Why Smart CFOs are Choosing to Outsource Their Finance Function

With migration at record lows, a national shortage of more than 300,000 accountants, and rising wage and compliance costs squeezing cashflows, finance leaders are rethinking how they should build their teams.

Dilip Kherajani, Founder & CEO of Business Avengers and a CFO for more than a decade, argues that outsourcing has switched from a nice-to-have to a necessity – and that the smartest CFOs treat it as a capacity unlock.

It starts with the data, not the AI

Ask Kherajani what’s driving CFOs to the outsourcing conversation, and he points first to the state of their data. He sees three pressures converging – poor data quality, the talent shortage and a generational shift in what younger accountants are willing to do.

“These days, systems have been automated, ERP is automated, and the latest generation don’t want to go through that,” he says of the transactional grind that once formed the foundation of an accounting career. “They want to do something worthwhile and that adds value pretty much straight after they are out of university.”

It’s the data problem he returns to again and again – especially as every CFO he meets is eager to embrace AI. But his warning is blunt:

“AI is not going to solve your data problem. There’s a misconception of ‘Let me plug AI on top of the data and my problem will be solved.’ That’s wrong. In order to have accurate data, you need to have clean and clear processes, and that needs to translate into proper accounting software and systems.”

The fix, he argues, is to get the foundation right at the transactional level – staff fully trained up on the four central functions of payables, receivables, payroll and billings. “Once these four functions are managed properly, your transactional-level data is correct, month-end is being closed correctly, and from there the CFOs can pick up the data and start analysing.”

Stop hiring people and start building a team

On the talent crunch, Kherajani – who spent the better part of a decade in the CFO chair himself – says the instinct to merely ‘add headcount’ is the wrong one.

“You need to stop thinking, ‘How do I hire more people?’ and instead start thinking, ‘How do I build the best team?’ It doesn’t have to be less headcount; it’s about the structure.”

He says the first strategy is something many finance leaders skip: a role decomposition. “90% of CFOs don’t know what the overall tasks are that must be performed in a finance team,” he says. The exercise separates transactional work from judgment and business-partnering tasks – and the results can be quite confronting. “A lot of the time we see all these expensive financial accountants, they’re too busy doing transactional tasks and that’s why businesses are losing value.”

That leads to what he calls the best hybrid team – transactional work handled offshore by dedicated resources who become an extension of the client’s team, with judgment and decision-making kept onshore.

“Outsourcing is not an option anymore,” he says. “It’s the need and the necessity of the hour.”

What the savings actually look like

Consider a local transactional hire – an Accounts officer/an assistant accountant on a base of around $70,000. They carry far more than the salary once super, payroll tax, workers’ comp, recruiter fees and training time are added in.

“The real cost to company is closer to $115,000,” he says. Now compare that against a flat Business Avengers fee of $4,000 per month for a full-time qualified headcount –   your minimum savings at close to 60%.

But Kherajani is adamant that cost is the wrong reason to start outsourcing.

“I don’t say come to us for cost savings. Cost savings is just an output you will get.” Quality, he says, is the real point – backed by a defined scope of work, a team lead for every five resources, daily timesheets and a benchmark the firm strives to hold above 99.5% every day, week and month.

The proof: a $304,000 turnaround

He illustrates his model with a case study of an Australian e-commerce supplements brand – founded in 2014, with turnover around $60 million – that came to Business Avengers with messy data, delayed month-end closes and an overstaffed finance team that cost roughly $660,000 per annum (excluding the CFO).

Within 60 days, his team took over the transactional work, cleaned up the data and restructured the function around a part-time CFO advisory, a financial accountant, an FP&A analyst and a dedicated accounts officer. The result? A 46% reduction in finance costs –$304,000 saved annually – with month-end reports landing by the fifth or sixth of the month.

Why CFOs should try to make themselves redundant

Where, then, should a CFO’s reclaimed time go? The role has moved well beyond closing the books.

“A CFO needs to break down the story behind the numbers,” he says – working with revenue and marketing leads to explain why numbers are up or down, staying across cost drivers like fuel and freight, as well as chasing the holy grail of a bulletproof cashflow forecast. But none of that matters if the foundations are shaky. “If you have garbage data, you will be providing incorrect information to everybody.”

The bigger change, he says, is one of leadership and mindset. And from his own experience, he says this is the line that resonates most with finance leaders.

“Being a CFO, I have always believed my job is to make myself redundant in the first 12 months. How do I do that? By hiring smarter people. Never be afraid to be free and be available, because once you’re free and available, people will come to you for problem-solving.”

Three things to weigh before FY27

As CFOs prepare to leap into the new financial year, Kherajani says you should be focused on three priorities.

First, free yourself – reflect on where your time has gone over the past 12 months, then delegate deliberately and build the team that lets you do it.

Second, genuinely get yourself across the entire business – understand the revenue and the cost drivers in a volatile environment, where a minimum-wage increase can hit your margins overnight.

And third, fix the foundations, everything else depends on.

“Yes, we’ve got AI. Yes, we’ve got tools,” he says. “But data is the power.”

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To learn more about the Business Avengers visit: www.BusinessAvengers.com.au

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