If you're running a business turning over $2M to $10M, chances are you've had this thought: "I need someone to sort out the money side of things." The problem is, you're not sure exactly who that someone is.
Should you hire a bookkeeper? An accountant? A finance manager? Maybe even a fractional CFO? The titles get thrown around interchangeably, but they're very different roles with very different skill sets, very different price tags, and very different impacts on your business.
Most business owners either hire the wrong role for their stage, or they hire the right role but expect it to cover responsibilities it was never designed for. Both mistakes cost you time and money.
This guide breaks down exactly what each role does, what it costs, when you need it, and the gaps each role leaves unfilled.
A bookkeeper keeps the engine running. Their job is recording what has already happened: bank transactions get categorised, invoices get entered, receipts get matched, accounts get reconciled. Good bookkeepers also handle accounts payable and receivable, chase overdue invoices, and prepare the data your accountant needs at tax time.
What a bookkeeper does not do is interpret those numbers, build forecasts, advise on business strategy, or handle complex compliance like payroll tax, FBT, or R&D claims. They record. They don't analyse.
A full-time bookkeeper in Australia costs between $55,000 and $75,000 in salary, plus super, leave, and overheads. A part-time or outsourced bookkeeper typically runs $25,000 to $45,000 per year depending on transaction volume.
Your accountant operates at a higher technical level. They handle tax returns, BAS review and lodgement, year-end financial statements, tax planning, and compliance obligations. They understand the ATO's requirements and make sure your business meets them.
Most small businesses engage an external accountant on a compliance basis, meaning you see them a few times a year around BAS and tax time. Some accounting firms offer advisory, but the reality for most SMEs is that your accountant is reactive. They work with historical numbers, often months old, and their primary job is keeping you compliant rather than helping you grow.
An external accountant for an SME typically costs $3,000 to $15,000 per year depending on complexity. If you hire one in-house, you're looking at $80,000 to $120,000 plus super and overheads.
This is where things shift from recording and compliance into active management. A finance manager or controller owns your financial reporting, builds and maintains budgets, manages cash flow, oversees payroll processes, and produces the monthly numbers your leadership team needs to make decisions.
They sit between your bookkeeper and your CFO. They make sure the books are accurate, the reports are meaningful, and the numbers tell you something useful, not just what happened, but what it means.
The gap here is strategic. A finance manager can tell you your gross margin dropped 4% last quarter. They generally won't tell you whether to renegotiate supplier terms, restructure your pricing, or exit a product line. That's CFO territory.
A finance manager in Australia costs $100,000 to $140,000 in salary. Fully loaded with super, leave, payroll tax, and overheads, you're looking at $130,000 to $180,000 per year.
A CFO is a strategic role. They translate financial data into business decisions. They build financial models for growth scenarios, manage banking relationships, lead fundraising or debt structuring, oversee risk management, and sit alongside the CEO or founder as a strategic partner.
A full-time CFO in Australia commands $200,000 to $350,000 in salary. With super and on-costs, total cost sits between $260,000 and $450,000 per year. That's why most businesses under $10M in revenue can't justify a full-time CFO, and why the fractional CFO model exists.
A fractional CFO gives you 5 to 15 hours per month of strategic finance input, typically costing $2,500 to $8,000 monthly. You get the thinking without the headcount.
The role you need depends less on what sounds impressive and more on what problems you're actually trying to solve.
$500K to $1M revenue: You need a part-time bookkeeper and an external accountant. At this stage, the business owner typically handles cash flow decisions and basic financial planning themselves. Total finance cost: $15,000 to $30,000 per year.
$1M to $3M revenue: Transaction volume increases, payroll gets more complex, BAS obligations grow, and the owner starts spending too much time on finance admin. You need a more capable bookkeeper (possibly full-time), your external accountant, and you're starting to need someone who can produce meaningful monthly reports, not just a profit and loss but analysis of what's driving results. Total finance cost: $40,000 to $80,000 per year.
$3M to $5M revenue: This is the awkward middle ground. You have enough complexity to need a finance manager or controller, but you might not have enough work to justify the $130K+ fully loaded cost. You definitely need CFO-level thinking for decisions around hiring plans, pricing strategy, and cash flow forecasting, but a full-time CFO is out of the question. Total finance cost if building internally: $100,000 to $180,000 per year.
$5M to $10M revenue: You need a proper finance function. That means accurate books, timely reporting, cash flow management, budgeting, compliance, and strategic oversight. Built internally, that's a bookkeeper plus a finance manager plus a part-time or fractional CFO plus your external accountant. Total cost: $200,000 to $350,000+ per year.
Here's the pattern that catches most business owners: you hire for one role and expect it to cover two or three.
You hire a bookkeeper and expect them to produce board-ready financial reports. They can't, that's not their skill set. You hire an accountant and expect monthly strategic advice. They're set up for quarterly compliance, not ongoing advisory. You hire a finance manager and expect them to build financial models and manage your banking relationships. That's CFO work.
Each role has hard boundaries. When you hire one role in isolation, you always have gaps. The question is whether you fill those gaps yourself (costing your time), leave them unfilled (costing your business), or find a model that covers multiple layers without requiring multiple hires.
There are a few reliable indicators that your current finance setup doesn't match your business needs.
If you're spending more than 5 hours per week on finance tasks yourself, something is missing. That's 260 hours per year of founder time going to work that should be handled by someone else.
