An outsourced finance team in Australia typically costs between $1,500 and $6,000+ per month depending on transaction volume, payroll size, and how much strategic oversight sits on top. The in-house alternative it replaces, a bookkeeper plus a finance manager, carries a loaded cost of $250,000+ per year before anyone senior has looked at strategy. This guide breaks down what each price tier includes, what drives the fee up or down, and how to work out which tier your business actually needs.
Published: July 2026
An outsourced finance team is a complete finance function delivered by an external provider: weekly bookkeeping, accounts payable, payroll, BAS and IAS lodgement, month-end close, management reporting, and, at the upper tiers, fractional CFO oversight. It replaces the patchwork most growing businesses run, a part-time bookkeeper, an office manager doing payroll, and a tax accountant seen once a year, with one team working inside your systems. Our pricing page shows how Scale Suite structures this; the rest of this guide covers the market broadly so you can evaluate any provider.
Every outsourcing decision should start with the honest cost of the thing being replaced, and salaries are only the start of it.
A capable full-time bookkeeper in Australia runs a loaded cost of roughly $95,000 to $110,000 per year once superannuation, leave, workers compensation, software, and overheads are counted, per our 2026 finance salary guide. A finance manager sits at roughly $155,000 to $220,000 loaded. Build the standard two-person function and you are past $250,000 a year, or over $20,000 a month, and you still carry recruitment risk, leave gaps, and a single point of failure in each seat. Our comparison of a fractional CFO vs finance manager vs bookkeeper covers this trade-off in detail.
That number is the anchor. Everything below is priced against it.
Suited to simpler businesses: modest transaction volume, a small payroll, single entity, quarterly BAS. What it should include: weekly or fortnightly bookkeeping in your own Xero file, bank reconciliation, payroll processing, superannuation under the new Payday Super timing, BAS and IAS preparation and lodgement by a registered BAS agent, and a monthly P&L you can rely on. What it will not include: deep management reporting or strategic input. At this tier you are buying a clean, compliant record and your evenings back.
This is where most established SMEs land, and where the function starts driving decisions rather than just recording them. On top of the entry scope: accounts payable management, month-end close on a fixed timetable, management accounts with commentary, cashflow reporting, and a responsive team embedded in your communication channels rather than an inbox you email. Businesses with 10 to 30 staff, multiple revenue lines, or award-based payroll typically sit here. The fee scales with volume and payroll complexity, not headcount alone.
The full replacement for an internal finance department: everything above plus fractional CFO oversight, 13-week cashflow forecasting, budgets and variance analysis, board or bank reporting, and support for decisions like pricing, hiring, and funding. Multi-entity structures, investor reporting, and remediation of messy books also price into this tier. Standalone CFO support typically starts around $3,000 per month on its own; bundled with the full function it is materially cheaper than buying the layers separately. Full CFO market pricing sits in our guide to fractional CFO costs in Australia.
Five factors do most of the work in any quote. Transaction volume is the biggest: 150 transactions a month and 1,500 are different jobs. Payroll size and complexity is second, and it matters more since Payday Super made super due with every pay run; weekly-paid, award-covered workforces cost more to run than monthly salaried ones. Entity count is third: each additional entity adds reconciliation, intercompany, and lodgement work. The state of your books is fourth: months of backlog get priced as a one-off catch-up, which is exactly what fixed-price finance tasks exist for, rather than inflating the ongoing fee. And reporting depth is fifth: a P&L is included everywhere; a board pack with commentary is a deliverable that takes senior hours.
A worked example. A services business with 18 staff, roughly 500 transactions a month, fortnightly payroll, one entity, and a need for monthly management accounts is a core-tier engagement, typically landing around $3,000 to $4,000 per month, or $36,000 to $48,000 a year. Against a bookkeeper-plus-finance-manager structure at $250,000+, that is a saving in the order of 80%, with broader capability and no key-person risk. Run your own version of this comparison with our free business calculators, which include employee cost and hire-versus-outsource tools.
