Offshore staff and virtual assistants for Australian accounting firms, honestly compared
12 offshore accounting staffing, per-job outsourcing and VA providers for Australian accounting firms, and what each publishes on price and terms.
We run one of the services on this list. DotVA places offshore VAs from 10 hours a week, and we are not an accounting outsourcer. If your firm wants qualified accountants producing workpapers and returns at volume, a specialist accounting outsourcer will serve you better than we will. That is the most useful thing we can tell you, so it comes first.
The method is the same as our comparison of Australian VA agencies. Every claim about another provider comes from its own website, checked on 11 November 2026 and linked in the table. Where a figure is not published we write “not stated publicly” rather than guess, and where a site does not say where its people work, we do not assume. Every provider we could verify supplies offshore staff. We could not verify an Australian-based virtual admin service for accounting firms from a provider’s own website, which is not the same as saying none exists.
The services at a glance
| Service | What it is | Published price | Where the team is | Software named | Terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DotVA accounting firm virtual assistant (that’s us) | Managed offshore VA: one dedicated person who works to your direction | $12-17/hr admin, $18-25/hr specialist, $25-35/hr bookkeeping and finance, AUD ex GST, from 10 hrs/week | Philippines, working Australian business hours | Xero, MYOB, Xero Practice Manager, Karbon, FYI, Dext, Hubdoc | No lock-in contract; stop any time in the first 14 days, then 30 days’ notice; free replacement any time |
| TOA Global | Offshore staffing that says it has focused exclusively on the accounting industry: accountants, bookkeepers, auditors and executive assistants dedicated to your firm (hours not stated) | Not stated publicly | Philippines, with offices in Clark, Cebu, Manila and Tarlac; client relationship managers on the Gold Coast | Xero, Xero Practice Manager, NowInfinity, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace for its executive assistants | Not stated publicly |
| Frontline Accounting | Offshore staffing for accountants, auditors, insolvency and finance professionals: a dedicated team, with local HR and attendance handled by Frontline (hours not stated) | Not stated publicly | Philippines | Xero certification named in its training program | Not stated publicly |
| BOSS | Outsourced accounting work at a fixed fee per job, or a dedicated accountant or bookkeeper one to five days a week, among its three models; its FAQ states BOSS is a registered Australian tax agent | No dollar figures published: fixed fees agreed before work begins; dedicated staff billed monthly by experience | Bangalore, India | Xero, Xero Workpapers, MYOB, HowNow, BGL 360, Class Super, CCH iFirm | Per-job service: no minimum hours and no notice period. Dedicated: one month’s notice, described as “zero lock-ins”; 10-hour free trial |
| SuperRecords | Outsourced accounting and SMSF work on a job-based or resource-based model, plus virtual practice admin for accounting firms | Fixed fee per job; its published example is SMSF administration from $250 per fund per year (GST basis not stated) | Offshore; its outsourced accounting page says recruits are qualified or qualifying with the chartered accountants of India | Xero, MYOB, Karbon, FYI Docs, CAS 360 | Not stated on the pages we read |
| NTAA Outsourcing for Accountants | Member program run with ConnectOS: a dedicated offshore tax or general accountant, with ConnectOS handling recruitment, employment, payroll, HR and IT (hours not stated) | Indicative only, ex GST, for NTAA members only: tax accountant with 2-4 years’ experience $3,568.95-4,197.52 a month; 5+ years $4,360.62-4,989.19 a month, by working model. Its cost breakdowns also show general accountant totals of $3,417.76-4,229.67 a month (GST basis not shown) | Offshore; country not stated on its page | Not named: you specify your preferred software | Not stated publicly |
| Staff Domain | General offshore staffing with an accounting and finance page: full-time employees in roles including bookkeeper, accountant, tax preparer and administrative assistant; it says it serves mid-market companies and is not the right fit if “You need fewer than three people” | Per month in AUD (GST basis not stated): bookkeeper $2,200-4,800 in its price table by seniority; the same page also advertises “from $799/month (WFH) or $1,099/month (office-based)” and does not explain how the two figures relate; accountant $2,500-5,600; tax preparer $2,860-6,636 | Philippines on its accounting pages; its FAQ says it also employs in South Africa | Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks | ”No lock-in contracts. Only a 60-day notice.” |
| hammerjack | General offshore staffing with an accounting and bookkeeping page: dedicated full-time staff, or fractional staff on a part-time basis | Indicative pricing through an online calculator, in AUD, excluding GST; no figures in the page text | Manila and Pampanga, Philippines | Not stated on the pages we read | Home page says “No bonds”; notice not stated on the pages we read |
| Virtual Coworker | VA provider that recruits dedicated remote contractors, with a bookkeeper and accountant page; part-time (20+ hours) or full-time (40 hours) | From $11 AUD/hr for a bookkeeper and $12 AUD/hr for an accountant; virtual assistants from $8 AUD/hr (GST basis not stated) | Philippines, working remotely | QuickBooks, Xero, MYOB | One-month minimum; 7 days’ notice in the first six months, then 14 days |
| Cloudstaff | General offshore staffing with an accountants page: dedicated full-time staff | One monthly rate per staff member with no setup fees; indicative pricing through an online calculator; no figures in the page text (GST basis not stated) | Philippines, India, Colombia and Kenya | Logos only, including Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks, NetSuite and Sage | Not stated on the pages we read |
| Beepo | General offshore staffing with an accounting page: full-time staff dedicated to your business. Asked about part-time staff, its FAQ says “No, we generally recommend you work with full-time staff” | A monthly fee; no dollar figures published | Philippines: its office is in Clark Freeport Zone, and its FAQ says staff are set up in its offices or equipped to work remotely | MYOB, Xero | Not stated on the pages we read |
| VA Platinum | Offshore staffing with an accounting and bookkeeping page: a dedicated team member, full-time or part-time | Fixed monthly rate quoted after a discovery call; its home page shows indicative figures from its salary matrix, excluding GST; no figures in the page text | Offshore; country not stated in the page text we read (its site lists office addresses in Cebu City and Davao City) | MYOB, Xero, QuickBooks | Not stated on the pages we read |
Checked on each provider’s own pages on 11 November 2026. “Not stated publicly” means we could not find the figure on the provider’s public pages; it is an observation, not a criticism.
