level thinking that’s beyond their scope.
The in-house hiring path looks like this:
| Role | Salary + Benefits | What You Get |
|---|---|---|
| Bookkeeper | $45,000–$65,000 | Transaction recording, reconciliation, basic AP/AR |
| Senior Bookkeeper | $55,000–$80,000 | Same as above + monthly close, light reporting |
| Controller | $90,000–$140,000 | Financial statements, GAAP compliance, internal controls, team management |
| CFO | $200,000–$400,000+ | Strategy, forecasting, fundraising, board reporting, capital allocation |
Each role solves a different problem. Most businesses in the $2M–$10M range need pieces of all four — but don’t have enough work to justify four full-time hires. That’s the gap outsourced finance fills. A single outsourced engagement can deliver bookkeeping, controller oversight, and fractional CFO support in one team — scaling the mix as your needs change without adding headcount.
The alternative is the most common mistake: overloading your bookkeeper with controller-level work, or asking your controller to make strategic decisions they aren’t trained for. Both lead to burnout, errors, and turnover.
4. You Can’t Get the Financial Information You Need to Make Decisions
You want to know which product line is most profitable. Which location is underperforming. Whether you can afford to hire two people next quarter. What your cash position will look like in 90 days. And nobody on your team can give you a reliable answer.
This isn’t a people problem — it’s an infrastructure problem. Getting useful financial information requires three things working together: accurate books (bookkeeping), properly structured reports (controller-level work), and analysis that connects financial data to business decisions (CFO-level work).
If you’re missing any layer, the output breaks down:
Inaccurate books produce unreliable reports. Unreliable reports produce bad analysis. Bad analysis produces poor decisions.
The most dangerous version of this problem is when you think you have good data but don’t. You’re making hiring decisions based on a P&L that hasn’t been reconciled in two months. You’re forecasting cash based on AR numbers that include invoices you’ll never collect. You’re telling your board the business is on track based on financials that don’t reflect reality.
An outsourced accounting team with controller oversight and strategic reporting builds the infrastructure that makes financial data trustworthy — and useful.
5. Your Business Is Growing Faster Than Your Finance Function Can Keep Up
Growth creates financial complexity. More transactions, more employees, more vendors, more bank accounts, more tax obligations. A finance function that worked at $1M in revenue breaks at $5M. One that worked with one location fails at three.
Specific growth triggers that strain financial operations:
Transaction volume has doubled or tripled. Your bookkeeper was handling 100 transactions a month. Now it’s 400. The same person, using the same process, can’t maintain accuracy at that volume without help.
You’ve expanded to multiple locations or entities. Each location needs its own books, its own reconciliation, and its own reporting — plus consolidated financials that give you the full picture. Multi-location accounting is a fundamentally different challenge than single-entity bookkeeping.
You’ve hired remote employees in new states. Every state creates potential payroll tax obligations, income tax nexus, and regulatory requirements. Compliance gets complicated fast.
You’re preparing for a fundraise, a loan, or a sale. Investors, lenders, and buyers all scrutinize financials. If your books aren’t clean and your reporting isn’t sophisticated, the process stalls — or the valuation suffers. Getting your financial planning infrastructure in place before these milestones is far cheaper than scrambling during diligence.
Outsourced teams scale with you. When volume increases, they add capacity without you posting a job listing. When complexity increases, they bring in specialists — controllers, tax advisors, CFOs — without you conducting a three-month executive search.
How to Decide: In-House vs. Outsourced
Not every business should outsource. Here’s a framework for the decision:
| Factor | Outsource | Keep In-House |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue under $15M with lean team | ✅ | — |
| Need multiple skill levels (bookkeeper + controller + CFO) | ✅ | — |
| Volume is seasonal or variable | ✅ | — |
| Need someone physically onsite daily | — | ✅ |
| Want full direct control over every process | — | ✅ |
| Enough volume for 40 hrs/week of accounting work | — | ✅ |
| Growing fast and can’t hire fast enough | ✅ | — |
Many companies land on a hybrid: an internal accounting manager who handles day-to-day relationships and judgment calls, supported by an outsourced team that handles transaction volume, close process, and reporting. This model gives you both control and scalability.
For a detailed cost comparison between outsourced and in-house models, see our guide to outsourced accounting cost.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should a business outsource accounting?
The most common trigger is when financial tasks are consuming significant owner or executive time, when errors are recurring, or when the business has outgrown its bookkeeper but can’t justify the next full-time hire. Most businesses reach this point between $1M and $5M in revenue, though the timing varies based on complexity and industry.
How much does outsourced accounting cost?
Monthly fees typically range from $1,000–$2,500 for small businesses, $2,500–$5,000 for growing businesses ($2M–$10M revenue), and $5,000–$15,000+ for mid-market companies with complex operations. Most providers charge a fixed monthly retainer based on transaction volume and service level.
Will I lose control of my finances if I outsource?
No. You maintain full access to your accounting software and all financial data. Outsourced teams work in your systems (QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite) and deliver reports on a defined schedule. Most business owners report more visibility after outsourcing because they receive reliable financials on time for the first time.
Can I outsource just part of my accounting?
Yes. Many engagements start with bookkeeping and monthly close, then expand to include controller oversight, tax support, or CFO services as the business grows. You don’t have to outsource everything at once — start with the function that’s causing the most pain.
If two or more of these signs describe your business right now, the current setup isn’t going to fix itself. The problems compound: errors create more errors, delays create more delays, and the gap between what you need and what your finance function delivers gets wider as you grow.
The fix isn’t always outsourcing — but if you’re under $15M in revenue and struggling with any combination of time drain, recurring errors, expertise gaps, and scaling pain, it’s almost certainly the right answer.
Talk to Exact Partners about outsourced accounting for your business →
