The benefits of outsourcing: optimising growth for innovative businesses

"Do what you do best and outsource the rest."

Scaling an innovation-driven business requires detailed strategic and financial planning. Entrepreneurs and business leaders must balance cost efficiency with operational effectiveness, and ensure they have the right expertise at the right time.

One of the most crucial aspects of this journey is establishing a solid finance function. From start-up through to scaling and international expansion, you must decide when and how to integrate financial expertise - either by hiring in-house or by outsourcing to specialists.

What are the benefits of outsourcing?

Tactical outsourcing can provide strategic advantages for businesses looking to scale efficiently without operational risks. Some of the key benefits include:

Access to expertise and resources: By outsourcing, you can access a broader pool of talent, experience, and industry-specific knowledge from established service providers
Flexibility: Service providers offer adaptable resource models, allowing your business to scale up or down depending on your operational needs without long-term commitments
Focus on core competencies: Your management team can concentrate on innovation, product development and business growth, rather than diverting time and energy into building out new internal functions
Reduced administrative burden: Unlike managing in-house teams, outsourcing eliminates the need for extensive HR processes, employee benefits, people management, and regulatory compliance
Cost efficiency: Outsourcing can allow your business to take advantage of economies of scale and use specialist technology and expertise that would otherwise be unaffordable for your business.

What business functions are suitable for outsourcing?

High-growth companies can successfully leverage external expertise across various functions. Consider where your resources are best spent, and where your business might benefit from external resources to maintain your growth.

Accountancy and finance: Our Business Services & Outsourcing teams at BDO can support your financial decision making, board, investor and stakeholder reporting. Working together, we can ensure you meet governance and compliance obligations and help you to optimise your financial and tax strategies , de-risk your financial processes, and provide deep technical expertise that would be expensive to maintain in-house.

IT, data and cybersecurity: Outsourcing your technical requirements can go beyond just software and hardware support. We can advise you on managing your whole IT infrastructure, security, data strategy and compliance efficiently while leveraging cutting-edge technology. The best IT and data outsourcing strategies will also integrate with your R&D, product or IP roadmaps.

HR, payroll and talent management: Plan, monitor and streamline your talent acquisition and retention. Our award-winning payroll team can manage your payroll and benefits administration, and give you access to experts in share incentive plans, to help you attract and retain the best talent.

Marketing and communications: Working with industry specialists for advertising, branding, PR, marketing and digital engagement can help to boost client acquisition and retention. Internal communications agencies can support your staff communications strategy and investor relations.

Legal, regulatory and compliance: Ensure your business stays compliant with increasingly complex regulatory and legal requirements without having to build an in-house team from scratch. Pay for the services you need, when you need them, and scale your compliance operations as your business grows.

Sales, distribution and customer support: Using third-party distributors and fulfilment centres can be exceptionally beneficial as your business expands into new geographies. Outsourced customer support functions can scale efficiently and rapidly, whilst managing operational overheads.

Growing your business

As your business grows, financial functions play a central role in ensuring its stability, compliance, and strategic insight. A key decision for you is deciding when to invest in an in-house finance team or outsourcing to maximise efficiency and risk management.

Finance services to outsource by growth stage

Growth Stage	Finance services to outsource
Start-Up (Pre-Seed & Seed)	Bookkeeping, tax compliance (corporation tax and VAT), payroll, MIS/financial/Board reporting, cashflow reporting and forecasting, budgeting, Due Diligence support, funding readiness.
Growth (Pre- & Series A)	CFO services, strategic financial planning, financial modelling, Series A readiness, investor reporting, tax strategy.
Scale-Up & Expansion (Series B & Beyond)	International expansion readiness and execution, treasury management, global tax compliance, M&A advisory, audit, IPO readiness, internal financial controls, risk analysis and reporting, accountancy standards compliance.

Ask yourself these key questions

Making informed outsourcing decisions requires careful consideration of your current position, immediate financial needs, and long-term strategic goals. You will need to assess your business lifecycle, financial priorities, and risk exposure when determining the best approach to integrating outsourced financial services.

What stage is my business currently at (start-up, raising funding, scaling, international expansion, etc.)?
What are the main challenges in my businesses today?
Are there any functions I should consider outsourcing today?
What are my plans over the next 24 months, and how could an outsourced provider, like BDO, help me achieve them?
What functions are core to my business, and which would benefit from expert external support?
How can I de-risk financial and operational decisions at every stage of growth?

Guiding your future outsourcing strategy

The key to understanding where outsourcing could benefit your business is to think about the following questions in the context of your next 24 months:

Do you have sufficient financial resources to meet your core operational activities? If not, when and how do you expect to fulfil your funding requirements?
Do you have a clear funding strategy, and are you fully resourced to supply all of the financial and operating information that will be required?
Do you expect to grow your business, its activities, geography and/or its headcount?
Have you defined the co-dependencies of operations and finance in your business?
What are the hiring priorities and where could outsourced services be a viable and valuable option?

High-growth firms that leverage outsourcing effectively can ensure long-term sustainability. Strategic outsourcing of finance functions is not a temporary fix—it is a dynamic approach that can support your business growth at every stage.

From ensuring efficient operations at the start-up stage to IPO readiness and beyond, outsourcing provides access to the highest level of financial expertise, deep technical resources, and global regulatory compliance without the burden of managing various teams in-house.

Final takeaways:

Risk management: By outsourcing, you can access a broader pool of talent, experience, and industry-specific knowledge from established service providers
Cost efficiency: Service providers offer adaptable resource models, allowing your business to scale up or down depending on your operational needs without long-term commitments
Strategic growth support: Your management team can concentrate on innovation, product development and business growth, rather than diverting time and energy into building out new internal functions

By leveraging outsourced financial services strategically, your business can focus on innovation while ensuring robust financial planning and de-risking operations, by accessing the expertise of a global services firm, like BDO to drive sustainable growth.

Explore your options for outsourcing your finance, compliance and payroll services to our specialist teams.

Explore Your Options