Somewhere around $2M revenue, every Sydney business owner has the same thought: "I should just hire a bookkeeper." Reasonable instinct. Usually wrong maths. Let's price both options like an adult and figure out which one your business actually needs, because the answer changes with size and it is not always the one we sell.

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What an in-house bookkeeper really costs in Sydney

The advertised salary is the entry fee, not the price. A competent Sydney bookkeeper earns roughly $70,000 to $85,000. Take $75,000 and load it honestly:

• Salary: $75,000
• Super at 12 per cent: $9,000 (and from 1 July 2026 it leaves your account every payday within seven business days, not quarterly, thanks to Payday Super)
• Workers comp, leave loading, software seats, desk, laptop, recruitment fee amortised: call it $8,000-$11,000

All-in: roughly $92,000 to $95,000 a year. For one person. Who works 7.6 hours a day, takes four weeks of annual leave and ten-ish sick days, goes on holidays exactly when BAS is due, and might resign the week before year end. When they do, the entire finance memory of your business walks out with them, and you're back on Seek paying a recruiter while nobody reconciles anything for six weeks.

And here's the part nobody says out loud: most businesses under about $10M don't have 38 hours a week of real bookkeeping. They have 10 to 20. The rest of the week gets padded with "projects", or worse, the bookkeeper quietly becomes an office manager who does the books on Fridays. You're paying full-time money for part-time work.

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What an outsourced bookkeeper costs

A fixed monthly fee for a defined scope: weekly monthly bookkeeping, payroll, BAS lodgement through a registered BAS Agent, payables and cashflow, and reporting you'll actually read. For most Sydney SMEs that lands somewhere between $500 and $2,000 a month ($6,000 to $24,000 a year) depending on volume; our Sydney bookkeeper cost guide breaks the tiers down.

Against $95,000 all-in, even the top of that range leaves roughly $70,000 a year on the table. Plus the things money doesn't buy with a solo hire: no leave gaps, no key-person risk, more than one set of eyes on the file, and systems that don't live in one person's head.

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The honest bit: when in-house actually wins

We'd be flogging nonsense if we said outsourcing always wins, and nonsense is Barry's department. Hire in-house when:

• There is genuinely 30+ hours a week of transactional work: think high-volume retail, hospitality groups running daily reconciliations across venues, or complex inventory operations
• You need someone physically present daily: handling cash, chasing dockets on a counter, managing a front office alongside the books
• You're past roughly $15M-$20M and building an internal finance team anyway, where the bookkeeper is the first brick in a bigger wall

Even then, plenty of businesses run a hybrid: a junior in-house doing the daily physical bits, an outsourced bookkeeper running payroll, BAS, and month end behind them. That combination costs less than a senior hire and covers more ground.

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The decision test

Count the real hours. Pull up the last month and honestly tally bookkeeping-only work: reconciliations, invoicing, payroll runs, BAS prep, reporting. Under 20 hours a week, outsourcing wins on arithmetic alone. Over 30 with a physical-presence requirement, hire. In between, hybrid.

Then count the risk. One person, one laptop, one resignation letter. If your entire finance function has a single point of failure with two weeks' notice attached, that's not a team, that's a hostage situation with annual leave.

If you're currently in the worst of both worlds, an in-house person who's drowning or a solo contractor who's ghosting (see my Sydney bookkeeper is ghosting me), the switch is quicker than you think: how to change your Sydney bookkeeper covers it, handover and all. Works the same whether you're a trades business in Penrith, a clinic in Chatswood, or an agency in Surry Hills.

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FAQ

How much does it cost to employ a bookkeeper in Sydney?

‍Roughly $92,000-$95,000 a year all-in for a $75,000 salary once super at 12 per cent, workers comp, leave, equipment, and recruitment are counted, before covering leave gaps and turnover.

How much does an outsourced bookkeeper cost in Sydney?

‍Typically $500-$2,000 a month fixed for a defined scope covering reconciliations, payroll, BAS, and reporting, scaling with transaction volume and staff count.

Is an outsourced bookkeeper as reliable as an employee?

‍More reliable in one specific way: no single point of failure. A proper outsourced setup has documented systems and more than one person across your file, so leave and resignations don't stop your payroll.

At what size should a business hire an in-house bookkeeper?

‍When there's genuinely 30+ hours a week of bookkeeping-only work or a daily physical requirement, commonly $10M+ revenue or high-transaction retail and hospitality earlier. Many businesses run hybrid before that.

Can an outsourced bookkeeper run payroll and BAS?

‍Yes. Payroll, super, and BAS/IAS lodgement (through a registered BAS Agent) are standard scope, and frankly they're the bits with the sharpest compliance edges, so they belong with specialists.

What happens to my Xero file if I switch approaches?

‍Nothing dramatic. The file is yours either way; access gets transferred, not the data. A clean handover takes days, not months.

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This content is general information only, written for Australian small and mid-market businesses. It does not constitute tax, financial product, or legal advice and should not be relied on as such. Tax obligations depend on your individual circumstances. For advice specific to your business, contact the team directly or consult a registered tax agent or licensed financial adviser. Sydney Bookkeeper is not a licensed tax agent or licensed financial adviser. Information was current at the time of publication and may change without notice. We review and update guides periodically.

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