When Should a Small Business Outsource Its Bookkeeping?

Signs it is time

If two or more of these are true, outsourcing usually pays for itself.

• You spend more than a few hours a month on the books, or you keep putting them off.
• You have more than one bank account or credit card, or you run payroll.
• Your accounts have not been reconciled in months.
• Your tax preparer charges you extra to sort out the books each year.
• A lender, investor or buyer wants monthly statements.
• You cannot say what last month's profit was.

The honest pros and cons

Pros: you get your time back, the books are done on a schedule, a trained person catches errors, you can scale up or down without hiring, and there is no one to replace when an employee leaves.

Cons: you have less day-to-day control, you must answer questions and send documents promptly, you share financial data with an outside firm, and a service will not know your business as well as a long-time employee in the first few months.

Most of the cons shrink with the right setup. Keep the books in your own accounting file, agree a monthly close date in writing, and give the bookkeeper a single contact who can answer questions quickly.

In-house or outsourced: the cost

The BLS puts the median bookkeeping clerk salary at $50,670 a year (May 2025), about $4,200 a month before payroll taxes, benefits and software. Published outsourced plans cost $199 to $995 a month for most small businesses (Bench, SF Business Solutions, Bookkeeper360, Xendoo).

In-house makes sense once the work fills a full-time role and you want someone on site. Until then, outsourcing costs less. SF Business Solutions also offers a full-time accountant from $1,500 a month for businesses that need one person's full attention.

What to do first

Before you sign with anyone:

• Download 12 months of bank and card statements.
• Pick your software, usually QuickBooks Online or Xero, in your own name.
• List the accounts, loans and payroll the bookkeeper will handle.
• Decide whether past months need catch-up first; cleanup at SF Business Solutions starts at $250.

What you still do yourself

Outsourcing moves the recording and reconciling off your desk, not every decision. You still own the numbers, and a good bookkeeper will ask for a little of your time each month.

• Approve bills and payments before money moves.
• Answer questions about transactions the bookkeeper cannot identify.
• Send receipts, loan statements and anything the bank feed does not show.
• Read the monthly reports and ask when something looks wrong.
• Make the business decisions the numbers point to.