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Offshore accounting can cut your labor costs by 50-70%. But for the model to work, you need to know what it actually costs to set up, what to avoid in the first 90 days, and how to build a team that runs like an internal function.
Table of contents
What does an offshore accounting team actually do?
A dedicated offshore accounting team works exclusively for one client, is managed by that client, and operates as an extension of the internal finance function – not a vendor you hand work to and wait on.
What tasks are easy to send offshore:
- Accounts payable and receivable
- Bank reconciliation
- Payroll processing
- Month-end close support
- Management reporting
What stays onshore: Financial strategy, complex tax advice, board-level reporting, and auditor relationships – anything judgment-dependent.
Where do most businesses build these teams? Vietnam, the Philippines, India, and Poland are the most common destinations. For US and Australian businesses, Vietnam stands out: GMT+7 creates a usable morning overlap with Australian east-coast hours and a workable async setup with US teams. English proficiency ranks 7th in Asia on the EF English Proficiency Index 2025, and Vietnam ranks among the top seven global outsourcing destinations.
What does it actually cost?
SMEs consistently report labor cost savings of 50-70% when building offshore teams in Vietnam. Here’s what that looks like in practice:
The hidden costs most businesses don’t factor in:
- Onboarding time – 4 to 8 weeks before an offshore hire operates independently
- Process documentation – SOPs need to exist and be accurate before anyone can follow them
- Software licensing – Xero and QuickBooks Online are priced per user
- Management overhead – review rates run higher in the first three months
- Early rework – predictable when processes aren’t fully documented at handover
None of these are prohibitive, but they belong in the business case from the start.
How to run it well – and what to avoid in the first 90 days
Onboarding (weeks 1-8)
Three phases: access and setup (systems, permissions, chart of accounts) → supervised execution with daily review → independent operation once error rates stabilize. Rushing phase two is the most common cause of early rework.
What to avoid in the first 90 days
- Delegating before SOPs exist
- Building processes around one person – key-person dependency is the most common structural failure
- Treating the team as a vendor rather than an embedded function
- Skipping structured feedback loops
- Under-investing in communication while the team is still onboarding
Tools
Cloud-native and audit-trail-ready across the board:
- Accounting: Xero or QuickBooks Online
- Document capture: Dext or Hubdoc
- Communication: Microsoft Teams or Slack
- Task management: Monday, ClickUp, or Asana
If a transaction or instruction isn’t in the system, it didn’t happen.
Time zones
Define a two-hour daily overlap window where both teams are live; run everything else async. If close is due Friday, the offshore team’s internal deadline is Wednesday. That single adjustment eliminates most last-minute escalations.
Measuring performance
Track five KPIs: month-end close time, transaction error rate, SLA adherence, reconciliation accuracy, and query response time. Review monthly for the first six months, then quarterly once the team has found its rhythm.
The model behind the team
Placing an offshore accountant and building an offshore accounting function are two different things. Away Digital Teams works with US and Australian businesses to define the roles, find the right people, and support the integration over time – not just the hire. Stable teams, clear systems, support at every stage.
If you want to explore what an offshore finance function could look like for your business, start here.