Offshore bookkeeping vs outsourced bookkeeping in Australia: costs and your three options

Outsourced bookkeeping means paying someone outside your business to keep your books, and in Australia you have three ways to do it: a local bookkeeping firm, an offshore bookkeeping agency, or offshore bookkeeping through your own bookkeeper, hired directly. A local bookkeeper charged an average of $79.27 an hour for general bookkeeping in the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers’ 2024 survey. An agency adds a monthly fee on top of the bookkeeper’s salary. A direct hire costs around $1,400 a month in salary plus a one-time recruitment fee.

The choice matters because bookkeeping is a cost you pay every month: the wrong model either overpays for routine work or leaves your BAS compliance exposed. This guide compares the three on cost, control and compliance. If you have already decided to hire your own offshore bookkeeper and want the step-by-step, read how to hire an offshore bookkeeper in Australia. If you need accounting work beyond bookkeeping, such as financial statements and tax returns, see outsourcing accounting in Australia.

What are the three ways to outsource bookkeeping?

Outsourced bookkeeping services for Australian businesses come in three models. They differ in who the bookkeeper works for, how you pay, and how much of their time you get.

1. A local bookkeeping firm or contract bookkeeper. You pay an Australian bookkeeper by the hour or a fixed monthly fee. Many local accountants and accounting firms also sell bookkeeping services alongside tax work. They work on your file alongside other clients. This suits small businesses with a few hours of work a month, or businesses that want a registered BAS agent to handle the whole BAS cycle.

2. An offshore bookkeeping service or agency. Outsourced bookkeeping companies in this group place a bookkeeper, often in the Philippines, onto your work. The provider is the employer, and you pay a monthly service fee on top of the bookkeeper’s salary for as long as you use them.

3. Hiring your own offshore bookkeeper directly. You hire a Philippines-based bookkeeper yourself, pay them directly, and they work only on your business. You pay a recruiter once to find them, with no ongoing margin. This is the model Tarino recruits for.

What specific bookkeeping tasks can you outsource?

Most routine bookkeeping duties can be done by an outsourced bookkeeper, onshore or offshore, as long as they have access to your accounting software. Specific bookkeeping tasks that are commonly handed over include:

• Accounts payable and receivable: entering supplier bills, raising invoices, matching payments and chasing overdue accounts, so your cash flow figures stay current.
• Bank reconciliation: matching bank feed transactions to invoices and receipts, usually daily or weekly.
• Payroll processing inputs: preparing timesheets, leave balances and pay runs for review. Payroll that interprets tax law, including STP reporting, can be a BAS service (see the BAS section below).
• Financial records and reporting: keeping receipts and records in order, month-end reconciliations, and draft management reports such as profit and loss and aged receivables.
• Budgets and cash flow forecasts: updating a budget against actuals and rolling a cash flow forecast forward from the ledger.
• BAS preparation: reconciling and preparing BAS workpapers for a registered agent to review and lodge.

The work happens inside cloud-based accounting platforms such as Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks Online, so an offshore bookkeeper can work in your existing accounting software rather than a new system. Financial statements, tax returns and advice remain accountant work, which is why many Australian businesses keep their accountant and outsource only the bookkeeping process. Write your bookkeeping requirements down before you approach outsourced providers: the accounting systems you use, your monthly transaction volume and the reports you expect. It makes quotes comparable and onboarding faster.

How much does outsourced bookkeeping cost in Australia?

The table below compares typical costs. The local hourly figure comes from the ICB’s 2024 Annual Bookkeeping Survey, which had 811 respondents. The agency figure is one published rate, from Staff Domain’s pricing page. The direct-hire salary is Tarino’s typical salary for a Philippines-based bookkeeper.

Option	What you pay	Example yearly cost
Local bookkeeper, hourly	$79.27 an hour national average for general bookkeeping	About $41,200 for 10 hours a week
Local bookkeeper, monthly package	A fixed fee, usually built from expected hours	About $19,000 for 20 hours a month at the average rate
Offshore agency	Salary, plus one published rate of A$1,099 per person per month and A$1,200 per hire	Salary plus about $14,400 in fees in year one
Your own offshore bookkeeper, full-time	Around $1,400 a month salary, plus a one-time $5,000 excl. GST recruitment fee	About $16,800 salary plus the one-time fee

The example costs are our own arithmetic from the published figures. Rates vary by location and experience. The ICB survey found bookkeepers within 100km of a capital city charged slightly more ($80.77 an hour), those further out charged around $75.98, and bookkeepers not affiliated with an association averaged $69.

