What is What is business process outsourcing??
What is business process outsourcing (BPO)?Business process outsourcing (BPO) is the practice of contracting a third-party provider to run a defined business function such as customer support, payroll, accounting, or IT helpdesk. The provider takes ownership of the people, process, and technology, and bills you on a per-seat, per-transaction, or fixed-fee basis.
BPO sits at the intersection of labour arbitrage and operational focus. You hand off a non-core function to a specialist that can run it cheaper, faster, or better, and your in-house team gets to concentrate on what actually moves the business.
The category covers everything from a 4-seat phone team in Cebu answering after-hours calls for a US plumbing firm, to a 5,000-seat captive in Manila handling global claims processing for a Fortune 500 insurer. Same idea, very different scale.
If you've used Apple support, ordered from Amazon, or paid with Wells Fargo, you've talked to a BPO provider — you just didn't know it.
How it worksA BPO engagement runs in three layers: contract, transition, and steady state. You scope the function, sign a service level agreement that locks in response times, quality thresholds, and pricing, then transition the work through documented playbooks and parallel runs before the provider takes the keys.
Pricing usually falls into one of four shapes:
Model
How you pay
Best for Per FTE (seat)
Fixed monthly rate per agent
Steady-volume work like inbound support Per transaction
Set fee per call, ticket, or invoice
Variable-volume back-office tasks Outcome-based
Tied to a KPI like CSAT or collections
Mature processes with clean metrics Hybrid
Base FTE rate plus variable bonus
Long-term partnershipsLocation choice drives most of the savings. Sending work to the Philippines or India (offshoring) typically cuts loaded labour cost by 50–70% versus a US in-house team. Sending it to Mexico or Colombia (nearshoring) trims 30–50% while keeping you in roughly the same timezone. Keeping it domestic (onshoring) protects timezone and language fit but barely moves the cost needle.
The provider absorbs the recruiting, training, real estate, tech stack, and compliance burden. You absorb the vendor-management overhead and the risk that comes with handing a function to an outsider.
ExamplesThe global BPO market hit roughly USD 347.95 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow at a 10.05% CAGR through 2035, according to Precedence Research. That growth is concentrated in a handful of hubs and a handful of named buyers.
Google has used Philippine and Indian BPO partners since 2016 for content moderation, ads review, and customer support — a quiet workforce that scales with each product launch. Meta contracts Accenture and TaskUs in Manila for content moderation; the work pulled enough scrutiny in the early 2020s that Meta eventually broadened its provider base across multiple regions. Wells Fargo has operated a Manila back-office hub since 2011, handling mortgage processing, AML checks, and treasury operations for the US parent. JPMorgan Chase runs large captive and outsourced operations in India and the Philippines for KYC, trade settlement, and analytics.The Philippines remains the standout English-language hub. According to the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines, the country's IT-BPM sector generates roughly USD 40 billion in revenue and employs about 1.9 million people, with growth targets pushing past 2.5 million by 2028.
Related terms Outsourcing: the umbrella term; BPO is the back-office and front-office slice that runs whole processes rather than one-off projects. Offshoring: moving work to a distant country (e.g. US to Philippines). A location choice, not a contracting choice. Nearshoring: moving work to a nearby country (e.g. US to Mexico) to keep timezone and culture closer. Knowledge process outsourcing: KPO handles judgment-heavy work like legal research or equity analysis, not transactional tasks. Call center: one delivery format inside BPO, focused on inbound or outbound voice. Back office: the non-customer-facing operations layer that BPO most commonly absorbs. Service level agreement: the contract clause that defines what "good" looks like in a BPO deal. FAQ What is business process outsourcing in simple terms?BPO is paying another company to run a piece of your business for you, usually a repeatable function like answering support calls, processing invoices, or managing payroll. You keep the brand and the strategy; they run the operation.
What is the difference between BPO and outsourcing?Outsourcing is the broad category — anything you contract out, including one-off projects. BPO is the subset where a provider runs an ongoing, defined business process end-to-end, typically with its own staff, systems, and SLAs.
Is BPO only about cost savings?No. Cost is the entry argument, but mature buyers cite access to specialist talent, 24/7 coverage, faster scaling, and freeing in-house leaders to focus on growth as bigger long-term wins. See the directory of vetted providers on Clutch for how the market positions itself today.
What functions do companies outsource most often?Customer support, IT helpdesk, finance and accounting, payroll, HR administration, content moderation, and data entry top the list. Higher-judgment work like legal research, equity analysis, and medical coding has shifted to KPO providers over the last decade.
Which countries dominate the BPO industry?The Philippines leads voice and customer experience, India leads IT and analytics, and Latin America (Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica) leads nearshore work for North American buyers. Eastern Europe serves Western European clients on similar terms.
