Most guides to accounting outsourcing costs give you a range and stop there. A range is useful for a sanity check, but you can't budget from it. This guide gives the market range, then a complete published rate card, then the arithmetic most providers leave you to do yourself: what each pricing model works out to per hour, and the monthly volume at which one becomes cheaper than another.
How Much Does Accounting Outsourcing Cost in the UK?
Offshore accounting outsourcing for UK firms typically costs £8 to £25 an hour, against £30 to £90 an hour for UK-based accountants. EarthOne's published rates are £10.50 to £16.50 an hour for ad hoc work, or £750 to £1,450 a month for a dedicated bookkeeper or accountant, with no onboarding fee and no 12-month contract.
The market range comes from QX Accounting's 2026 cost guide, published in April 2026. The EarthOne figures are our own rate card, which is on our pricing page for anyone to check.
A Full Published Rate Card
These are the rates we charge UK accounting firms and UK businesses. The work is done by qualified Indian Chartered Accountants and reviewed by a second qualified CA before it comes back.
| Work type | Rate | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Accounting and year-end | £16.50 an hour | Statutory accounts, CT600 computations, working papers, management accounts, self-assessment |
| Bookkeeping and VAT | £12.50 an hour | Transaction coding, bank reconciliations, ledger maintenance, VAT return preparation and MTD submission |
| Admin and company secretarial | £10.50 an hour | Confirmation statements, register updates, director changes, AR and AP processing, payroll admin |
| Payroll | From £3.00 a payslip | Weekly, fortnightly and monthly payroll, RTI, payslips, P60s, P11Ds, auto-enrolment and CIS |
What a Dedicated Offshore Accountant Costs Per Month
The second way to buy the same work is a dedicated resource: a named person working on your firm only, the same person every week, for a fixed monthly fee.
| Role | Monthly fee | Works out at |
|---|---|---|
| Senior bookkeeper, part-time (80 hours) | £750 | £9.38 an hour, £9,000 a year |
| Senior bookkeeper, full-time (160 hours) | £1,200 | £7.50 an hour, £14,400 a year |
| Senior accountant, part-time (80 hours) | £850 | £10.63 an hour, £10,200 a year |
| Senior accountant, full-time (160 hours) | £1,450 | £9.06 an hour, £17,400 a year |
The hourly figures are simply the monthly fee divided by the hours. They show why the model matters as much as the headline rate: the same bookkeeping work costs £12.50 an hour ad hoc and £7.50 an hour through a full-time dedicated bookkeeper.
When Does a Dedicated Resource Become Cheaper Than Hourly?
Dedicated is only cheaper if you use the hours. The break-even is the monthly fee divided by the ad hoc rate.
| Dedicated option | Monthly fee | Cheaper than ad hoc above |
|---|---|---|
| Bookkeeper, part-time | £750 | 60 hours a month |
| Bookkeeper, full-time | £1,200 | 96 hours a month |
| Accountant, part-time | £850 | About 52 hours a month |
| Accountant, full-time | £1,450 | About 88 hours a month |
If you can't yet say how many hours a month you'll send, start hourly and measure for a month or two. Moving from ad hoc to dedicated carries no penalty and no new minimum term, so there is no cost to finding out first.
Three Worked Examples
Overflow bookkeeping: 40 hours a month
40 hours at £12.50 is £500 a month. A part-time dedicated bookkeeper at £750 would cost more, so hourly is the right model at this volume.
Steady accounts production: 120 hours a month
120 hours at £16.50 is £1,980 a month ad hoc. A full-time dedicated accountant is £1,450 a month and leaves 40 hours spare. Dedicated saves £530 a month at this volume.
A seasonal peak: 60 hours of year-end work in one month
60 hours at £16.50 is £990, paid once. There is no minimum on ad hoc work, so nothing carries over into quieter months.
These are illustrations of the arithmetic, not client results. Your own volumes will differ, and the right model follows from them.
What Changes the Real Price
Two providers quoting the same hourly rate can cost very different amounts over a year. Before comparing rates, ask each provider these five questions.
- Is there an onboarding or set-up fee? We don't charge one. Time spent learning your processes, templates and software is on us.
- What sits on top of the rate? Ask about management fees, software charges and platform markups. We have none.
- How long is the contract? A low rate with a 12-month term is a different product from the same rate on one month's notice. Ours is one calendar month, either way.
- Who reviews the work, and is that included? A second qualified CA reviews every file before it leaves us, inside the published rate.
- Can you see what you paid for? We share weekly timesheets showing the work done, the time spent and who did it.
If you're still deciding what to send first, we've written about how to scope a first outsourcing arrangement by risk, and about what the data says on offshore data security.
A Note on Who Does the Work
Price only means something next to qualification. Our team are qualified Indian Chartered Accountants, members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. That is an Indian qualification, separate from the UK ACA and ACCA, and we don't present it as one. If your firm's compliance framework specifically requires ACCA or ICAEW membership on outsourced files, confirm that with any offshore provider, including us, before you start.
Want the number for your own volumes?
Tell us the hours, the type of work and your software. We will tell you which model is cheaper for you and what it would cost each month.
Book a free 30-minute consultation