The comparison that matters is cost per hour of real work. A local firm at 10 hours a week costs more per year than the salaries of two full-time offshore bookkeepers. For a business with a full-time workload, a direct hire gives you 38 to 40 hours a week of one person’s time. For a business with three hours of work a month, a local hourly bookkeeper is probably the right answer.

Our offshore hiring cost calculator runs the same comparison for your role, including a local full-time hire.

What does a local bookkeeping firm give you?

A local firm is the simplest option for small volumes. You get an Australian who knows the ATO’s systems, works in your time zone and, if they are registered, can lodge your BAS.

The trade-off is cost per hour. At around $79 an hour, the bookkeeping bill rises with transaction volume, so the bill keeps climbing as the business grows. Many local bookkeepers also have a waiting list, and you share their time with their other clients.

What about an in-house bookkeeper?

If you want a full-time person, a local in-house bookkeeper is another route. Jobs and Skills Australia reports median weekly earnings of $1,400 for full-time bookkeepers (about $72,800 a year), before super and other on-costs. Our article on bookkeeper hourly rates in Australia breaks those numbers down by the hour.

How does an offshore bookkeeping agency work?

Search for “offshore bookkeeping” and most results are agencies. Under that model the agency recruits the bookkeeper, holds the employment contract, provides equipment or office space, and invoices you each month.

You pay the bookkeeper’s salary plus the agency’s fee. One published rate is A$1,099 per person per month plus A$1,200 per hire, which adds up to about $14,400 in fees in the first year on top of salary, and about $13,200 every year after that. The fee is the price of the agency running the employment, payroll and equipment for you.

Some businesses value that. The agency carries the overhead costs, such as office space, equipment and supervision of its offshore team. If you never want to deal with contracts or paying someone overseas, an agency or an employer of record handles it. The cost is that the margin never stops, and the bookkeeper’s employer is the agency, not you.

What does it cost to outsource bookkeeping to the Philippines directly?

When you hire directly, you pay your bookkeeper’s salary and nothing monthly to a middleman. Tarino’s typical salary for a Philippines-based bookkeeper is around $1,400 a month, about $16,800 a year. Our bookkeeper role page lists the tasks and software these hires usually cover, such as Xero, MYOB, Dext and payroll inputs. The practical task in our screening is where software expertise shows, so you see how a candidate works in your kind of file before you hire.

Tarino’s fee is $5,000 excl. GST per placement: $250 upfront to start the search, credited back when you hire, and $4,750 when you hire. There are no monthly fees. We start with 1,000+ candidates per role, screen them through CV checks, a video screen, a practical bookkeeping task and a structured interview, and send you a shortlist of 3 to 4 in about two weeks. Each placement includes 6-month replacement cover for the same role. See pricing for the detail.

You then run the relationship yourself: the contract, monthly pay and day-to-day management. If you would rather not run the employment side, Tarino EOR holds the contract and runs payroll through Deel for $387 per employee per month, separate from the recruitment fee. Our guide to how to pay overseas staff from Australia covers what running it yourself involves.

Is offshore bookkeeping the same as offshore accounting?

No. Offshore bookkeeping covers the day-to-day financial records: transactions, bank reconciliation, accounts payable and receivable, and payroll processing inputs. Offshore accounting, or outsourced accounting more generally, goes further into financial statements, tax returns, management reporting and advice. That work suits an offshore accountant with relevant qualifications, reviewed by your Australian chartered accountants or CPA.

Small and medium businesses usually need bookkeeping support every week and accounting a few times a year. Businesses with more complex operations, such as several entities, inventory or multiple currencies, often need both. Our guide to outsourcing accounting in Australia covers the accounting side.

Do BAS services rules apply to outsourced bookkeeping?

Yes, and this is where many outsourcing setups go wrong. Under the Tax Agent Services Act 2009, a BAS service is a tax agent service relating to a BAS provision, such as GST and PAYG withholding. The Tax Practitioners Board says there are significant civil penalties for anyone providing BAS services for a fee or reward, or advertising them, while unregistered.

