You are about to post a job ad for a finance manager. You have a vague sense that you need someone to "sort out the money side of things." But if someone asked you to list exactly what this person would do from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, you would probably struggle.
That matters. Because a finance manager costs $100,000 to $140,000 in salary. Add super at 12%, payroll tax, workers compensation, leave entitlements, equipment, and management overhead, and you are looking at $135,000 to $185,000 per year fully loaded. Use our employee cost calculator to see the exact figure for your state.
Before you commit to that, here is what you are actually buying.
A finance manager's day typically starts by reviewing the bank position. They check overnight transactions, confirm expected payments have landed, and flag anything unusual. If cash is tight, they are deciding which supplier payments to prioritise today.
They then move to overseeing the bookkeeping function. If you have a bookkeeper, the finance manager reviews their work: checking transaction coding, reconciliation status, and accounts receivable ageing. If you do not have a bookkeeper, the finance manager is doing this work themselves, which means you are paying $130K+ for someone to code receipts and chase invoices.
This takes one to two hours daily. In a $3M to $5M business, there are typically 200 to 500 transactions per month flowing through your accounting system, all of which need correct coding, GST treatment, and reconciliation.
The finance manager processes or approves supplier invoices, schedules payment runs, and manages creditor relationships. They chase overdue customer invoices, escalate long-outstanding debts, and update cash flow forecasts based on expected collections.
In a typical SME, accounts receivable management alone consumes 3 to 5 hours per week. When your average debtor days sit at 45 (common in professional services and trades), roughly $370,000 of a $3M business's revenue is permanently tied up in unpaid invoices. Managing that number down to 30 days frees approximately $125,000 in working capital. That is a core finance manager responsibility.
This is where the role shifts from operational to analytical. A good finance manager produces monthly management reports: profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow statement, and budget variance analysis. They should be explaining why gross margin dropped 3% last month, not just telling you that it did.
In practice, month-end close and reporting consumes a full week of work each month. That is 25% of the finance manager's time spent on backward-looking analysis. For the remaining three weeks, they should be building budgets, updating forecasts, modelling scenarios (can we afford this hire, what happens if we lose our biggest client), and providing the numbers behind business decisions.
The gap most business owners discover is that many finance managers are strong on the operational and reporting work but weak on the strategic analysis. They can tell you what happened. They struggle to tell you what to do about it.
Throughout the month, the finance manager handles:
In a business with 15 to 25 employees, payroll and compliance alone consume 8 to 12 hours per week.
Here is what catches most business owners off guard. A finance manager is not a CFO. They typically cannot:
If you need those things, you need CFO capability on top of your finance manager. A full-time CFO costs $200,000 to $350,000 in salary. A fractional CFO costs $2,500 to $8,000 per month. Read more in our guide on what a fractional CFO actually does.
Here is the maths that most business owners do not run before hiring.
A finance manager works roughly 1,900 productive hours per year (after leave, public holidays, and sick days). In a $3M business with 15 employees, the actual finance work typically breaks down as:
That totals approximately 1,650 hours. Close to full utilisation, but the critical question is whether those hours require a $130K+ person. Much of the operational work (transaction processing, AP/AR, payroll) could be handled by a $65K bookkeeper or outsourced team. The high-value work, reporting analysis, budgeting, and strategic support, only requires 450 hours per year, or roughly 9 hours per week.
You are paying a premium salary for someone whose time is split roughly 70% operational and 30% strategic. That is the structural inefficiency of hiring a single person to cover a function that naturally spans multiple skill levels.
An embedded finance team replaces the single-hire model with a team that covers the full range: junior-level transaction processing, mid-level reporting and compliance, and senior-level strategic oversight. You get the bookkeeper, the finance manager, and the CFO thinking, without hiring three people.
For a $3M business, this typically costs $3,000 to $6,000 per month ($36,000 to $72,000 per year), compared to $135,000 to $185,000 for a finance manager alone who still cannot provide CFO-level insight.
The other advantage is coverage. When your finance manager takes two weeks of annual leave, the work stops. With a team-based model, coverage is built in.
There are scenarios where hiring a dedicated finance manager is the right call:
If none of those apply, an embedded model likely gives you better coverage at lower cost.
What is the difference between a finance manager and a bookkeeper?
A bookkeeper records transactions: coding expenses, reconciling accounts, and processing invoices. A finance manager oversees the bookkeeper's work and adds reporting, analysis, budgeting, and compliance management. In practice, many SME finance managers end up doing significant bookkeeping work because the role absorbs whatever needs doing.
How much does a finance manager cost fully loaded?
$135,000 to $185,000 per year including salary ($100K to $140K), superannuation (12%), payroll tax (if applicable), workers compensation, annual leave, sick leave, equipment, and management overhead. Use our employee cost calculator to see the number for your specific situation.
Can a bookkeeper do what a finance manager does?
Not typically. A bookkeeper can handle transaction processing and basic BAS preparation, but they are not trained to produce management reports, build budgets, analyse financial performance, or provide decision support. These are fundamentally different skill sets.
Should I hire a finance manager or outsource?
It depends on your scale and complexity. For businesses under $5M in revenue with fewer than 25 employees, outsourcing typically provides broader capability at lower cost. Above $8M to $10M, the volume of work often justifies a dedicated hire. Between $5M and $8M is the grey zone where either model can work.
How long does it take to hire a finance manager?
Recruitment typically takes 6 to 12 weeks, followed by 4 to 8 weeks of onboarding before the person is productive. Total time from decision to full output is 3 to 5 months. An outsourced team can typically be operational within 2 to 4 weeks.
What qualifications should a finance manager have?
Look for CA or CPA qualification, experience with Xero or MYOB, and demonstrated experience in a business of similar size and complexity to yours. Industry experience is valuable but not essential if they have strong general finance management skills.
Scale Suite provides embedded finance teams for Australian SMEs. Our model covers the full finance function: daily bookkeeping and transaction processing, monthly reporting with analysis, BAS and payroll compliance, cash flow management, and strategic CFO support. Every engagement is overseen by a Chartered Accountant.
We work with businesses between $1M and $20M in revenue, typically those with 5 to 50 employees who need proper finance operations without the cost and risk of building an internal team. Our pricing starts from $1,500 per month and scales with your business complexity.
Request your free proposal or book a 30-minute call to see how our embedded model compares to hiring a finance manager.
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.
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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