How Much Does It Cost to Outsource Accounting in the UK?

If you have been trying to find out how much outsourcing your accounting costs, here it is: generally speaking, all UK companies would be paying between £150 and £3,500 per month, depending on the size of the business, transaction volume, and the type of services needed. If we speak about a single man business, where the accounts are simple, then there is no way that the price could be more than £150 per month, while a developing small and medium-sized business requiring payroll, VAT and management accounting services could easily pay £600 to £1,500 or more.

As you may see, the price range for outsourcing accounting services is quite broad, and it makes sense. Since the cost of outsourcing your accounting services is not defined and depends on numerous factors such as workload, level of complexity of accounts, pricing policy of the outsourcer, and speed of delivery, this guide provides all the information needed.

How Much Does Outsourced Accounting Cost in the UK?

The fees associated with outsourced accounting services are often billed according to one of three methods: monthly retainer fees, hourly fees, or per-job fees. Monthly retainer fees are typically used when recurring services such as bookkeeping and payroll are required, whereas hourly and per-job fees are appropriate for single transactions or when a company is unsure if outsourcing would be suitable for them. Here is how prices generally vary by industry for your convenience:

Business Type	Typical Monthly Cost	What’s Usually Included
Sole trader / freelancer	£75 – £200	Bookkeeping, self-assessment, basic advice
Small limited company (under £500k turnover)	£150 – £350	Bookkeeping, VAT returns, payroll (1–5 staff), year-end accounts
Growing SME (£500k–£2m turnover)	£300 – £900	Full bookkeeping, monthly management accounts, VAT, payroll, director tax returns
Larger or complex business	£900 – £3,500+	Multi-entity accounting, advisory, complex compliance, dedicated resource

Outsourcing bookkeeping and accounting services usually starts at about £13. It can go up to £60 per hour, depending on the complexity of the work and on whether offshore/onshore/hybrid outsourcing is chosen. The cost of a dedicated resource (or managed FTE) when the accountancy firm outsources the full-time equivalent employee usually starts from about £1,000 to £1,800 a month for junior/middle-level resources and increases to about £2,000 to £3,000+ for more experienced staff.

Don’t forget that accounting services are VAT-charged at 20%, and if you get a quote of £250 per month for this service, the total price on the invoice would be £300 if you do not recover VAT.

What Affects Accounting Outsourcing Costs?

Four factors do most of the work in determining your final price. Understanding them makes it much easier to compare quotes fairly, rather than picking the cheapest number on the page.

Volume of Work

The larger the number of transactions, invoices, payslips, or bank transactions a provider has to 

work through your account per month, the more time they will have to spend on this each month. The sole trader with a couple of transactions a month will always be cheaper to deal with than a retailer with hundreds of transactions of various types per month. It is usually directly related to the transaction volume that most providers charge for, so it might be good to have an estimate of how many transactions a business does per month when requesting quotes.

Complexity of Accounting Work

All accounting work is not equally complex. Bank reconciliation and simple bookkeeping fall into the lowest part of the pricing scale, but VAT schemes, CIS, multi-currency transactions, rental income, or overseas transactions add complexity and therefore cost to the work.

Level of Expertise Required

While a lower-level bookkeeper can manage data input and reconciliation tasks more cheaply than a qualified accountant who prepares annual accounts, tax calculations, or reports for investment purposes, if you have a requirement that demands advisory services, forecasting, payroll services, or annual reports, you will need a higher-level resource.

Turnaround Time

Normal monthly accounting cycles cost less than faster turnaround periods. In case you require weekly cash flow statements, quick month-end closes, or catch-up accounting services to update old accounting records, there is usually a surcharge placed on your job to make it take priority over other tasks.

Accounting Outsourcing Pricing Models

Outsourced accounting providers in the UK generally use one of three pricing structures. Which one suits you depends on how predictable your workload is and how much control you want over ongoing costs.

Hourly Pricing

You pay for the actual time spent on your accounts. This suits businesses with irregular or unpredictable workloads, or those testing outsourcing for the first time without committing to a long-term contract. The downside is less cost predictability month to month.

Fixed-Fee / Per-Job Pricing

You pay a set fee for a defined piece of work — a VAT return, a year-end filing, a payroll run. This model works well for practices or businesses with seasonal spikes, one-off projects, or overflow work that doesn’t justify a permanent arrangement.