How do I choose a BPO provider?Match scale to your volume, check for relevant compliance (ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOC 2), ask for two reference clients in your industry, and pilot a small scope before committing to a multi-year contract. Walk away from any provider that won't share agent attrition data.
Ready to scope a BPO partner? Outsource Accelerator lists 4,000+ vetted providers across the top global hubs — use the directory to shortlist, compare pricing, and book intro calls without paying a referral fee.
What is Bookkeeping?
What is bookkeeping?Bookkeeping refers to the process of recording transactions to general and special journals and posting these transactions to their respective ledgers. Bookkeeping is an important record-keeping function of financial accounting that is essential in a duly-registered business of any kind.
This should be done by applying generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) for US companies.
The bookkeeping function consists of the first three steps of the accounting cycle: analyzing transactions, recording transactions in the general journal, and posting the transactions to the ledger. Most businesses outsource bookkeeping because hiring bookkeepers is expensive and most small-medium businesses don’t do large volumes of transactions per day.
Outsourcing bookkeepingThe bookkeeping function is best outsourced in order to keep administrative costs low while helping small businesses grow and become stable. Another advantage is that you are assured that you are working with a skilled and competent professional that has the appropriate experience and educational background for the job.
Outsource Accelerator provides you with the best bookkeeping outsourcing companies in the Philippines, where you can save up to 70% on staffing costs.
What are some of bookkeeping’s best practices?Bookkeeping is one of the most important processes in a company. Here are some of the best practices in bookkeeping that you might want to consider:
Use the services of an expertIf you don't want to perform your own bookkeeping for any reason, you don't have to worry about it. There are a lot of vendors who can provide you with bookkeeping services.
If you choose to outsource your bookkeeping, you should look for a reliable and reputable freelancer or a company. Professional accountants can save you a significant amount of money in taxes because of their extensive knowledge of tax regulations.
Monitor expenses with accounting softwareYour business budgeting should be thoroughly tracked down. Many companies document their expenses daily or weekly. They also save receipts to keep track of expenses.
Daily bookkeeping duties will take a lot of time if you don't have good core accounting software. As your firm grows, this load will only get heavier if you don't use technology.
There is a lot of time involved in daily bookkeeping tasks if you don't have suitable accounting software. If you don't employ technology, this burden will only rise as your company expands.
Get your finances under controlYou may monitor your business's cash balances by comparing your bank account balance to the register in your accounting software. Use the software's reconciliation feature each month to ensure that you don't miss any duplications, circular reference transfers, or other irregularities.
Make preparations for taxesThe end of the financial year is a critical time to pay attention to your tax obligations. Your firm could be in serious tax trouble if you overlook business's expenses.
Preparing taxes in advance avoids any unpleasant surprises during the tax payment period. Use an accounting system that properly tracks all loans and revenue streams to ensure that your company is paying taxes on time.
What is Offshore Accounting?
Offshore Accounting: A 2025 Guide for Finance LeadersOffshore accounting is the practice of contracting a team outside your home country to run your bookkeeping, payroll, tax prep, and reporting at a fraction of domestic salary cost. Firms typically tap providers in the Philippines, India, or Eastern Europe and keep their CFO and senior controllers onshore for oversight.
The model isn't new. What's new is the scale. As US and Australian accounting firms hit a wall on local hiring, offshore teams have moved from "back-office data entry" to running the close, reviewing tax returns, and even handling client-facing advisory tasks under a partner's review.
You'll see it called slightly different things depending on the provider: F&A outsourcing, offshore bookkeeping, KPO accounting. The mechanics are the same. A remote team works your books inside your software stack, your processes, your security perimeter — just from a different time zone.
How it worksA typical offshore accounting engagement runs on three layers: a remote delivery team, a local team lead or controller, and your in-house finance owner who signs off. The offshore team logs into your accounting platform (QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, Sage) through approved remote access, follows your documented SOPs, and submits work for review at agreed checkpoints.
There are three common engagement shapes:
Model
What it covers
Best for Transactional outsourcing
AP, AR, bank recs, basic payroll
Small firms, predictable volume Managed F&A
Full close, reporting, tax support, FP&A inputs
Growing mid-market Build-Operate-Transfer
Dedicated offshore team you eventually own
Large firms scaling permanentlyPricing usually sits at $8-$25 per hour for staff accountants and $25-$45 for seniors, against $50-$120 onshore. That gap is the whole reason the market exists.
Security and compliance get handled through SOC 2-certified providers, role-based access controls, and country-level data residency clauses written into the contract. For audit-regulated work, the offshore team operates under your firm's quality control system — not their own.
ExamplesReal engagements look different depending on the buyer.
