A thriving online marketplace quickly outgrows spreadsheets. Order spikes, multiple sales channels, and cross-border taxes produce a level of complexity most in-house teams weren’t hired, or tooled, to handle.
- Accurate reconciliation of multi-channel payouts: Amazon, Shopify, PayPal, Klarna, and BNPL platforms all deposit funds on different cadences with multiple fee structures.
- Sales-tax and VAT sprawl: Compliance with 40-plus state sales-tax thresholds and EU/UK VAT regimes.
- Board-level metrics on demand: Investors expect insight into contribution margin, cohort LTV/CAC, and cash-conversion cycle.
To keep pace with expansion, high-growth brands weigh the pros and cons of outsourcing finance and accounting and turning the workload to third-party partners.
What You Need to Know
- eCommerce accounting complexity rises faster than most in-house teams can scale.
- Outsourcing the back-office frees leadership and internal teams to double down on growth levers and strategy.
- Providers steeped in eCommerce, like Consero, offer pre-integrated tech stacks, process automation, elastic staffing, and specialized workflows that shorten time to value.
- Choose an eCommerce-native partner with proven multi-channel expertise and clear escalation paths.
- Communicate change internally so existing teams see the shift as opportunity, not replacement.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Frees up 10-15 hours per week for founders to focus on strategic growth activities instead of manual reconciliation tasks. | Leaders may feel uncomfortable handing financial data to third parties and worry about losing visibility or control. |
| Provides audit-ready GAAP books and faster due diligence processes for investors and lenders. | Custom systems and legacy ERPs require time-intensive API mapping and onboarding that can delay benefits. |
| Offers elastic staffing that scales up and down with seasonal demand without hiring headaches or layoffs. | Some vendors charge based on order volume or marketplace count, creating unexpected pricing surprises. |
| Provides enterprise-grade software and tools at startup-friendly costs through bundled monthly fees. | Internal teams still need to provide timely approvals and accurate data inputs for outsourced partners to work effectively. |
| Automates complex tax compliance and subscription billing processes that typically require manual work. | Introducing third-party providers may create morale concerns among existing in-house accounting staff. |
| Delivers investor-ready KPIs and financial reports on demand instead of requiring weeks of preparation. |
Pros
More Time for Growth Levers
Every hour a founder spends matching Stripe deposits to Shopify orders is an hour not spent negotiating supplier terms or ad testing.
Handing off day-to-day tasks like bank recs, AP/AR, and expense categorization to the right outsourced accounting partner frees leaders to focus on higher-value work in product, marketing, and partnerships.
For example, Consero’s SIMPL platform automates reconciliation across major gateways, which has helped our eCommerce clients reclaim 10-15 hours per week for strategic work.
GAAP-Ready Books & Due-Diligence Speed
Moving from cash to accrual accounting, tightening controls, and documenting policies are heavy lifts for a small team but essential when courting lenders or buyers.
Outsourced controller teams know how to match marketplace payouts, gift cards, subscriptions, and pre-orders to the correct period—critical for audit-ready books and investor confidence.
Consero’s playbooks have walked brands from cash to GAAP in one quarter, work that helped BigCommerce progress smoothly from VC backing all the way to IPO.
Elastic Staffing for Peak Seasons
If order volume increases twenty-fold from Black Friday or Q4 holiday shopping, but plummets in January, Consero’s Finance as a Service (FaaS) and augmented staffing solutions let you scale headcount up and down as needed without hiring or layoffs, and at a predictable cost structure.
Instead of turnover or overhead headaches, you can tap into a pool of accountants as your processing capacity increases, and revert to steady-state the next month.
Fortune 100 Tech Stack, Startup Cost
ERP or accounting software licenses, BI tools, and reconciliation bots can add six-figure overhead.
Outsourced models like FaaS bundle enterprise-grade software into a single monthly fee, with Consero also handling your data integration.
Consero maps ops systems to the GL, automates the billing process, and removes the need to license and maintain disparate tools.
Automated Tax & Subscription Billing Compliance
Marketplace sellers often struggle to map operational data to the GL, especially for items like usage-based or subscription revenue.
Consero’s FaaS solution for eCommerce integrates Avalara’s AvaTax for sales tax automation and can automate billing data outside the GL, eliminating manual work.
Investor-Ready KPIs on Demand
Boards want LTV/CAC, cash burn, and contribution margin in one click. Consero’s integrated dashboard lets you see your complete financial position in near real-time, generate custom financial reports, and turn around detailed reports in days instead of weeks.
Rather than scrambling to produce investor-grade financials, outsourced teams can quickly turnaround the metrics you need, when you need them.
Weekly cash-forecast models and operational dashboards also give leadership the confidence to raise spend or throttle back in near-real time. Consero delivers these views out-of-the-box.
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Perceived Loss of Control
Handing financial data to a third party can feel risky, and leaders may worry about access or visibility gaps.
You should work with providers that offer 24/7 dashboard access and explicit user roles.
Consero’s client portal creates role-based dashboards for increased internal controls and lets teams download the full GL or backup docs anytime,
Integration & Onboarding Effort
Custom checkout flows or legacy ERPs take time for API mapping. Entrusting outsourced accounting partners who lack deep familiarity with eCommerce can lead to onboarding delays that stall benefits.
Vet potential partners for demonstrated eCommerce success via referrals from industry peers.
Outsourced solutions like Consero’s Flex Finance, where outsourced accounting teams operate within your existing general ledge (NetSuite, QuickBooks, etc.), can shorten ramp-up.
Volume-based pricing surprises
Some vendors link fees to order volumes or up-charge for additional marketplaces; review pricing tiers carefully.
With Consero, pricing is pre-determined based on employee headcount and business complexity (ex., number of entities), so you have a more predictable cost structure.
Ongoing Internal Oversight Needed
Although outsourcers will handle the majority of the tactical operations, they still rely on timely PO approvals and accurate product-cost inputs from your team.
Team Morale Concerns
Bringing in a third-party may make an in-house team uneasy.
Position the partner as an extension handling transactional work so employees can focus on higher-value priorities.
Regular meetings and consistent communication between in-house and outsourced teams also help foster a collaborative dynamic.
Not Ideal for Hyper-Niche Models
Brands with complex, build-to-order bundles or on-site audit needs may require a hybrid or fully in-house model.
Is Outsourcing Right for Your Business?
Start by auditing your pain points. Are closes late and sales-tax notices piling up faster than your team can handle?
Outsourcing makes sense when you need a cost-effective solution, investor-ready, GAAP books, automated multi-state tax compliance, and the ability to flex finance capacity up or down faster than you can hire.
Think twice if you require full on-site control, operate a highly customized build-to-order model that defies standard workflows, or have stable, predictable volume that an existing internal team already handles well.
For brands leaning toward the first camp, Consero’s tailored eCommerce offerings, proven with companies ranging from over-$400 million market cap enterprises to sub-$10 million sellers, can provide the talent, technology, and processes you need to scale with confidence.
When you work with a capable partner, outsourcing transforms finance and accounting from a bottleneck into a real-time command center that fuels faster product launches, better margins, and confident scaling.
Get in touch today to turn your finance and accounting function into a growth engine.