Monthly or Dedicated Resource Pricing

Either you pay a monthly retainer fee for constant service delivery or a dedicated resource that works on your projects only, also known as the Managed FTE (full-time equivalent). This is the most popular business engagement model, where a company requires constant service delivery from an employee with whom they can get acquainted.

Pricing Model	How It Works	Best Suited To
Hourly	Billed per hour of work completed	Irregular workloads, first-time outsourcing
Fixed-fee / per-job	Set price per completed task or filing	Seasonal work, one-off projects, overflow capacity
Monthly / dedicated resource	Fixed monthly retainer or dedicated FTE	Ongoing, predictable, higher-volume needs

In-House vs Outsourced Accounting Costs

Comparing a monthly outsourcing fee directly against an in-house salary rarely tells the whole story. Hiring in-house involves several costs that don’t show up in the headline salary figure.

Salary and employment costs. The median annual wage for a UK-based accountant is roughly £50,000 as per ONS wage statistics, while a UK bookkeeper’s annual wage is around £29,000. In addition to salary, employers contribute 15% Class 1 National Insurance to employees’ earnings in excess of £5,000 through the secondary earnings threshold.

Recruitment and training

Recruitment agencies in the UK commonly charge 20–30% of a role’s annual salary to fill a position on a £34,000 hire, which can mean a recruitment cost of £5,000 or more, before factoring in onboarding time and training.

Software and infrastructure

In-house teams need accounting software licences, a workstation, and often office space — costs that can run into several thousand pounds a year once desk space, equipment, and IT support are included.

Outsourcing fees

However, accounting that is outsourced tends to be a single monthly fee, which takes into account all of the factors, including staffing, software and management, without any hiring risks or personnel costs, and with complete flexibility of scaling up or down as your business requires.

Nevertheless, it does not necessarily mean that outsourcing will always be cheaper since tiny bookkeeping tasks can actually be handled part-time in-house.

But for most growing businesses, outsourcing removes a large chunk of the hidden costs that come with employing accounting staff directly.

How to Estimate Your Accounting Outsourcing Cost

A simple way to build your own estimate is to work through four questions in order:

• Work Volume : How many transactions, invoices, or payslips do you process monthly? Higher volume pushes you toward the upper end of any given pricing band.
• Complexity : Do you need VAT, payroll, CIS, multi-entity, or international reporting? Each additional layer of complexity adds to the base price.
• Required Expertise : Do you need a bookkeeper for day-to-day entries, or a qualified accountant for statutory accounts and tax computations? Seniority is one of the biggest cost drivers.

For instance, a UK-based accountancy firm with a growing base of small and medium-sized businesses requiring approximately 400 transactions, standard VAT, payroll for eight employees, and monthly management accounting would fit the bill of around £600 – £1,200 a month in a dedicated monthly retainer, as opposed to approximately £1,800 – £2,400+ a month for an equivalent accountant employed within.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is outsourced accounting cheaper than using a salaried staff member? 

Yes, most often, for small and mid-sized companies, once salary, NI contributions, recruitment costs, software, and office expenses for hiring an in-house accountant are taken into account. Very small or simple accounts will be cheaper to maintain with just a little in-house or part-time help.

What influences the cost of outsourced accounting services? 

The main factors influencing the price are the number of transactions, the complexity of the work (VAT, payroll, CIS, multi-entity accounts), skill level, and urgency. Pricing structure is important too; a monthly retainer scheme offers better rates than an hourly payment for continuous work.

How do accounting outsourcing service providers charge their clients?

The majority of accounting outsourcing providers take into account such factors as the number of transactions, the complexity of the job, the seniority of the resource that will work on your account, and the pricing model (hourly, fixed, or monthly) to determine the amount of the fee. It makes sense to always clarify the fee schedule in detail.

How much does accounting outsourcing cost?

Typically, the cost of outsourcing accounting services depends on the kind of business and the type of transactions. In most cases, UK-based businesses pay from £150 to £1,500 monthly, small firms can be charged below £150, and larger or more complex firms might pay £3,500+ per month.

How much does monthly outsourcing accounting cost?

On a monthly basis, limited firms’ accounts cost from £150 to £350, accounts of growing SMEs from £300 to £900, and the accounts of larger firms from £900 to £3,500+. The cost of dedicated resources typically starts at approximately £1,000 to £1,800 or more.