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When to Hire an in-House Accounting/Finance Team: the Cost Benefit Break Down

Vanessa Kruze, CPA, is a leading expert in startup taxes and tax compliance. Her team at Kruze Consulting has filed thousands of tax returns for companies that have raised billions in VC funding, and her work has been diligenced by leading VCs, attorneys, and M&A teams at the largest technology companies.
Vanessa Kruze, a highly-experienced CPA, brings valuable tax expertise to startups, drawing from her rich background at Deloitte Tax and as a financial controller for a $20 million startup. As the leader of Kruze Consulting, recognized multiple times in the Inc 5000 list, she specializes in navigating the complex tax landscape for startups. Her firm is known for delivering precise and strategic tax solutions, delivering tax credits utilizing advanced tools to ensure compliance and optimize tax benefits for startups throughout the United States.

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Congrats! You raised your Series B :) You scraped to find Product/Market fit in your Seed Stage, then came market penetration in your Series A.

Now you’re thinking about scaling up and hiring a ton of people. Great! Just make sure that you hire the right people: those that are core to your product. 90% of the time you really don’t need to hire in-house accountants, but I have seen exceptions. The most common pitfall that we see is hiring a “VP of Finance”, “Controller” or “CFO” way too early.

The ideal accounting/finance team should have 3 levels:

  • Staff Accountant ($60K pp salary)

    • Bookkeeping

    • Payroll

    • Benefits

  • Controller ($120-150K pp salary)

    • VC/Board Financials

    • Tax Compliance

    • System Infrastructure

  • CFO/CPA ($200K pp salary)

    • Advisory & Expertise

    • Valuation

    • Financial Modeling

You have two options:

1. HIRE AN ENTIRE ACCOUNTING/FINANCE TEAM

Pros:

  • Achieves Breadth & Depth of service

  • Accountability: Multiple levels of review

Cons:

  • It’s expensive!!!: $400K per year

  • Poor utilization: people will be sitting idle.

2. HIRE JUST A CONTROLLER OR STAFF ACCOUNTANT… maybe a CFO later?

You’re next thought might be to hire just one of those levels :)

Pros:

  • Uh, none.

Cons:

  • You wont get the breadth and depth of service that you need.

  • Poor quality work / that person will be overworked.

  • Its deceptively cheap: you’ll still need to outsource for tax or CFO advisory.

In sum, don’t bring accounting/finance in-house until your Outsourced Accounting/Finance team bills you more that $33K per month ($400K/12 months).

We have a number of outsourced CFOs who help our clients with recurring finance tasks, and our accounting team is comprised of leaders in the finance as a service industry. Talk to us about helping you scale your business! 

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