With VAT, Corporate Tax and e-invoicing all depending on your books, every UAE business needs someone keeping them properly. The question is whether that someone sits on your payroll or works for a bookkeeping firm.
What an in-house accountant really costs
The salary is only part of it. In the UAE you also pay for:
- Visa, Emirates ID, medical insurance and labour costs
- End-of-service gratuity, which builds up every year
- Annual leave and air tickets where your contracts include them
- Accounting software licences and a workstation
- Cover during leave, sickness or after a resignation
One person also has limits. A good bookkeeper is not always a VAT or Corporate Tax specialist, and nobody reviews their work unless you pay for that too.
What outsourcing covers
- Monthly recording, bank reconciliation and management accounts
- VAT returns and Corporate Tax filing prepared from the same books
- A reviewer checking the preparer’s work
- Continuity: holidays and staff changes are the firm’s problem, not yours
- A fixed monthly fee that scales with your transaction volume
When in-house makes sense
- You process hundreds of transactions a day and need someone on site
- Finance is tied into daily operations, such as stock control or cash handling
- You already have a finance team and need another pair of hands
When outsourcing makes sense
- You are a startup, SME or Free Zone company without a finance team
- Your transaction volume does not justify a full-time salary
- You want tax filing and bookkeeping handled by the same people
- You have fallen behind and need the books caught up quickly
The hybrid option
Many growing businesses keep an administrator in-house to collect invoices and receipts, and outsource the bookkeeping, review and tax work. You keep control of daily paperwork without paying for specialist skills full time.
Need help deciding?
SMAS Venture offers fixed-fee monthly bookkeeping for UAE SMEs and Free Zone companies. Book a free consultation and we will compare the cost with your current setup.
