In-House vs Outsourced Finance Director: Which Is Right for Your Agency?

Most agencies operate without any strategic finance function until something forces the issue: a cash flow crisis, a failed bank covenant, a tax bill they did not see coming, or the realisation that they have no idea which clients are actually profitable.

The typical trigger points are: revenue exceeding £500k (complexity increases), headcount above 10 (payroll and HR costs become material), planning an acquisition or exit (due diligence requires clean financials), or losing money on projects without understanding why.

This is where the outsourced model wins for most agencies. A full-time finance director in London commands £80,000–£150,000 in salary alone. Add employer NI (15%), pension, benefits, and recruitment costs, and the true cost is £100,000–£190,000 per year.

An outsourced FD typically costs £1,000–£4,000 per month depending on the scope of work and how many days per month they are involved. That is £12,000–£48,000 per year — a fraction of the in-house cost.

An in-house FD brings deep knowledge of your specific business over time. They attend every meeting, understand every client relationship, and can respond in real time to financial questions.

An outsourced FD brings breadth. They work with multiple agencies simultaneously and have seen the patterns before — they know what good looks like across the industry. They bring benchmarking data, proven frameworks, and lessons learned from other agencies’ successes and mistakes. For most agencies, this breadth of pattern recognition is more valuable than the depth of a single-company focus.

Agency revenue is rarely linear. You win a big client and need more financial support. You lose one and need to cut costs. An outsourced FD flexes with you — increase from one day a month to three days during a busy period, then scale back when things settle.

With an in-house hire, the cost is fixed. If revenue dips 20%, you still pay the same salary. If you need to let them go, you are looking at 3–6 months’ notice plus potential redundancy costs. For agencies below £2m revenue, this inflexibility is a significant risk.

There is no universal right answer. The decision depends on your agency’s size, complexity, growth trajectory, and what you actually need from a finance function. Use this framework to guide your thinking.