Published: October 2025
Managing finances during your business's early days is challenging enough. As your company grows, financial complexity increases exponentially. Eventually, you reach a point where having someone dedicated solely to financial analysis, planning, and management becomes essential rather than optional.
For most Australian business owners, the question isn't whether to hire financial expertise, but when and what type. This guide explains the roles available, the value they provide, and the indicators that signal it's time to bring professional financial capability into your business.
Before understanding when to hire, it's worth clarifying what different finance roles actually involve. The finance function in any business encompasses several distinct responsibilities, and different roles focus on different aspects.
At the highest level, finance professionals handle these critical business functions:
- Financial Planning and Analysis: This involves building forecasts, creating budgets, analysing variances between projected and actual performance, and modelling different scenarios to understand potential outcomes. For Australian businesses, this includes understanding seasonality, market conditions, and how different strategic choices affect financial performance.
- Management Reporting: Finance teams prepare regular reports for management and key stakeholders. This includes monthly management accounts, cash flow statements, and performance reports against budget. Accuracy and timeliness matter enormously, as these reports drive decision-making across the organisation.
- Accounting Operations: Someone needs to ensure transactions are recorded correctly, accounts reconcile properly, and financial records meet Australian accounting standards. This includes managing accounts payable and receivable, payroll processing, and maintaining the general ledger.
- Cash Management: Understanding your cash position, forecasting cash flow, and ensuring you have sufficient funds to meet obligations prevents the crisis situations that sink otherwise viable businesses. This includes managing working capital efficiently and planning for seasonal fluctuations.
- Compliance and Risk: Australian businesses face numerous financial compliance requirements, from BAS lodgement and superannuation obligations to corporate tax and audit requirements. Finance professionals ensure you meet these obligations and identify potential risks before they become problems.
- Strategic Partnership: Perhaps most importantly, senior finance professionals serve as strategic partners to business owners. They translate financial data into insights, identify opportunities and risks, and help evaluate major decisions through a financial lens.
Different roles emphasise different aspects of these responsibilities:
- Bookkeeper: Handles day-to-day transaction recording, basic reconciliations, and data entry. Typically the first finance-related hire for very small businesses, though many outsource this function.
- Accountant Manages accounting operations, ensures compliance with Australian accounting standards, prepares financial statements, and handles tax-related matters. May be internal or external.
- Finance Manager: Focuses on financial planning, budgeting, forecasting, and analysis. Less involved in day-to-day bookkeeping, more focused on forward-looking insights and strategic support.
- Financial ControllerSenior role responsible for all accounting operations, financial reporting, internal controls, and compliance. Ensures financial records are accurate, complete, and audit-ready.
- Chief Financial Officer: Executive role responsible for overall financial strategy, cash management, and leading the finance and accounting teams. Provides senior strategic guidance and contributes to high-level business strategy.
Many business owners question whether hiring dedicated finance expertise is worthwhile, particularly when they're watching every dollar. Understanding the value these professionals provide helps clarify why this investment often pays for itself many times over.
Financial professionals transform raw data into actionable insights. They help you understand which products or services are truly profitable, where you're spending more than necessary, and which investments will generate the best returns.
For example, you might think a particular product line is profitable because it generates solid revenue. A finance professional can show you that after accounting for all direct and indirect costs, that product actually loses money. Or they might identify that a seemingly expensive investment in equipment would pay for itself within 18 months through efficiency gains.
This clarity prevents costly mistakes and helps you allocate resources to their highest-value uses.
Business risks often show up first in financial data. A skilled finance professional spots warning signs early, whether it's deteriorating cash flow, concerning customer concentration, or margin compression.
They can identify when your business is becoming overly dependent on a single customer or supplier, when your working capital cycle is extending dangerously, or when your cost structure will make profitability impossible at current price points.
Early identification of these issues creates time to address them before they become critical problems.
Banks, potential acquirers, and other external parties assess your business partly through the quality of your financial information and management.
Having professional financial expertise demonstrates that you take financial management seriously. It gives external stakeholders confidence that your numbers are reliable, your financial position is accurately represented, and you understand the financial aspects of your business.
