The cost of hiring an offshore accountant cannot be judged from a salary or monthly fee alone. The real figure includes recruitment, management time, technology, vacancy risk, rework and the cost of replacing the wrong person.
That does not mean offshore staffing is secretly expensive. It means the comparison needs to be honest. A low monthly number attached to a poorly designed role is not a saving. A more experienced person who removes a genuine capacity constraint can be valuable even when they are not the cheapest option.
Start with the role, not the country
Before comparing prices, define what you need the person to own. A bookkeeper processing routine transactions is a different hire from an accountant preparing management accounts or a client manager handling review meetings. Experience, judgement and communication requirements move the cost far more than the word offshore.
Write down the recurring work, expected experience, systems used, working-hour overlap and the person who will supervise the role. If those points are unclear, any cost comparison is premature.
The seven costs that matter
- Recruitment: sourcing, screening, interviewing and the management time spent reaching a decision.
- Placement or setup fees: the one-off cost of establishing the hire.
- Monthly staffing cost: the agreed fee for the dedicated role and the support included in it.
- Technology and access: client-specific licences, access controls and any additional costs not already included in the provider fee.
- Onboarding and management: process training, review time, feedback and performance management.
- Vacancy and replacement risk: the cost of work left undone when a role is empty or the first hire is wrong.
- Quality cost: corrections, missed deadlines and senior time consumed by preventable rework.
Around People pricing
The fees below are in euros. For US placements, view our indicative USD monthly fees and placement fee. Use the pricing for your market when building the budget.
Around People charges a one-off placement fee of €1,950 plus VAT. Current monthly bands are published on our pricing page so buyers can see the expected range before booking a call.
| Location | Role | Indicative monthly fee |
|---|---|---|
| Sri Lanka | Bookkeeper | €1,750 to €2,250 |
| Sri Lanka | Senior bookkeeper | €2,250 to €2,750 |
| Sri Lanka | Accountant | €2,750 to €3,250 |
| South Africa | Senior bookkeeper | €2,800 to €3,500 |
| South Africa | Accountant | €3,500 to €4,000 |
| South Africa | Senior accountant | €4,000 to €4,500 |
These are indicative bands checked against the pricing page on 3 October 2026. Senior auditor and client manager fees are not published there; discuss the defined role rather than assuming these bands cover it. The placement fee is €1,950 plus VAT. Exact fees depend on the shortlist, experience and scope.
The exact band depends on the role and level of experience. A senior client-facing accountant should not be compared with an entry-level production bookkeeper simply because both work remotely.
Compare against the full local hiring cost
A fair local comparison includes more than gross salary. It may include employer taxes, pension contributions, recruitment agency fees, equipment, office space, training, paid leave and the commercial cost of waiting months for the right person.
The local option may still be correct, particularly where the role requires physical presence, local statutory expertise or constant face-to-face client contact. Offshore staffing is useful when the work can be delivered securely through cloud systems and the team can manage the person properly.
Management time is a cost in every model
Dedicated offshore staff are not a managed accounting service. They work inside your team, so somebody must set priorities, review quality and give feedback. That time should be included in the business case.
The same is true of local hires, but the issue becomes more visible across distance. If a partner or finance director has no capacity to supervise the role, a cheaper hire can create more work rather than release capacity.
The cost of a vacant seat
Vacancies are expensive because work does not disappear. Senior staff absorb production tasks, deadlines become harder to manage and new work may be refused. A realistic comparison should include how long each route is likely to take and what happens if the first hire leaves.
Around People provides a 30-day replacement commitment and does not charge the monthly fee while a vacant seat is being replaced. That does not remove disruption, but it limits the financial exposure while a replacement is found.
The cost of poor quality
Low-cost work is not low cost when it repeatedly returns for correction. Track review points, avoidable errors, missed deadlines and the hours senior staff spend fixing work. These are operational costs even when they never appear as a separate invoice.
Quality also depends on role design. A capable accountant can fail when instructions are inconsistent, systems access is incomplete or review feedback arrives weeks late. Do not blame geography for a management problem.
How to build the business case
- Calculate the annual provider and placement cost.
- Add any genuinely additional software costs and internal onboarding time, avoiding costs already included in the fee.
- Estimate the senior review time required each month.
- Compare it with the fully loaded local alternative.
- Include the commercial impact of the likely recruitment timeline.
- Define the output or capacity that should improve after three and six months.
The answer should not be expressed only as a saving percentage. It should explain what capacity is created, which higher-value work existing staff can resume and how quickly the investment should begin paying back.
A first-year budget you can use
For the published Sri Lankan accountant band of €2,750 to €3,250 per month, twelve monthly fees plus the €1,950 placement fee total €34,950 to €40,950. VAT on the placement fee, any agreed exceptional costs and your own management time must be considered separately. This is a worked illustration using published indicative bands, not a quote or a comparison with a specific local hire.
| Budget item | Your figure |
|---|---|
| Agreed monthly fee × 12 | €_____ |
| One-off placement fee | €1,950, plus VAT |
| Exceptional role costs agreed before placement | €_____ |
| Client-specific software access, if additional | €_____ |
| Internal onboarding and review hours × internal cost | €_____ |
| Recurring responsibilities the person will take over | _____ |
Around People’s published monthly fee includes employment, payroll, statutory deductions, HR, equipment, IT support and ongoing support. Do not add those items again when comparing options. Check the scope of any client-specific licence or exceptional cost before agreeing the role.
We ask you to plan for a long-term placement of at least twelve months. That is an expectation of continuity rather than a contractual minimum term. The refund and notice terms on the pricing page still apply.
Your next step
Hiring for a US firm? See dedicated accounting staff for US firms and indicative USD pricing.
Compare the current role bands and terms. If the budget fits, book a call to define the role and likely monthly fee before a shortlist is built.
