Outsourced accounting runs roughly $3,000 to $20,000 per month for most mid-market companies, with the low end covering a smaller, single-entity business and the high end reflecting multiple entities, heavy transaction volume, and a full finance stack. That monthly number is the easy part. The harder question for any CFO or investor-backed operator is whether that fixed line item beats the fully loaded cost of building the same capability in-house.
It usually does, and by a wide margin. The sticker price of an in-house team understates what finance actually consumes once you add benefits, software, recruiting, turnover, and the strategic cost of a team buried in operational work.
Most CFOs already sense the ceiling: in Consero’s benchmarking research, most finance leaders say a company’s finance and accounting function should cost less than 10% of revenue, and that share should hold or shrink as the business scales from $10M to $200M. Outsourced accounting is built to hit that target with a single, predictable price that replaces a dozen unpredictable ones.
This guide breaks down what outsourced accounting costs in 2026, what’s included, how it compares to in-house on a true all-in basis, and what kind of return to expect. For Consero’s specific plans, you can view pricing here.
Factors That Determine Outsourced Accounting Cost
Where a company lands inside that range comes down to a handful of cost drivers. Because Finance as a Service (FaaS) is billed as one flat monthly fee, the price reflects the scope and complexity of your finance function and scales with what you actually need.
| Cost driver | What pushes the price up |
|---|---|
| Company size & headcount | More employees and departments mean more transactions, payroll complexity, and reporting. |
| Number of entities | Each operating, holding, or limited-operation entity adds consolidation and intercompany work. |
| Transaction volume | High invoice, expense, and order-to-cash volume increases the operational load. |
| Scope of services | Month-end close and AP cost less than a full stack adding revenue recognition, FP&A, and CFO-level support. |
| Software & ERP | An included, modern ERP and automation layer replaces tools you’d otherwise license and maintain yourself. |
| Clean-up & onboarding | Messy or backlogged books require upfront remediation before steady-state operations begin. |
A credible quote is scoped to your headcount, entities, and services, not pulled from a rate card. Because the FaaS fee is fixed and scales predictably, you avoid the step-function jumps that come with every new hire or software renewal.
What’s Included in the Price?
Outsourced accounting’s monthly fee looks higher than a single salary at first glance because it bundles everything a functioning finance department needs into one number.
A FaaS engagement typically includes:
- People: a full team across the stack: bookkeeper, staff accountant, accounting manager, controller, and VP of Finance leadership, without the hiring and turnover risk of building it yourself.
- Process: a defined month-end close, order-to-cash, accounts payable, revenue recognition, and reporting cadence run by a team that has done it across hundreds of companies.
- Technology: a modern ERP and automation layer (in Consero’s case, the SIMPL® platform) included in the fee, not licensed and integrated separately.
- Predictability: a consistent cost that holds steady through new hires and major software upgrades.
That single price tag is what makes outsourced accounting easy to compare. You see the full cost of an effective finance function up front, then weigh it against what the in-house version really costs once every line item is on the table.
The Hidden Cost of In-House Finance and Accounting
In-house finance has real advantages: direct control over the team, immediate access to staff, and the ability to train people on your specific business. Those benefits come with a price tag that’s far larger than the salaries on the org chart.
The honest way to compare options is the Total Cost of Finance — every dollar the function consumes, not just base pay: benefits, software, recruiting, turnover, and the strategic cost of a finance team stuck doing operational work.
Salary and Benefits
Staffing even a small finance team is expensive. The median accountant or auditor earns about $81,680 a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while entry-level bookkeepers and clerks run around $47,000 and a controller can cost $150,000 to $200,000 fully loaded.
Benefits typically add roughly 30% on top of base salary once you include healthcare, payroll taxes, and paid time off. A four-person team can easily clear $300,000 in annual salary alone before a single software license or office expense is counted.
Hiring, Training, and Turnover
Every seat carries a recruiting cost of about $4,700 per hire, and the bigger tax is time. In Consero’s 2025 research, 81% of finance leaders said it takes at least four months to fill a senior accountant or analyst role — months in which a small team runs short-staffed and the close slips. When someone leaves, you pay the recruiting and ramp-up cost all over again. Hiring and assessing talent quietly consumes a large share of a CFO’s week, time that should go to strategy.
Software and Systems
An effective finance function needs an ERP, plus tools for accounts payable, expense management, and the financial close. Licensing, implementing, and maintaining that stack runs from low five figures into the tens of thousands annually, and most CFOs underestimate the effort: in the same benchmarking research, 88% admitted they’d underestimated how long it takes to migrate finance processes to an enterprise-grade ERP. With outsourced accounting, the platform is included and already implemented.
Add it all up and an in-house finance function easily reaches six figures and scales unpredictably. Every growth spurt forces another hire, another tool, and another round of recruiting. Outsourced accounting converts that volatile, multi-line expense into one fixed, manageable cost.