This credibility can mean the difference between securing bank financing and being declined, or between negotiating favourable terms and accepting whatever you can get.
Australian businesses face substantial compliance obligations. Missing BAS deadlines, underpaying superannuation, or making errors in tax calculations can result in penalties, interest charges, and ATO attention you'd rather avoid.
Finance professionals ensure you meet these obligations correctly and on time. The cost of hiring expertise is typically far less than the cost of penalties, interest, and the time required to fix compliance problems.
Perhaps most importantly, having professional finance expertise frees you to focus on what you do best. Time you spend wrestling with QuickBooks, trying to build forecasts in Excel, or figuring out BAS requirements is time you're not spending on product development, customer acquisition, or strategic planning.
As your business grows, your time becomes increasingly valuable. Spending it on financial management when someone else could handle it more effectively and efficiently becomes increasingly costly.
Understanding the value of finance expertise is one thing. Determining the right timing for your specific situation requires evaluating several factors.
Revenue provides a rough indicator of when financial complexity typically warrants dedicated expertise:
- Under $1 Million Annual Revenue: At this stage, most Australian businesses can manage with a bookkeeper handling transaction recording and an external accountant managing tax compliance and annual statements. Unless you're in a particularly complex industry or have sophisticated financial structures, dedicated finance expertise is usually premature.
- $1 Million to $5 Million Annual Revenue: This range represents the sweet spot for bringing in your first dedicated finance person, or engaging an outsourced finance team. The business has sufficient revenue to justify the investment, and financial complexity is increasing to the point where professional management adds clear value.
- $5 Million to $20 Million Annual Revenue: Businesses in this range typically need a Financial Controller managing accounting operations, plus either a Finance Manager or outsourced CFO handling strategic financial planning. Some businesses consolidate these functions into a single senior finance hire.
- Above $20 Million Annual Revenue: At this scale, most businesses need a complete finance function including accounting operations, financial planning and analysis, and strategic finance leadership. This might include a CFO, Financial Controller, and supporting team members.
These thresholds are guidelines, not rules. Your specific situation might warrant hiring earlier or later depending on other factors.
Fast-growing businesses need financial expertise earlier than slow-growing ones. If you're doubling revenue annually, the financial complexity increases dramatically, and the consequences of poor financial management are amplified.
Rapid growth strains cash flow, creates working capital challenges, and requires sophisticated forecasting to avoid running out of runway. These situations justify earlier investment in financial expertise.
Conversely, if you're running a stable business with modest growth ambitions, you might manage with more limited financial resources for longer.
Some businesses are simply more complex financially, regardless of revenue size:
- Industry Factors: Manufacturing businesses with inventory management, businesses with project-based accounting, or companies with complex revenue recognition (like SaaS businesses) need financial expertise earlier than straightforward service businesses.
- Multiple Entities or Locations: If you operate through multiple entities, have interstate or international operations, or manage various business units, financial complexity increases substantially.
- Debt ObligationsBusinesses with significant loans or complex financing arrangements need more sophisticated financial management to ensure covenant compliance and maintain relationships with lenders.
- Regulatory RequirementsIf you operate in a regulated industry with specific financial reporting or compliance requirements, professional finance expertise becomes essential earlier.
Certain signals indicate you've waited too long to bring in financial expertise:
You regularly experience cash shortfalls despite appearing profitable on paper. You can't quickly answer basic questions about your margins, customer profitability, or cash runway. You're making strategic decisions without understanding their financial implications. You've missed compliance deadlines or received notices from the ATO. You spend more than 10 hours per week on financial management tasks. Your external accountant has raised concerns about your financial management. You're preparing for major expansion or equipment purchases without professional financial support.
If several of these apply to your situation, you're likely past the point where hiring should have occurred.
Your own financial expertise (or lack thereof) influences the right timing. If you have a strong finance background and genuinely enjoy financial management, you can manage with less external support for longer.
