Accounting salary covers the fixed pay you give your finance staff, but it also triggers extra costs linked to “ongoing training” and skill updates. It grows further when “employee turnover” forces you to rehire, retrain, and absorb productivity gaps. Besides, businesses also face “accuracy risks” because mistakes create penalties + correction expenses beyond the salary itself.
In 2025, are you running an in-house accounting team? If it’s a YES, do you think your cost is limited only to accounting salaries? You are terribly wrong! The cost of running an in-house finance department goes far beyond monthly salaries.
A growing D2C company or consumer brand usually faces three heavy drains:
- Regular training
- Employee turnover
- Accuracy risks
Training never stops, turnover keeps restarting the hiring cycle, and accuracy issues create problems long before you even notice them. Together, these costs decrease your margins + cash flow.
Read this article to learn how each of these factors impacts your business, and why several VPs and directors of D2C companies are hiring accounting outsourcing companies in 2025.
Why Does “Employee Training” Keep Pulling Money Out of Your Budget?
Accounting rules, tax laws, and software tools change all the time. Because of this, your accounting staff cannot rely on what they learned a year ago. They need ongoing training to stay accurate. This creates a steady cost for your business besides the accounting salary. Some key cost areas include:
- Training materials
- Hiring external trainers
- The time your staff spends in training instead of working
- Updating knowledge when government rules or software features change
Studies show that on average, companies spend $1,252 per employee on training. In the UK, the figure goes up to £1,530 per employee each year. For a growing D2C company, these are not small numbers! And the worst part? Since tax laws and accounting software keep changing, you pay these costs repeatedly.
Let’s understand how employee training impacts you in two more ways:
The Hidden Price of Professional Certifications
If your accounting team wants formal qualifications, the costs rise even more. A common example is a Level 4 accounting certification, which costs around £2,500 just to start. This does not include:
- Annual membership fees
- Study materials
- Exam resits
- Time away from daily work
Advanced programs can cost over £5,500, which is a major expense for a small business. These courses are useful, but the spending often comes up front while the benefits show up slowly. If you are a small business owner managing a tight budget, this can feel like a heavy investment without quick returns.
The Recurring Monetary Burden on Cash Flow
The biggest issue is not just the cost of one training session or one certification. It is a fact that these costs repeat every year because:
- New tax rules come in
- Accounting standards change
- Software updates alter how tasks are done
Each change forces you to send your team for training again. This creates a cycle of:
- New compliance requirements
- More training
- More lost working hours
- More money spent
For a D2C company earning $5M+ revenue, this repeated spending strains cash flow because it competes with other priorities like accounting salaries, upgrades, and business growth.
How Does “Accounting Staff Turnover” Hurt Your Business?
When an accountant leaves, the cost is far more than the salary gap. Studies show that replacing one person can cost 30% to 400% of their annual pay (depending on experience). The money goes into:
- Recruiting
- Interviews
- Onboarding
- Temporary productivity loss
- Mistakes that happen during the learning curve.
Also, with every departure, your finance function slows down until the new person is fully settled. This creates another bigger issue of “productivity gaps”, which can last 3 to 18 months.
How Do Frequent Exits Disturb Financial Stability?
Most accounting tasks run month after month! And when people leave, you face repeated disruptions, such as:
- Delayed invoicing
- Poor follow-up on receivables
- Errors in payables and compliance
- Slow month-end closing
- Budgeting gaps
These gaps directly affect decision-making and planning. Studies show that at a global level, companies lose $2.9 trillion each year due to voluntary turnover.
Why Retaining In-House Finance Talent Is Getting Harder?
Retention has become a major challenge, particularly in finance and accounting roles. To keep staff, companies now offer:
- Higher salaries
- Bonuses
- Flexible work
- Long-term growth paths
As a growing consumer brand, matching these benefits is hard. Larger firms offer more attractive packages, so smaller teams face more frequent exits.
When Does “Lack of Accuracy” Become a Major Financial Problem?
