Onshore bookkeeping can offer same-time-zone contact, local knowledge and meetings with clients. An offshore team may suit standard-driven production if the firm can specify the workflow, review the output and agree handover times. Compare actual quotes and the time your reviewers will spend before assuming a saving. Work that needs someone in the room calls for a different arrangement.
Side by side
| Onshore (UK bookkeeper or bureau) | Offshore (dedicated team in India) | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per productive hour | Request a quote that includes review and rework | Request a quote for the same scope, including your review time |
| Working hours overlap | Agree availability with the supplier | India is 4.5 to 5.5 hours ahead; agree a call and query window |
| Turnaround | Depends on the individual's workload and agreed scope | Batch and query dates agreed with the delivery partner in writing |
| Capacity at peaks | Ask how the supplier covers extra volume | Agree peak volume and staffing in the scope |
| Continuity | Ask how absence and handover are covered | Agree backup people, access and handover steps |
| Supervision and review | Confirm the supplier's checks and your review role | Agree internal checks and your review role in writing |
| Client contact | Agree whether direct meetings or site visits are included | Agree whether queries go through the firm and limit direct contact |
| Local knowledge | Check experience with your clients and work | Document your rules and exceptions; check experience with the work |
| Data location and control | Check devices, software, access and storage | Check devices, software, access and any cross-border transfer |
| Professional duties | Check the supplier's status, your own duties and the engagement terms | Check subcontracting, confidentiality, data protection, AML and insurance obligations |
| Working fit | Agree a named contact and review standard | Agree a named contact, review standard and handover window |
The economics
Price the same defined batch with both options. Include the supplier's fee, software access, onboarding, your review time, query handling, rework and the cost of a missed date. The result depends on volume and record quality; there is no reliable site-wide percentage to apply to every firm.
Local knowledge may come with an onshore supplier. An offshore partner needs the firm's standards and exceptions written down, which takes reviewer time. Judgement-heavy files may not suit either comparison without a separate scope.
Before either arrangement, review the firm's client terms, professional duties, data protection and insurance position. ICAEW's subcontractor helpsheet outlines questions for UK practices; the answer depends on the supplier and the work.
The time zone, honestly
India is four and a half hours ahead of the UK in summer and five and a half in winter. The useful overlap depends on the hours the two teams actually agree to work. Set a call window, query cut-off and next response time in the delivery calendar rather than assuming an overnight answer.
Where onshore wins
- Clients who need a bookkeeper on site, or who want to meet the person doing the books.
- Work that depends on local, unwritten knowledge: a specific industry's conventions, a CIS-heavy construction client with a complicated subcontractor base, a client the firm has served for twenty years with a chart of accounts nobody has documented.
- Very small volumes, where the overhead of writing a standard exceeds the saving.
- Firms that need an onshore supplier to take a defined review or client-facing role; confirm that role and its professional responsibilities in the engagement.
Where offshore wins
- Volume production: weekly bookkeeping across many clients, VAT workings, year-end files, payroll runs.
- Peaks: periods when a defined batch of bookkeeping or reporting work exceeds the firm's available preparation time.
- Firms that cannot recruit or retain bookkeeping staff locally.
- Firms that want the production desk to run on a calendar, measured by batches on time and points per file.
- Firms building a service line (monthly management accounts, outsourced finance function for businesses) that needs predictable cost to price.
A possible hybrid
A firm can scope repeatable preparation with an offshore team while keeping client meetings, site visits and judgement-heavy tasks with an onshore supplier or its own staff. Name who reviews the offshore output and who handles queries. Measure the total cost and reviewer time before expanding the arrangement.
Questions to settle before choosing offshore
- Can we write down the review standard for this work? If not, start onshore or write it first.
- Will our data stay in our systems under named logins? If a partner says no, stop.
- Who will review the delivered files, and do they have the time?
- Is the no-poaching clause in writing?
- What is the trial batch, and what does success look like in points per file?
- What are the exit terms?
The handover checklist and the data-security questions cover these in detail. A firm that can answer all six is ready to send a trial batch. A firm that cannot answer the first is not ready for either option.
Compare a Cadence proposal. Ask for a written scope covering software access, client-contact restrictions, checks, handover dates and fees. See how we work with UK firms or request a proposal.
