Finally, an Outsourced Accounting Firm That Gets Your Business

Learn More About Outsourced Accounting

Short answers to the questions business owners and nonprofit leaders ask before they outsource their accounting.

What is an outsourced accounting firm?

An outsourced accounting firm is a company you hire to run your accounting function instead of staffing it yourself. Rather than employing a bookkeeper, an accountant, and eventually a controller, you work with a team that already has those roles, the software, and the processes in place. Because the team does this work across many organizations, the processes arrive proven rather than built from scratch, and coverage does not stop for vacations or turnover. The firm handles the recurring work of recording, reconciling, closing, and reporting, and you keep ownership of every decision. Accountix is based in Santa Barbara and serves growing businesses and nonprofits across California and the United States.

What do outsourced accounting firms actually do?

Day to day, the firm keeps your books current and closes them each month with financial statements you can act on. As you grow, the same team adds budgeting, forecasting, internal controls, and board reporting, and a good firm also manages your financial systems so the numbers flow without manual rework. Our outsourced accounting services page lists what is included at each level of support.

When should you hire an outsourced accounting firm?

Businesses usually reach that point when revenue is growing faster than the systems behind it. The signs are familiar: the books close late, numbers differ between platforms, leadership is making decisions from a bank balance instead of a report, or one person holds every financial process in their head. Nonprofits feel it when grant reporting, restricted funds, and audit requests outgrow a part-time bookkeeper, which is when outsourced accounting for nonprofits pays off. If hiring a full-time accountant feels premature but the work is already more than bookkeeping, that is the window. Our guide walks through the questions to ask before you commit.

Do you work with nonprofits?

Yes. Nonprofits are a core part of our practice, and they get the same three levels of support, built around fund accounting, restricted grant tracking, board reporting, and audit and Form 990 readiness. Start with nonprofit accounting services for the overview, then see nonprofit bookkeeping for clean, fund-level books or fractional CFO services for nonprofits for forecasting, reserves, and board-ready reporting.

Outsourced accounting vs. an in-house team

An in-house hire gives you one person, their hours, and their skill set, plus salary, benefits, software, and coverage gaps when they are out. An outsourced firm gives you a team with layered expertise, from transaction processing to controller-level oversight, for a weekly rate scoped to the work. In-house makes sense when your volume justifies a full finance department and you want that knowledge under your roof. Outsourced makes sense for the long stretch before that point. We compare cost, control, and risk in detail in outsourced accounting services vs. in-house.

Do I need bookkeeping or outsourced accounting?

Bookkeeping tells you where your money went: transactions entered, accounts reconciled, books ready for taxes. Outsourced accounting adds a full monthly close, budgets against actuals, cash flow forecasts, and reporting that explains what the numbers mean. Many organizations start with bookkeeping and step up when they need that visibility. Our bookkeeping services page shows what sits at each level, side by side.

What does outsourced accounting cost?

Pricing follows transaction volume, complexity, and the level of oversight you need, not headcount. Bookkeeping starts at $200 per week and outsourced accounting at $350 per week, and every engagement is scoped after an intro call so you can start small and add services as you grow. Even at the department level, outsourced accounting could cost less than an in-house hire once salary, benefits, software, and other employment costs are considered. See every tier, including fractional CFO support, on our pricing page.