Our row in full is on pricing. If a 30-minute call beats ten tabs, book a discovery call, and if another row fits your firm better we will tell you on the call.
Five products share one label
- Specialist offshore accounting staffing (TOA Global, Frontline Accounting). Dedicated accounting staff in the Philippines who work as part of your team. TOA Global’s accountant page says its Australian-trained accountants can prepare individual and company tax returns, BAS and IAS. Both quote on enquiry.
- Outsourced accounting by the job (BOSS, SuperRecords). You send a job and it comes back at a fixed fee. BOSS says every job is reviewed by a senior reviewer, and SuperRecords says its internal reviewers check all work before you see it. No one person learns your clients. BOSS also offers dedicated staff, and SuperRecords a resource-based model.
- A member program (NTAA). The National Tax & Accountants’ Association offers its members a dedicated offshore accountant through ConnectOS, with indicative monthly prices on its page.
- General offshore staffing with an accounting page (Staff Domain, hammerjack, Cloudstaff, Beepo, VA Platinum). Staff Domain and Cloudstaff describe their staff as full-time and Beepo generally recommends full-time; hammerjack and VA Platinum say part-time is available.
- A VA provider (DotVA, Virtual Coworker). One person for the work around the accounting work: document chasing, job setup in your practice management system, filing, data entry, reconciliations and the firm’s own debtors. Virtual Coworker starts at 20 hours a week. We start at 10.
What the published prices buy
Few providers here publish a price. Where we have multiplied, that is our arithmetic, not the provider’s figure, using 4.33 weeks a month.
| Option | Published price | What that buys |
|---|---|---|
| DotVA admin VA | $12-17/hr ex GST | 10 hours a week for about $520-736 a month; 20 hours for about $1,040-1,470 |
| DotVA bookkeeping VA | $25-35/hr ex GST | 20 hours a week for about $2,165-3,030 a month; 40 hours for about $4,330-6,062 |
| Virtual Coworker | From $11/hr for a bookkeeper, from $12/hr for an accountant (GST basis not stated) | At its 20-hour weekly minimum, from about $953 a month for a bookkeeper or $1,040 for an accountant |
| Staff Domain | Bookkeeper $2,200-4,800 a month in its price table (the same page also advertises “from $799/month (WFH) or $1,099/month (office-based)” and does not explain how the two figures relate); accountant $2,500-5,600; tax preparer $2,860-6,636 (AUD, GST basis not stated) | One employee, priced by seniority; its accounting page describes staff as full-time employees |
| NTAA Outsourcing for Accountants | $3,568.95-4,989.19 a month ex GST; indicative only; NTAA members only | One tax accountant with 2-4 or 5+ years’ experience (hours not stated) |
| SuperRecords | SMSF administration from $250 per fund per year (GST basis not stated) | One fund for a year; other work is a fixed fee per job |
| hammerjack, Cloudstaff, VA Platinum | Indicative pricing shown online | No figures in the page text |
For a full-time ledger role we are not the low price. Staff Domain’s price table for a bookkeeper starts at $2,200 a month, below the about $4,330 that 40 hours a week on our bookkeeping tier would cost, and the same page also advertises “from $799/month (WFH) or $1,099/month (office-based)” without explaining how the two figures relate. Where we differ is part-time: we place from 10 hours a week, with a $500 deposit that is credited to your first invoice.
How to compare them
- Production or admin? If returns, financial statements and SMSF work are waiting on a preparer, you need accountants. If documents are not arriving, jobs are not set up and debtors are not chased, you need an assistant.
- How many hours? Several providers describe their staff as full-time, and Virtual Coworker starts at 20 hours a week. For less, ask BOSS (from one day a week), hammerjack (fractional staffing) and VA Platinum (part-time) what their minimum is. Ours is 10 hours.