A quote well under the ranges above is funding itself somehow, and it is worth knowing how before you sign. The common versions: no registered BAS agent behind the lodgements (searchable on the Tax Practitioners Board register), books kept in the provider's software rather than your own Xero subscription, unsupervised offshore processing with no qualified Australian review layer, or a teaser fee that resets after quarter one. None of these appear on the proposal. All of them appear in the first year.
Answer four questions and the tier usually picks itself. Do you trust your current numbers? If not, start at entry tier and fix the record first. Are decisions waiting on information you do not have, pricing, hiring, cash timing? That is the signal for management reporting, which means core tier. Is a bank, board, or investor asking for reporting you cannot produce? Comprehensive tier. And is anyone senior reviewing the work at all? If the honest answer is no, that review layer is the first thing worth paying for at any tier.
Most businesses do not need to get this perfect on day one. The advantage of a monthly engagement with no lock-in is that scope can start lean and add the CFO layer when the decisions demand it, which is cheaper than buying capability ahead of need.
How much does an outsourced finance team cost in Australia?
Typically $1,500 to $6,000+ per month. Simpler businesses sit at the entry level, most established SMEs invest $2,500 to $6,000 per month for a complete function, and comprehensive engagements with CFO oversight sit at the top of the range.
What does an outsourced finance team include?
At minimum: bookkeeping, payroll, superannuation, and BAS/IAS lodgement by a registered BAS agent. Core and comprehensive tiers add accounts payable, month-end close, management accounts, cashflow forecasting, and fractional CFO oversight.
Is an outsourced finance team cheaper than hiring in-house?
Usually by a wide margin below a certain size. A bookkeeper plus finance manager carries a loaded cost above $250,000 a year, against $30,000 to $70,000 a year for an outsourced function with broader capability and no recruitment or leave risk.
What is the difference between a bookkeeper and an outsourced finance team?
A bookkeeper maintains the record. An outsourced finance team runs the whole function: the record, payroll, compliance, reporting, and, at the top tier, the strategic layer a CFO provides.
How are outsourced finance teams priced?
Almost always as a fixed monthly fee scoped on transaction volume, payroll size and frequency, entity count, and reporting depth. Fixed fees beat hourly billing because the incentive sits on efficiency rather than time spent.
Do outsourced finance teams handle Payday Super?
They should. From 1 July 2026, super is due with every pay run and must reach funds within 7 business days, which makes payroll process discipline part of the core scope, not an add-on.
Should my books be in my own Xero file or the provider's system?
Your own, always. If a provider holds your ledger in their platform, you lose your financial history if the relationship, or the provider, fails.
Can I start small and add CFO support later?
Yes, and with a no lock-in monthly engagement that is usually the right sequence: establish a clean record first, then add forecasting and CFO oversight when decisions require it.
Scale Suite is a Sydney-based provider of outsourced finance teams and fractional CFO services for Australian SMEs. We deliver weekly bookkeeping, payroll, BAS/IAS lodgement, cashflow reporting, management accounts, and strategic fractional CFO oversight, all as a fully embedded team that works inside your business.
CA-qualified, Xero Certified, and registered BAS Agents, we replace fragmented bookkeepers and once-a-year accountants with one responsive finance function at a fraction of the cost of full-time hires. We serve growing businesses across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth, with packages starting from $1,500 per month and no lock-in contracts.
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We review and check this guide periodically. At the time of writing (July 2026), all information was current. Scale Suite is a registered BAS Agent, not a licensed tax advisor or financial advisor. This content is general information only and does not constitute professional tax, financial, or legal advice. Some details may change over time.
Scale Suite is a Sydney-based provider of outsourced finance and HR services for Australian SMEs. We deliver bookkeeping, financial reporting, payroll processing, fractional CFO support, recruitment, employee onboarding, people and culture support, and fractional HR oversight, all as a fully embedded team that works inside your business.
Employment Hero Gold Partner, CA-qualified, and Xero Certified, we replace fragmented finance and HR processes with one responsive, senior-level function at a fraction of the cost of full-time hires. We serve growing businesses across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth, with packages starting from $1,500 per month and no lock-in contracts.
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