However, most business owners either lack deep financial expertise or have better uses for their time even if they're financially capable. Being able to manage finances and that being the best use of your time are different questions.
Be honest about whether you're maintaining financial management yourself because it's truly the right choice, or because you're uncomfortable delegating something this important.
Once you've determined you need financial expertise, several practical considerations influence your specific approach.
For many Australian businesses, particularly those between $1 million and $10 million in revenue, outsourced finance support often makes more sense than a full-time internal hire.
- Outsourced advantages include: Access to senior expertise at a fraction of full-time cost. Flexibility to scale support up or down as needs change. Broader perspective from working with multiple businesses. Established systems and processes. Lower risk if the relationship doesn't work out.
- Internal hire advantages include: Dedicated focus on your specific business. Deeper knowledge of your operations, culture, and context. Immediate availability for urgent matters. Team member who can take on non-finance responsibilities if needed. Long-term relationship and commitment.
For strategic finance and CFO-level support, outsourcing often provides better value until your business reaches $10 million to $20 million in revenue. For accounting operations and day-to-day financial management, the calculation is more business-specific.
Not every finance need requires a full-time commitment. Consider whether you need:
- Full-time dedicated resource for ongoing, daily financial management and strategic support. This makes sense for businesses above $5 million in revenue, or earlier if complexity warrants it.
- Part-time regular support for businesses that need consistent financial expertise but not necessarily every day. This might be two or three days per week, depending on requirements.
- Project-based engagement for specific initiatives like implementing new financial systems, preparing for business valuations, or building financial models for a specific purpose.
Many businesses benefit from a combination, such as part-time strategic CFO support plus full-time accounting operations, or full-time Finance Manager plus project-based external support for specialised needs.
Think beyond just the individual hire to the structure you're building:
What functions need to be handled internally versus externally? How will this role evolve as your business grows? What systems and technology does this person need to be effective? Who will this person report to and interact with regularly? What decision-making authority will they have?
Planning the structure, even loosely, helps ensure your finance function develops coherently as you scale rather than being cobbled together reactively.
Many Australian business owners find themselves caught between two realities. They recognise the need for professional financial expertise, but they're not ready to commit $150,000+ per year to a full-time Finance Manager or Controller.
This is exactly where outsourced finance teams provide a practical bridge solution.
Services like ScaleSuite allow you to access the financial expertise you need without the full-time commitment. You receive strategic CFO support, financial planning and analysis, management reporting, and system implementation guidance at a fraction of the cost of a permanent hire.
This approach offers several advantages during the transition period:
1. Test Before You Commit: Working with an outsourced finance team lets you understand exactly what level of finance support your business needs before committing to a permanent salary. You might discover you need less support than anticipated, or different expertise than you initially thought.
2. Access Senior Expertise: The outsourced model gives you access to CFO-level strategic thinking that would be unaffordable as a full-time employee for most businesses under $10 million in revenue.
3. Build Systems First: An experienced outsourced team can implement proper financial systems, reporting processes, and controls. When you eventually hire internally, that person inherits a well-structured finance function rather than building from scratch.
4. Maintain Flexibility: As your needs evolve, you can scale outsourced support up or down without the complications of hiring, firing, or restructuring permanent employees.
Many businesses use outsourced finance support for 12 to 24 months before transitioning to an internal hire. By that point, they understand exactly what they need, have robust systems in place, and can justify the investment in a permanent team member. The outsourced team often helps recruit and onboard the internal hire, ensuring a smooth transition.
Scale Suite provides outsourced finance team services for Australian businesses from $1 million to $20 million in revenue. We deliver the financial expertise you need at your growth stage, without the cost and commitment of building a full internal finance department.
Our services include strategic CFO support, financial controller functions, management reporting, budgeting and forecasting, financial modelling, and systems implementation. We work as an extension of your team, providing the financial capability and guidance that drives better decisions and accelerates growth.
With experience across diverse Australian industries and business models, we understand the financial challenges you face and provide practical, actionable solutions tailored to your situation. Whether you need comprehensive finance team coverage or targeted support for specific challenges, ScaleSuite offers flexible engagement models that adapt to your needs.
