Finance processes to outsource, and the ones to keep

Key takeaways

The finance processes to outsource first are the high-volume, rule-based ones: supplier invoices, billing, cash allocation, reconciliations and payroll processing. Reporting and tax preparation usually split. Budgeting, pricing, approvals and funding decisions stay in-house. The pattern is the same everywhere in finance: processing moves, decisions stay.

• Outsource: payables, billing, cash allocation, reconciliations, payroll processing.
• Split: management accounts, VAT, year-end prep, cash forecasting.
• Keep: budgets, pricing, approvals, funding and investment.
• Payment release and bank detail changes always stay in-house.

Which finance processes outsource most easily?

Processes with steady volume, written rules and outputs that reconcile. Supplier invoice processing, recurring billing, matching receipts to invoices, bank and supplier statement reconciliations, and payroll processing all fit. They are also where small finance teams lose the most hours to routine work.

• Which business processes should you outsource?
• In-house vs outsourced accounts payable
• Recurring billing admin: run it like clockwork
• In-house vs outsourced payroll for small businesses

Which finance processes should be split?

Processes where routine preparation leads up to a judgement. Management accounts, VAT returns, year-end preparation and cash forecasting each have a preparation stage that moves and a review or decision stage that stays.

• Management accounts: pack out, review in.
• VAT: preparation out, approval in.
• Year end: pack out, accounts with your accountant.
• Cash forecast: updates out, assumptions in.

• Management accounts: outsource the pack, keep the review
• VAT return preparation: outsource the routine, own the return
• Cash flow forecasting: outsource the model, keep the calls

Which finance processes should stay in-house?

Budgeting and target setting, pricing, approval and release of payments, changes to bank details, borrowing and investment decisions, and any process where a director carries personal legal responsibility. A provider can prepare the information for each; the decision and the accountability stay with you.

• Budgeting: the process stays yours, the admin can move
• Supplier payment runs: outsource the prep, keep approval
• Should you outsource pricing? Why the decision stays in-house

What does outsourcing finance processes cost?

Indicative managed offshore rates run about £9–£18 an hour, against about £19.81 per worked hour for an employee on £30,000. In an illustrative example, a firm with 15 hours a week of payables, billing and reconciliations would pay roughly £135–£270 a week to a managed team, before review time. These are market ranges, not a GBL price.

• BPO cost per hour in the UK
• Scaling the finance function without a bigger finance team

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: a finance manager spends half their week on processing and half on the analysis they were hired for. Moving the processing does not remove the role; it lets them do the half that matters.

• See client work
• BPO Solutions for UK businesses

Finance process checklist

Work through your finance processes in this order.

• List every finance process with weekly hours.
• Mark processing stages and decision stages.
• Score the high-hours processes.
• Move one processing stage first.
• Keep approvals and payment release in-house.
• Review after 30 days before moving the next.

• The process selection score: outsource, split or keep?
• Record to report: which parts should you outsource?

Next step

Send us a list of your finance processes and who does them. We will give you a verdict for each and suggest which to move first.