Accounting mistakes often look minor at first, but they can change the entire picture of your business. If your staff is untrained or overloaded, they are more likely to:
- Enter the wrong numbers
- Skip checks
- Misread documents
The impact? A wrong entry can inflate revenue, hide expenses, or reduce liabilities on paper. When this happens, you end up seeing a false version of your business performance. Some key risks you must be aware of are:
- Wrong revenue figures
- Missing expenses
- Incorrect tax entries
- Unreliable cash flow data
Remember, a single missed entry can create losses that take months to reverse.
How Do Incorrect Accounts Hurt Compliance and Cash Flow?
Incorrect accounting also puts your business at risk with lenders, regulators, and tax authorities. A simple misclassification can show more profit than you earned or hide the liabilities you owe. This can trigger problems such as:
- Loan covenant breaches
- Late payment penalties
- Notices from tax departments
- Penalties for late or inaccurate returns
- Extra scrutiny from lenders
- Delays in loan approvals
- Vendor disputes
These problems affect your day-to-day cash flow. If liabilities are understated or revenues overstated, your bank balance will not match your books. This may cause cash shortages that negatively impact payroll, vendor payments, and planned purchases.
Tired of Paying Accounting Salaries? Hire Atidiv in 2025 and Cut Costs Up to 60%!
Now you know that training, employee turnover, and accuracy risks are hidden expenses that sit quietly behind the accounting salaries you already pay. They raise your total cost in three ways:
- Training adds recurring spending on skills, certifications, tools, and lost productive hours as staff learn new rules and systems.
- Turnover multiplies costs through recruitment, onboarding, lost productivity, and repeated skill gaps that disrupt cash flow and forecasting.
- Accuracy risks create financial damage through compliance issues, tax errors, penalties, loan delays, and unreliable numbers that weaken business decisions.
This is why many D2C companies in 2025 are now hiring US accounting firms. A 2024 Deloitte survey shows that over 54% of SMBs outsource at least one core accounting activity, with demand rising further in 2025.
If you are searching for a partner, Atidiv can help! We are a 16+ year firm with 390,000+ chartered accountants and CPAs. Our expert team maintains a 95% client retention rate and 100% accuracy in delivery.
Our services start at only $15 per hour! Book a free consultation to get started.
Accounting Salary FAQs
1. Why do my accounting costs feel higher than the salaries I pay?
As a VP or director of a D2C company, realize that accounting salaries are only the starting point. Training, turnover, and accuracy issues increase your recurring expenses as you pay for:
- New learning
- Frequent hiring cycles
- Lost productivity
- Penalties
- Delayed decisions
These hidden costs stack up throughout the year and push your total accounting spend far beyond payroll.
2. How does outsourcing reduce my accounting expenses?
Outsourcing removes:
- Training costs
- Turnover cycles
- Internal accuracy risks
You pay only for the work done, without overheads like retirement benefits or upskilling.
3. Which country is the leading destination for outsourced accounting work in 2025?
India is a global hub for outsourced finance. Studies show that about 90% of Fortune 500 companies already send their accounting work here. The country has 140,000+ skilled finance professionals, strong digital systems, and a mature outsourcing market.
4. Which country has the highest adoption of outsourcing accounting and finance tasks?
The US has the highest outsourcing adoption, with 68% of companies relying on external providers. About 37% of US companies outsource core finance tasks like:
- Bookkeeping
- Payroll
- Tax preparation
The reason? Outsourcing cuts overheads + removes staffing pressure. It also improves accuracy and brings in trained accountants.
5. Is outsourcing a good option for a D2C company earning $5M+ revenue?
Yes! At the $5M+ stage, D2C companies handle:
- Heavy order volumes
- Complex reconciliations
- Multi-channel payouts
- Frequent compliance updates
Outsourcing gives you trained accountants + automation-ready processes. This reduces aall three – training needs, employee turnover, and accuracy risks.