What outsourced accounts production costs in 2026

• Per job, the offshore market runs at about £120 to £300 for a set of small limited company accounts. Per hour, published rates start at £7 for a bookkeeper and £15 for an accountant.
• Per person, a dedicated qualified accountant runs £1,300 to £2,000 a month from India, £2,150 to £2,850 from the Philippines and £2,300 to £3,200 from South Africa.
• Our Accounts seat is £2,650, £1,450 or £850 a month for 160, 80 or 40 hours, with review by our own UK practice included.
• A UK part-qualified costs £44,000 to £52,000 a year all in, which is £29 to £34 an hour across the 1,500 productive hours you get.
• Eleven of the 68 provider websites we captured in September 2026 publish any price at all. The rest quote.

Four ways a price is quoted

Every quote you will receive for accounts production takes one of four shapes. The figures below are from providers' own websites, captured on 21 September 2026 and listed on our provider comparison page, from our three-country guide, and from our own pricing page.

Per job

A fixed fee per set of accounts, per return or per filing. For a small limited company the offshore market runs at about £120 to £300 a set. Experlu publishes fixed per-job prices, for example a confirmation statement at £84.80 including the Companies House fee. AOne's cost article puts a UK company's outsourced accounting at £150 to £3,500 a month depending on size.

Per hour

Star Sterling Outsource lists a bookkeeper at £7 an hour and an accountant at £15 an hour on its home page. AccountsAid starts at £7 an hour, with payroll from £2.50 a payslip. Whiz publishes monthly bookkeeping from £450.

Per person, per month or per year

A dedicated member of staff. Black Piano's home page offers £833 a month in place of £2,500 for a UK hire. FinQube's home page puts £18,000 a year against £52,000. Aspire Offshore's calculator shows £15,000 a year all-inclusive against £45,144 for a UK hire. Across the wider market, the monthly bands for a qualified accountant are £1,300 to £2,000 from India, £2,150 to £2,850 from the Philippines and £2,300 to £3,200 from South Africa, with bookkeepers below that in each country.

Per seat

Our own model. A seat is one person in one role for a set number of hours a month. An Accounts seat is £2,650 a month for 160 hours, £1,450 for 80 or £850 for 40, and every seat after the first is 10% off. Review of the accounts and tax work by our own UK practice, the portal, and cover when the person is off are inside the price.

What each price includes

The number on the quote is the start of the cost. Seven things sit around every set of accounts, and each price model puts a different share of them back on the practice.

Two of those rows are worth money in a way that is easy to miss. Queries and coordination fall on whoever in the practice is nearest the client, and in a small practice that is the owner. Review of an unfamiliar preparer's file, on a per-job or staffing arrangement, takes a manager or a partner an hour or two a set until the working papers settle into a standard. Neither appears on the provider's invoice.

The UK hire to compare against

A part-qualified in a UK practice in 2026 is advertised at £32,000 to £38,000 outside London. On our rule of thumb of salary times 1.35, which covers employer's National Insurance, pension, software, a desk and recruitment, the all-in cost is £44,000 to £52,000 a year. A full-timer delivers about 1,500 productive hours a year once holidays, sickness, training, meetings and admin are taken out, so the cost is £29 to £34 an hour of finished work. The working, line by line, is in what a part-qualified really costs. Our capacity calculator uses £36,000 times 1.35 for an accounts hire, which is £48,600.

The comparison that holds is cost per hour of finished, reviewed work, because that is what a practice sells on.

Cost per hour of finished, reviewed work

Dividing each published price by the hours it buys gives a number you can put beside the UK figure.

The per-hour column for the dedicated bands assumes 160 hours a month and no review. Where review is added by the practice, add the reviewer's time at the practice's own rate. Where the provider adds it, ask what it costs and who does it.

Three worked examples

All three use the calculator's benchmarks of five hours per set of year-end accounts and two hours per self assessment return, and the prices above. They are illustrations, and the call is where we check them against your own numbers.

A sole practitioner: 60 sets and 90 returns

Hours: 60 times 5 plus 90 times 2, which is 480 a year, or 40 a month. A 40-hour Accounts seat is £850 a month, £10,200 a year, with review included. Per job, the 60 sets alone come to £7,200 to £18,000 at £120 to £300 a set, before the returns and before the owner's time on queries. A part-time UK hire at a third of a full-timer is roughly £15,000 to £17,000 a year all in.

A three-partner practice: 150 sets and 250 returns

Hours: 750 plus 500, which is 1,250 a year, or about 104 a month. A 160-hour Accounts seat is £2,650 a month, £31,800 a year, and leaves about 55 hours a month for management accounts or clean-ups. Per job, the 150 sets alone come to £18,000 to £45,000. A UK part-qualified at £44,000 to £52,000 covers the hours with about 250 to spare.

A growing firm: 300 sets and 400 returns

Hours: 1,500 plus 800, which is 2,300 a year, or about 192 a month. A 160-hour Accounts seat plus a 40-hour Accounts seat, the second at 10% off, is £2,650 plus £765, £3,415 a month, £40,980 a year, for two named preparers with review included. Per job, the 300 sets alone come to £36,000 to £90,000. In UK hires, 2,300 hours is a full-timer and a half, £66,000 to £78,000 all in.

Questions to ask about any price

• Is the price per job, per hour, per person or per seat, and what does it include from the table above?
• Who reviews the work before it reaches me, and is that inside the price?
• How are hours recorded, and can I see them as they are used?
• What is the notice period, and is there a minimum term or a set-up fee?
• Does the price change in January, or when the person changes?
• Whose software licences are used, and who pays for them?

Where to start

Put your client numbers into the capacity calculator for the hours and the seat that fits, and if you already have a quote from somewhere else, send it to us and we will put it beside ours on one page, same hours, same scope.

Published 22 September 2026. Tax rules and rates change, so check current figures on gov.uk before relying on anything here. This is general information for practice owners and is not advice.