Outsourced Accounting vs. In-House Cost
Comparing the two models line by line is where the real difference shows up. The same capabilities that arrive as separate, fluctuating expenses in-house are consolidated into a single FaaS fee.
| Cost component | In-house | Outsourced (FaaS) |
|---|---|---|
| Salaries & benefits | $300,000+ for a small team, plus ~30% in benefits | Included in monthly fee |
| Recruiting & turnover | ~$4,700 per hire, repeated on every departure | None — the provider absorbs staffing risk |
| Software & ERP | Licensed, implemented, and maintained separately | Included and pre-implemented |
| Cost behavior as you grow | Steps up with each hire and renewal | Scales predictably with the business |
| Total cost profile | Variable, often six figures and rising | Fixed, predictable monthly fee |
Across the people, process, and systems a finance function requires, the FaaS model is designed to reduce total cost by 20% to 50% compared with building in-house — while removing the staffing and software risk that doesn’t show up on a salary line. For a deeper breakdown of the trade-offs, see our guide to Finance as a Service vs. an in-house finance department.
What’s the ROI of Outsourced Accounting?
Cost is only half the equation. The return on outsourced accounting comes from what a predictable, expert-run finance function makes possible — and most of it never appears in a salary comparison. Businesses commonly spend 2% to 5% of revenue staffing and running internal accounting; the question is what that spend actually buys.
The FaaS model delivers return in several ways in-house struggles to match:
- Consistency at any scale. Service quality holds steady through growth, acquisitions, and seasonal spikes, with no gaps when a key employee leaves.
- No training or turnover drag. A seasoned team is productive from day one, so you skip the onboarding, ramp-up, and re-hiring cycle that stalls in-house departments.
- Faster systems implementation. A provider that has rolled out ERPs hundreds of times installs and trains far faster than a first-time internal effort, which adds stability and saves months.
- Stronger controls and lower fraud risk. An external team brings segregation of duties and a built-in layer of review that a one- or two-person internal function can’t provide.
- Audit and funding readiness. Clean, timely, well-documented financials shorten diligence and de-risk your next raise, audit, or exit.
The savings are concrete, too. When investor-backed CFOs rank the benefits of working with a finance partner, two of the top items are cost savings — from not having to purchase financial reporting systems, and from not having to hire in-house staff. Set against a benchmarking standard that finance should cost less than 10% of revenue and decline as you scale, outsourced accounting is one of the most direct ways to hit that mark.
How to Budget for Outsourced Accounting
Because pricing is scoped rather than fixed, the fastest way to a real number is to come prepared with the inputs a provider needs to quote you. Before requesting pricing, gather:
- Headcount and growth plans: current size and where you expect to be in 12 to 24 months.
- Entity structure: how many operating, holding, and limited-operation entities need consolidation.
- Transaction volume: monthly invoices, expenses, and order-to-cash activity.
- Services needed: whether you want core close and AP or a full stack including revenue recognition, FP&A, and CFO-level support.
- Current systems and book quality: your existing ERP and whether any clean-up is required before steady state.
With those in hand, you can get an accurate quote and benchmark it against your in-house run rate. To compare your finance function’s cost and staffing against peers, review our benchmarks for measuring finance performance.
Turning Finance Cost Into Finance ROI
A predictable finance function is a form of insurance — it protects the close, the audit, and the next funding event from the staffing gaps and system failures that derail growing companies. The right partner turns finance from a variable cost center into a fixed, scalable asset that’s ready whenever an investor, lender, or acquirer comes calling.
That’s why 87% of investor-backed finance leaders now work with a third-party finance and accounting partner.
Choosing the right partner is what determines the return. To see what a fully managed finance function would cost for your company, get in touch for a tailored consultation.
Talk to a Consero finance expert about what a modern, AI-enabled F&A function looks like for your business. We’ll map it out together — it’s 30 minutes, zero pressure.
No sales pitch. Just a roadmap tailored to you.
Frequently Asked Questions
A few questions come up on nearly every pricing conversation. Here’s how finance leaders typically think through them.
Is outsourced accounting cheaper than hiring a controller?
In most cases, yes — and you get more for the money. A single controller costs $150,000 to $200,000 fully loaded and still leaves you to hire, manage, and back up the rest of the team. A FaaS fee in the same range delivers an entire stack — staff accountant through VP of Finance — plus the software and processes, with no single point of failure if one person leaves.
How quickly can we expect a return from outsourcing accounting?
Most companies see it within the first few months, as the faster close, included software, and eliminated recruiting costs offset the fee. The larger returns — audit readiness, funding readiness, and reclaimed strategic capacity — compound over the first year as the function stabilizes.
Can we outsource only part of our finance function to control cost?
Yes. Modular models let you keep some functions in-house and outsource the rest — for example, running your own AP while a partner handles the close, revenue recognition, and reporting. This hybrid approach is how many companies manage cost while filling specific gaps in capacity or expertise.
Does the cost go up every time we add an entity or make an acquisition?
Pricing scales with complexity, so adding an entity or integrating an acquisition can increase the fee — but predictably, and far less than the cost of hiring and training internal staff to absorb the same work. For acquisitive, investor-backed companies, that predictable scaling is often the point: capacity is ready before the deal closes.
