Most business owners comparing in-house versus outsourced accounting only look at one number: the accountant's monthly salary versus an outsourcing firm's monthly fee. That comparison is misleading, because a salary is the smallest part of what an in-house hire actually costs you.
The full cost of an in-house accountant: on top of gross salary, you're carrying the employer's matched statutory contributions — 6% NSSF and 1.5% Affordable Housing Levy on their wage, SHIF administration, NITA's flat monthly levy per employee — plus leave days, medical cover if you offer it, a desk, a laptop, licensed accounting software seats, and the time cost of managing and reviewing their work. And when they're on leave, sick, or leave the company entirely, your books stop moving until you hire again — often at a higher salary than you started with, because qualified accounting talent in Kenya isn't cheap to replace.
The outsourced model works differently: you pay a fixed or usage-based monthly fee that already includes the software, the statutory-filing expertise, and — critically — a team rather than one individual. If your outsourced accountant is unavailable, someone else on the team already understands your books and can step in. You're also not the one keeping up with every Finance Act change, new eTIMS rule, or shifting KRA deadline; that's the outsourcing firm's job to track on your behalf.
Where in-house genuinely wins: if your transaction volume is large and complex enough that you need someone physically present daily — inventory-heavy operations, multi-branch retail with cash handling, or a business large enough to need a full finance function rather than compliance and bookkeeping. Below that threshold, most SMEs are paying full-time-employee overhead for what amounts to part-time accounting work.
The honest way to decide is to run your own numbers rather than trust either 'side' of this debate — total in-house cost (salary plus statutory matching plus overhead plus turnover risk) against a fixed outsourced fee for the same scope of work. We're happy to build that comparison against your actual transaction volume so you're deciding on real numbers, not a rule of thumb.
