Ledgerbrook / Subcontract bookkeeping

Should your firm subcontract bookkeeping?

Subcontracting a client file means paying another practitioner a fixed fee to do the work while your firm stays the one billing the client and standing behind the result. It's a different decision from hiring, and it doesn't fit every file. Here's how to tell.

The choice

Subcontracting versus hiring

Hiring adds a person: payroll, benefits, training, a desk to manage, and capacity that exists whether or not there's work to fill it. Subcontracting adds capacity only: a fixed fee per file, paid when there's a file to pay for, with no management overhead between commitment and delivery.

The trade is control for flexibility. An employee learns your firm's conventions once and keeps them; a subcontractor has to be told, per engagement, what your chart of accounts looks like and what your client expects. That's a real cost, and it's the one a firm should weigh honestly before treating subcontracting as the cheaper option by default.

When it fits

When subcontracting makes sense

More files than hours this month, without the case for a permanent hire

A capacity spike

A specific date the file has to be current by, not an ongoing staffing gap

A filing deadline

A trade or entity type your firm doesn't run often enough to be fast at

A client outside your competence

It fits less well as a permanent substitute for staffing. A firm that's subcontracting every file, every month, indefinitely has a hiring decision to make, not a vendor to find. Subcontracting is built for the file that doesn't justify a hire, not for avoiding the hire your volume already justifies.

Margin

What it costs your firm

A subcontractor's fee is a cost line against what your firm bills the client, and the gap between the two is your margin on the file. A published, flat, per-file rate makes that gap predictable before you commit a client; a rate quoted per file after the fact does not.

Monthly Close, Tier 1

One bank or card account, roughly 75 transactions a month or fewer. Full tier detail on the pricing page.

$199 per month

Cleanup

For a file that has to be fixed before a monthly cadence means anything. Priced per month of backlog needing correction.

$199 per month of backlog

What you keep

What stays yours

Your client stays your client, and the subcontractor never contacts them

The relationship

You bill the client at whatever you charge; the subcontractor bills your firm, per file

The invoice

The work carries your firm's name, not the subcontractor's

The name

That's the part worth checking before signing anything. A subcontractor who also sells direct, or who leaves your firm's branding off the deliverable but leaves theirs on, is competing for the same client relationship you're paying them to protect. See what to check before you hand over a file for the specifics.

Fit

Who this is for

Bookkeeping firms on QuickBooks Online with a file or a batch of files that don't justify a hire: a busy month, a deadline, a client type outside the firm's usual work. It fits equally for one overflow file and for a standing roster.

It's not the right fit if your clients are on Xero or Sage, or if what your firm actually needs is a permanent seat rather than a fee per file.

Start

Deciding, or ready?

Still weighing it: read what to check before subcontracting a client file before you talk to anyone. Ready to send one: see how it works under your own name, with every figure on the pricing page.