The TPB’s own examples draw the line clearly:

• BAS services: completing activity statements or telling a client which figures to include, reconciling data to work out BAS figures, coding transactions where a BAS provision has to be applied, and payroll services that interpret tax law, including STP reporting.
• Not BAS services: performing bank reconciliations, data entry that does not involve working out BAS figures, and coding invoices under the instruction and supervision of a registered tax or BAS agent.

What this means for each option:

• A local firm that prepares or lodges your BAS should be a registered BAS agent or tax agent. You can check the TPB register before you sign.
• An offshore agency selling bookkeeping that includes BAS work is providing a service for a fee, so ask who in its chain is registered and who signs off the BAS.
• Your own offshore bookkeeper works for your business, so scope the role as preparation. They reconcile, code and prepare BAS workpapers. Your registered BAS agent or tax agent reviews and lodges.

This is general information, not tax or legal advice. Confirm how the TPB rules apply to your arrangement with a registered tax agent or a qualified adviser.

What about data security and privacy?

Offshore bookkeepers see your financial data: bank feeds, supplier details and payroll. Data security is mostly about how you grant software access to that financial information. Whichever option you choose, set up named logins with the minimum permissions, turn on multi-factor authentication, keep payment approval onshore and remove access on the day someone leaves.

If you send personal information to an overseas provider, Australian Privacy Principle 8 generally requires you to take reasonable steps to make sure the overseas recipient does not breach the APPs, as the OAIC’s guidelines explain. Our data privacy checklist for offshore hiring and security page walk through the practical setup.

What are the risks of offshore bookkeeping?

Offshore bookkeeping works well for routine volume, but plan for these risks before you start:

• Time zones and communication. The Philippines is two hours behind AEST, and three hours behind during daylight saving, so most of the working day overlaps. Agree how questions get answered and how quickly, so work doesn’t stall.
• Onboarding time. Any new bookkeeper, onshore or offshore, needs time and training on your chart of accounts, suppliers and month-end routine. Budget the first few weeks for it.
• Local knowledge. GST coding and BAS preparation need Australian experience, and lodgement needs a registered agent.
• Separation of duties. A single bookkeeper, in-house or offshore, should not both enter and approve payments. Keep approval with the owner or an onshore manager.
• Data security. Covered above: named logins, minimum permissions and multi-factor authentication.

What are the key factors when you compare providers?

Whichever model you choose, compare providers on the same points before you sign:

• Software compatibility: confirm they already work in your accounting software, whether that is Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks Online, along with the bank feeds and payment integrations you use, and can follow your existing workflow.
• Qualifications and Australian experience: ask about bookkeeping qualifications or membership of a body such as the ICB or IPA, and experience with Australian businesses, GST and BAS.
• Service scope: get a written list of the bookkeeping tasks included, and what is extra, such as payroll processing, accounts payable or month-end financial reporting.
• Transaction volume and business size: a fixed monthly fee is usually priced on expected volume, so ask what happens when the business grows or a month is unusually busy.
• Who reviews the work: ask whether a registered BAS agent, tax agent or qualified accountant reviews the BAS and month-end figures, and who in their team is registered.
• Data security: named logins, multi-factor authentication and a clear process for removing access.
• Total cost: compare a per-person monthly fee, an hourly rate and a one-time recruitment fee over the same period, as in the cost table above.

Which option fits your business needs?

• A few hours a month, and you want BAS lodged for you: a local registered BAS agent on an hourly rate or package.
• Full-time volume, and you want someone else to run the employment: an offshore agency, or a direct hire through an employer of record.
• Full-time volume, and you want the lowest ongoing cost and your own person: hire your own offshore bookkeeper directly, and keep a registered agent for BAS review and lodgement.

Many Australian businesses end up with a mix: a full-time offshore bookkeeper doing the daily work as part of their internal team, and their existing accountant or BAS agent doing the review and lodgement. As business growth adds transaction volume, you can add a second bookkeeper rather than more billable hours. That keeps the specialist hours small, the routine hours cheap, and gives the owner better financial visibility for business decisions.

If you want to talk through which model suits your volume, book a 30-minute call. We will walk you through the numbers and what a direct hire would look like for your business.