Visit scalesuite.com.au to learn how we can strengthen your financial operations and support your growth journey.
What's the difference between a bookkeeper, accountant, and finance professional?
A bookkeeper handles day-to-day transaction recording and basic reconciliation. An accountant manages compliance, prepares financial statements, and handles tax matters. A finance professional focuses on strategic financial planning, analysis, and using financial data to guide business decisions. Most businesses need all three functions at different times, though they might be covered by different people or combinations of internal and external resources. An outsourced finance team typically provides all three capabilities in a single engagement.
How much should I expect to pay for my first finance hire in Australia?
For a full-time Finance Manager, expect $110,000 to $150,000 plus superannuation and other on-costs. A Financial Controller ranges from $130,000 to $180,000. When you include recruitment fees (typically 15% to 20% of salary), onboarding time, and the risk of a bad hire, the total investment can exceed $180,000 in the first year. Part-time or outsourced CFO services typically cost $3,000 to $10,000 per month depending on the level of involvement, representing significant savings while you build to full-time hire scale.
Should I hire a finance person before or after reaching $1 million in revenue?
Most businesses under $1 million in revenue can manage with a good bookkeeper and external accountant. However, if you're experiencing rapid growth, operating in a complex industry, or the founder is spending excessive time on financial management, bringing in finance expertise earlier can be worthwhile. The key question is whether professional financial guidance would meaningfully improve decision-making and free up founder time for revenue-generating activities. An outsourced finance engagement is often the right solution for businesses between $500,000 and $2 million in revenue.
What if I make the wrong hire?
Finance hires, like all hires, sometimes don't work out. Mitigate this risk by starting with a probation period, setting clear expectations and metrics, and maintaining regular communication about performance. The cost of a bad hire typically exceeds $100,000 when you factor in salary paid, recruitment fees, lost productivity, and the time required to hire a replacement. This is one reason many businesses start with outsourced finance support, which can be adjusted or ended much more easily than a permanent employment relationship.
Can my external accountant fill the role instead?
External accountants provide valuable services, but they typically focus on compliance, tax, and historical reporting rather than strategic financial management. They're not immersed in your business daily and usually aren't structured to provide the ongoing strategic support you need. Think of your external accountant and your internal finance function (whether permanent or outsourced) as complementary rather than interchangeable. Many businesses use both, with the internal function handling day-to-day management and strategy, and the external accountant handling tax compliance and statutory requirements.
What financial systems should I have before hiring?
At minimum, implement cloud-based accounting software like Xero before bringing in a finance professional. They'll likely want to implement additional tools for specific purposes, but starting with basic accounting infrastructure is essential. Don't wait for perfect systems before hiring though. A good finance hire (or outsourced finance team) will assess your current setup and recommend improvements as part of their onboarding. They'll help you implement tools for budgeting, forecasting, reporting, and analysis appropriate to your business stage.
How do I evaluate candidates if I don't understand finance deeply myself?
Focus on their ability to communicate complex concepts in plain language. Ask them to explain how they've added value in previous roles using specific examples. Discuss challenges your business faces and evaluate their approach to addressing them. Consider their experience with businesses at similar stages and in similar industries. You might also involve a trusted adviser, board member, or external consultant in the interview process to provide technical assessment. Cultural fit and communication skills matter as much as technical expertise, particularly for your first finance hire who will need to build the function from scratch.
Should my first finance hire be a qualified accountant like a CA or CPA?
Not necessarily. If your primary need is strategic financial planning and analysis, business acumen and modelling skills often matter more than formal accounting qualifications. However, if you need someone managing accounting operations and compliance, qualifications like CA (Chartered Accountant) or CPA (Certified Practising Accountant) provide assurance of technical competence. Many businesses pair a strategically focused finance person with an external accounting firm for compliance and statutory work, or use an outsourced finance team that provides both skill sets within a single engagement.
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.
Considering hiring finance staff? Let's compare what you'd get with an internal hire versus our embedded team approach.
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