Accounting firms scaling capacity. A mid-sized CPA firm in Texas hires 12 offshore staff accountants in Manila during the January-April tax season. The offshore team prepares federal returns; a US-based senior reviews and signs. The firm doubles return throughput without raising fees.
SMBs replacing in-house bookkeepers. A Sydney-based design agency drops its part-time bookkeeper in 2024 and shifts to a managed F&A provider in Cebu. Monthly cost falls from AUD 4,500 to AUD 1,800, and they get a controller-level review baked in.
Enterprise shared services. Global giants have run captive offshore F&A centers in India and the Philippines for two decades. Procter & Gamble, JPMorgan Chase, and Deloitte itself all operate finance hubs across Manila, Bangalore, and Krakow. According to IBPAP, the Philippines IT-BPM industry now employs 1.9 million workers and generates $40 billion in annual revenue, with finance and accounting one of the fastest-growing service lines.
The wider outsourcing pool keeps expanding alongside it. Statista projects the global IT and BPO outsourcing market will pass $806 billion by 2030 at a 6.20% CAGR, with the United States the single largest buyer geography. F&A sits squarely inside that wave: it's the most repeatable, most documentable, and most software-driven of all finance functions, which is exactly why providers offshore it first.
Australian and UK firms managing the talent crunch. With domestic accountant shortages biting hardest in audit-heavy markets, firms like BDO Australia and several UK Top 50 practices openly disclose offshore delivery centers in their engagement letters.
Related terms Finance and accounting outsourcing: The umbrella term covering any externally delivered F&A function, onshore or offshore. Back office outsourcing: Broader category that includes accounting plus HR, data entry, and admin. Offshore outsourcing: Any function delivered from a different country, not just finance. Business process outsourcing: The full industry of which offshore accounting is a sub-segment. Nearshore outsourcing: Same idea but within neighboring time zones, like a US firm using Mexico or Costa Rica. Captive center: Wholly owned offshore operation versus contracting a third-party BPO. Knowledge process outsourcing: Higher-skill cousin covering analytics, tax research, and advisory work. FAQ Is offshore accounting legal and compliant?Yes, in every major jurisdiction, provided the work is reviewed and signed by a qualified onshore professional and you disclose where required. Tax filings in the US, UK, and Australia must still be signed by a domestically credentialed preparer or auditor, but the prep work itself can be done anywhere.
How much can you actually save?Most firms report 50-70% reduction in fully loaded staff cost. A US-based bookkeeper running $55,000-$75,000 a year compares to roughly $18,000-$28,000 fully loaded for an equivalent offshore hire in Manila, including the provider's margin.
What about data security and client confidentiality?Reputable providers run SOC 2 Type II environments, paperless offices with no removable media, biometric access controls, and per-seat audit trails. Most engagements use VDI or remote desktop so client data never leaves your servers.
Which countries lead in offshore accounting talent?The Philippines dominates English-speaking F&A delivery, India runs at greater scale and depth for analytics and tax research, and Eastern Europe (Poland, Romania) serves UK and EU firms needing closer time-zone overlap.
Will offshore teams use my existing software?Yes. Standard practice is to operate inside your stack — QuickBooks Online, Xero, NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Workday — using credentials and permissions you control. The team learns your workflows; you don't migrate to theirs.
How quickly can an offshore accounting team go live?A small bookkeeping engagement can be productive within two to four weeks. A full managed-services build for a mid-market firm typically takes 60-90 days including documentation, security setup, and a parallel-run period.
If you're sizing an offshore accounting move and want providers benchmarked against your specific volume and stack, Outsource Accelerator's directory lists vetted firms across Manila, Cebu, and India with transparent pricing.
What is Financial Services Company?
What is a financial services company?A financial services company offers different economic services provided by the financial industry such as loans, insurances, investment options, and even credit cards. These companies include banks, insurance firms, credit and payment processing companies, tax and accounting firms, and real estate companies.
Some of the major financial services companies in the world are American Express, a multinational firm offering various credit card services, and Wells Fargo, the largest bank in the United States.
Financial services for small businessesSmall-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups often need a little help, especially when it needs additional resources for their business. Most credit companies offer capital loans for SMEs with minimal interest and accessible payment terms. Real estate companies offer affordable office spaces for their office needs. Western banks offer virtual accounts as well for their overseas transactions. There are financial service companies that attend to their business needs whenever they need it.
Outsource Accelerator provides you the best outsourcing companies in the Philippines, where you can save up-to 70% on staffing cost. We have over 3,000 articles, 200+ podcast episodes, and a comprehensive directory with 700+ BPOs… all designed to make it easier for clients to learn about, and engage with, outsourcing.
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