When owner-managed businesses compare an in-house finance hire with outsourcing, the comparison usually starts in the wrong place: salary on one side, a monthly fee on the other. That's not a like-for-like comparison, and it tends to make the in-house option look cheaper than it really is.
Here's how to compare the two properly.
The fully loaded cost of a hire
The salary is only the starting point. On top of it, a UK employer typically pays:
Employer National Insurance on earnings above the secondary threshold.
Employer pension contributions under auto-enrolment, at a minimum of 3% of qualifying earnings, often more.
Benefits such as healthcare, life cover or a car allowance, if you offer them.
Software and equipment — accounting system licences, a laptop, and any other tools the role needs.
Recruitment — agency fees are commonly a meaningful percentage of first-year salary, or the internal time spent recruiting directly.
Management time — someone has to supervise, review and support the role, and that someone is usually you.
Add those up and the true annual cost of a finance hire is typically well above their headline salary.
What you get for that cost
Just as important as what the hire costs is what it buys you: one person's capacity and one person's skills. If they're strong on bookkeeping but less confident on management accounts, that gap stays with the business. If they're on holiday or off sick during month-end, month-end waits. If they leave, you start again — often without anyone in the business able to judge whether the replacement is any good.
What outsourcing actually buys
A properly outsourced finance function gives you a team rather than an individual: accounts payable, accounts receivable, treasury, management accounts and expenses each handled by people who specialise in them. Cover for holidays and absence is built in, the process is documented rather than living in someone's head, and the cost is a known monthly figure rather than a salary plus a list of add-ons.
When in-house still makes sense
Outsourcing isn't the right answer for everything. A senior finance leader who shapes strategy, sits with the leadership team and makes judgement calls on the business is usually best kept in-house. The clearest line to draw is between strategy and judgement, which you keep, and the processing and reporting that underpins them, which is where outsourcing earns its keep.
Making the comparison fair
When you compare the two, put the fully loaded cost of the hire — not just the salary — against the outsourced fee. Then compare what each gives you: capacity, breadth of skills, cover, and continuity when someone leaves. For many owner-managed businesses, the outsourced function costs less and delivers more.
How we compare
Delegaits runs finance & accounting as a complete function, delivered by our team to the standard you'd expect in the UK. Because we also automate repeatable steps and use AI agents within clearly defined controls, the cost keeps coming down as we learn your business. Clients can typically reduce back-office costs by around 30%, with no recruitment fees and no single point of failure.