If your bookkeeper is producing monthly reports but you don't trust the numbers enough to make decisions from them, you need a more senior pair of eyes reviewing the work. Bookkeepers produce data. Controllers and CFOs produce insight.
If your accountant only contacts you at BAS time and tax time, you're getting compliance but not advisory. That might be fine at $500K in revenue. At $3M+, it's a problem.
If you've delayed a major business decision (hiring, pricing changes, expansion, capital expenditure) because you didn't have the financial analysis to support it, you're missing CFO capability.
And if you've been burned by a finance hire who couldn't do what you expected, the issue was probably a role mismatch rather than a people problem. A great bookkeeper will still fail if you need them to be a finance manager.
For businesses in the $2M to $10M range, there's a third option beyond hiring individual roles or leaving gaps unfilled. An outsourced finance team can cover bookkeeping, management reporting, and CFO-level oversight under a single engagement.
This model works because most SMEs don't need 40 hours a week of any one finance role. They need 15 hours of bookkeeping, 5 hours of financial reporting, and 3 hours of strategic input. An embedded team structures around the actual work required rather than forcing you to buy full-time headcount you can't fully utilise.
The key differences from a traditional bookkeeper or accountant: daily availability rather than monthly or quarterly check-ins, proactive identification of issues rather than reactive reporting, and strategic capability layered on top of operational execution.
Scale Suite provides embedded finance teams for Australian SMEs. Our team covers bookkeeping, BAS, payroll, monthly reporting, and fractional CFO services under a single monthly engagement, starting from $1,500/month. We integrate with your business via daily communication, not monthly emails. Every engagement is overseen by a Chartered Accountant. Request your free proposal or book a 30-minute call to see how it compares to your current setup.
Ask yourself three questions. First, what finance tasks are currently not getting done or getting done badly? That tells you what capability you're missing. Second, how many hours per week does each capability actually require? That tells you whether you need a full-time hire or a fractional resource. Third, what's the total cost of filling all the gaps versus engaging a team that covers them together?
If you're spending more than 5 hours a week on finance tasks yourself, that's a clear signal. If your bookkeeper is doing great but you have no idea whether your pricing is right or your cash flow will sustain your next hire, that's a gap. If you're paying for an accountant you only hear from at BAS time, that's a missed opportunity.
The right answer isn't always the same role. It's the right combination of capabilities for your stage, your complexity, and your budget.
You can use our employee cost calculator to see the fully loaded cost of any finance hire, or our contractor vs employee calculator to compare engagement models.
What is the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant in Australia?
A bookkeeper records day-to-day financial transactions: bank reconciliation, invoice entry, receipt matching, and accounts payable/receivable. An accountant handles higher-level compliance work including tax returns, BAS review and lodgement, year-end financial statements, and tax planning. Most Australian SMEs need both, though a bookkeeper handles ongoing operational work while an accountant is engaged periodically for compliance and advisory.
When should an Australian business hire a finance manager?
Most businesses need a finance manager or financial controller when they reach $3M to $5M in revenue. At this stage, transaction volume and reporting requirements outpace what a bookkeeper can handle, and the business owner needs monthly financial reports, budgets, cash flow management, and someone who can interpret the numbers rather than just record them. The fully loaded cost of a finance manager in Australia is $130,000 to $180,000 per year.
How much does a fractional CFO cost in Australia?
A fractional CFO in Australia typically costs $2,500 to $8,000 per month, providing 5 to 15 hours per month of strategic finance input. This includes financial modelling, cash flow forecasting, pricing strategy, board reporting, and banking relationship management. By comparison, a full-time CFO costs $260,000 to $450,000 per year fully loaded. Fractional CFOs are most common in businesses turning over $2M to $10M that need strategic capability without full-time headcount.
Can a bookkeeper do BAS lodgement in Australia?
A bookkeeper can prepare BAS data, but lodgement must be done by a registered BAS agent or tax agent. Many bookkeepers hold BAS agent registration, which allows them to lodge on your behalf and claim the extended lodgement deadlines available to registered agents. If your bookkeeper is not a registered BAS agent, they can prepare the figures but you or your accountant will need to review and lodge.
What does an embedded or outsourced finance team include?
An embedded finance team typically covers bookkeeping, payroll, BAS preparation and lodgement, monthly financial reporting, cash flow management, and fractional CFO oversight under a single monthly engagement. This model is designed for businesses that need capability across multiple finance layers but can't justify hiring three or four separate roles. Monthly costs typically range from $2,500 to $6,000 depending on business complexity and transaction volume.
Should I hire a finance manager or outsource my finance function?
The decision depends on hours required and capability breadth. If you need 40+ hours per week of dedicated finance work and can afford $130,000 to $180,000 per year, an in-house finance manager makes sense. If you need 15 to 25 hours across bookkeeping, reporting, and strategic oversight, an outsourced team delivers broader capability at lower total cost. Many businesses in the $2M to $5M range find that outsourcing covers all five layers of their finance function for roughly what a single bookkeeper costs in-house.
Scale Suite delivers embedded finance and human resource services for ambitious Australian businesses.Our Sydney-based team integrates with your daily operations through a shared platform, working like part of your internal staff but with senior-level expertise. From complete bookkeeping to strategic CFO insights, we deliver better outcomes than a single hire - without the recruitment risk, training time, or full-time salary commitment.
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