- Which software? Check the provider names your practice system, not only the ledger. TOA Global names Xero Practice Manager and NowInfinity, SuperRecords names Karbon, FYI Docs and CAS 360, and BOSS lists HowNow, BGL 360 and Class Super.
- Which security certification? TOA Global says it is AICPA SOC 2 certified. SuperRecords, Staff Domain, hammerjack and Cloudstaff say they are ISO 27001 certified (Cloudstaff lists other certifications as well), and VA Platinum says it runs ISO 27001-certified systems. We hold neither, and say so on our data security page.
- What are the exit terms? Published notice runs from none on BOSS’s per-job service to 60 days at Staff Domain. Several providers do not publish theirs, so ask for the agreement.
Registration, supervision and client consent
Start here rather than with price. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.
The source for this section is the Tax Practitioners Board’s Guidance Statement TPB(GS) 31/2018 on outsourcing and offshoring, last modified 30 October 2026. It is written for registered tax and BAS agents and states that it “is intended to be for information only”. Read the current version on tpb.gov.au before relying on any summary, including this one.
Supervision depends on who does the work. Where tax agent services (which include BAS services) are outsourced to an unregistered third party, such as an outside provider’s assistant or an unregistered outsourcer, the TPB says the practitioner must ensure the work is under their supervision and control, or that of another tax practitioner, and that “the tax practitioner is ultimately responsible for the quality of work of the unregistered third party, including ensuring that there are appropriate supervisory arrangements”. The TPB treats work outsourced to another registered practitioner differently, so ask each provider whether it is registered.
Client permission comes first. Code item 6 is the mandatory part: a tax practitioner must not disclose information about a client’s affairs to a third party without the client’s permission, unless there is a legal duty to do so. The guidance statement treats any entity other than the client and the practitioner’s own legal entity as a third party, so a VA supplied by an outside provider, us included, is generally a third party. It notes that an overseas employee of your own practice is not. Permission “may be by way of a signed letter of engagement, signed consent, or other communication with the client”. Telling the client to whom and where their information will go is recommended by the TPB, not mandated in the guidance statement, which also accepts that a general consent may be enough in some circumstances.
Privacy. If your firm is covered by the Privacy Act, giving an overseas assistant access to client information is, in most cases, a cross-border disclosure under APP 8 of the Australian Privacy Principles: you must take reasonable steps to make sure the overseas recipient handles the information in line with the APPs, and you generally remain accountable if they do not. The TPB’s guidance statement says tax practitioners should seek their own advice about whether the Privacy Act applies to them. Our guide to hiring an offshore VA legally covers the obligations.
Ask every provider. On the pages we checked, BOSS’s FAQ was where we found a provider stating that it is a registered Australian tax agent. We did not find a registration statement on the other providers’ pages, which is an observation and not a finding that they are unregistered. Ask each one, and ask who reviews the work.
Where we draw our own line. These are DotVA’s rules, not a statement of the law. DotVA is not a registered BAS agent and does not prepare or lodge BAS. A VA we place never lodges and never exercises judgement about a client’s tax position. They prepare inputs (reconciliations, workpapers, collected documents and drafted coding queries) and your agents review, judge, sign and lodge. They do not give tax or BAS advice, ATO portal access stays with your local team, and we do not work with shared credentials.
Who should pick whom
- Qualified accountants producing workpapers, returns and financial statements at volume: a specialist accounting outsourcer. TOA Global and Frontline Accounting both staff accounting firms from the Philippines and quote on enquiry.
- Overflow jobs with no ongoing commitment: BOSS’s per-job service (no minimum hours, no notice period) or SuperRecords, both at a fixed fee per job.
- SMSF administration: SuperRecords, which publishes a starting price of $250 per fund per year, or BOSS, which lists super fund accounting among its work.
- An NTAA member who wants an indicative price before the first call: NTAA Outsourcing for Accountants.
- A dedicated offshore bookkeeper, accountant or tax preparer with a published monthly price: Staff Domain, whose accounting page describes its staff as full-time employees. Staff Domain says it is not the right fit if you need fewer than three people.
- An accountant one to five days a week: BOSS’s dedicated service, or ask hammerjack about fractional staffing.
- The lowest published hourly rate for a bookkeeper among the providers on this page, at 20 or more hours a week: Virtual Coworker, from $11 an hour. Its FAQ describes its people as independent contractors.
- 10 to 30 hours a week of client admin, document chasing, data entry and bookkeeping support from one dedicated person: that is the firm we built DotVA for. See what the work looks like for accounting firms and bookkeeping firms.
Run your own numbers
Run the admin hours against your charge-out rate on the VA cost calculator and check our tiers on pricing. The bookkeeper role page covers ledger work, and the software pages show what a VA keeps current in Xero Practice Manager, Karbon and FYI. If the right answer for your firm is one of the other names in the table, we would rather you find that out now than in month two.