Outsourced Bookkeeping vs Hiring In-House
The decision gets framed as a cost comparison and it is only half one. A salary is a number you can look up. What it buys is one person's time, one person's skill level, and one person's availability, and those are the parts that decide whether the books actually get done in February when that person is away.
What's included
- Your file continuing through holidays, illness and notice periods, because more than one person here knows it
- A partner reviewing completed work, rather than the person doing the books being the only person who sees them
- The range of work one hire rarely covers alone: reconciliation, payroll recorded, sales tax, reporting and the specialist files
- The software and the subscriptions carried by us rather than added to your overheads
- A fee agreed before the work starts, against a scope, rather than a salary plus an employer cost you find out about later
- A straight answer about when hiring is the better decision, which is a real answer and not a sales one
Who it's for
- Owners about to post a bookkeeping job and wanting to know what the alternative looks like
- Businesses that have had a bookkeeper leave and are deciding whether to replace the seat
- Companies where the books stop whenever one person is on holiday or off sick
- Anyone comparing a monthly fee against a salary without the employer cost added to the salary
How it runs
The actual sequence, start to finish.
- 01
Work out what the seat actually costs
Base salary is the floor. On top of it sit the statutory employer costs, vacation pay, benefits, a laptop, the software licences and the desk, and none of those appear in the number on the job posting.
- 02
Count the months before it is useful
Posting, shortlisting, interviewing and a notice period come before day one, and day one is not the day somebody is productive on books they have never seen. Unfamiliar books take a while whoever is reading them.
- 03
Ask who checks the work
A bookkeeper working alone in a small business usually has nobody reviewing what they produce, and the owner is rarely in a position to. That is not a comment on anybody's competence. It is a structural gap, and it is the one an outside firm closes by default.
- 04
Decide honestly
If the volume and the complexity would keep somebody busy full time, or you want a person physically in the building, hire. We will say so. The comparison only favours us in the band where it genuinely does.
The two things you are actually choosing between.
Market figures for hiring a person, from each market's own sources. Not our fees.
Hire someone in-house
- Ontario
- $42,000 to $62,000 a year
- United States
- $37,000 to $63,000 a year
That is the base salary for a full-time bookkeeper in Ontario, entry level at the bottom and eight years in at the top, against an average of about $55,000. It is the floor, not the total. On top of it come CPP, EI, vacation pay, benefits, software licences and a laptop. It also buys one person's time, so holidays and sick days are yours to cover.
That is the base salary for a full-time bookkeeper in the US, entry level at the bottom and experienced at the top, against a median of $49,210 reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It is the floor. On top of it come the employer share of Social Security and Medicare, federal and state unemployment tax, workers' compensation, benefits, software licences and a laptop. It also buys one person's time, so holidays and sick days are yours to cover.
Pay a freelancer by the hour
- Ontario
- $30 to $60 an hour
- United States
- $25 to $50 an hour
Rates vary with experience, and a certified or specialist bookkeeper sits above the top of that range. Because it is hourly, a busy month costs more than a quiet one and you find out what it cost once the month is over, which makes it hard to budget a year ahead.
Rates vary with experience, and a full-charge or specialist bookkeeper sits above the top of that range. Because it is hourly, a busy month costs more than a quiet one and you find out what it cost once the month is over, which makes it hard to budget a year ahead.
Ontario figures are in Canadian dollars and US figures in US dollars, each from its own market rather than converted from the other. Shown for comparison only.
What it costs
A flat monthly fee agreed against a scope before anything starts, which is the part a salary cannot be. Set by transaction volume rather than by revenue or headcount, and confirmed after a look at your existing books.
Questions about outsourced bookkeeping vs hiring in-house
Is outsourcing just a cheaper bookkeeper?
No, and framing it that way misses what actually differs. The cost comparison matters, but the structural difference is coverage and review: one hire is one person, and when they are away or they leave, the books stop and the knowledge goes with them. Your file does not stop here because one person is away, and completed work is reviewed by a partner rather than going out unseen.
Does outsourced mean offshore?
Not here. The work is done by the people named on this site, working remotely across Canada and the United States rather than in your office. Remote and offshore are different things and the word gets used for both, which is why it is worth saying plainly.
When is hiring the better decision?
When there is genuinely enough finance work to keep somebody busy full time, or when you want a person physically in the office and that matters more than the rest of it. Those are real reasons and we would rather say so than argue against them. Below that threshold you are usually paying a full-time seat for part-time work, and paying it whether the work is there in a given month or not.
What happens to our current bookkeeper?
That is your decision and not one we push. Plenty of arrangements keep an in-house person doing receipt capture and invoicing while the categorisation, reconciliation and reporting come here, which removes the part that causes the delays without removing anybody.
How long does it take to get started compared with hiring?
Onboarding is measured in weeks rather than in the months a hire takes end to end, because there is no posting, no shortlist and no notice period. The work that does take time is the same either way: somebody has to get familiar with your books.
More questions answered on the FAQ page.
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