Should Your Agency Build or Buy Its Finance Team?

Rayhaan Moughal

27.01.2025

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Your agency has hit £20K+ in monthly revenue. Projects are flowing in, the team is growing, and suddenly, your basic accounting setup isn't enough anymore.

You need deeper financial insights, but hiring a full-time Finance Director at £100,000+ per year feels like overkill.

This is the financial crossroads every successful agency hits.

The decision you make here matters because it impacts three critical areas:

How you'll manage growth and scale operations
Whether you'll spot opportunities or miss crucial financial insights
How much time you can focus on what actually grows your agency

The traditional path says build an in-house team. The modern approach suggests buying expertise through a virtual finance office.

But which one is right for your agency?

Let's cut through the noise and look at exactly what each option means for your bottom line, your time, and your agency's future.

The Reality of Building Your Finance Team

When agencies build in-house finance teams, they often discover a crucial truth: having dedicated financial staff doesn't automatically translate to strategic financial management.

The traditional setup typically creates a reactive rather than proactive financial function – one that focuses on maintaining rather than driving growth.

Most in-house teams become consumed by the day-to-day necessities of keeping your agency's finances in order.

They spend their time processing transactions, ensuring basic compliance, and handling immediate cash flow needs. While these tasks are necessary, they shouldn't be the primary focus of your finance function.

Your finance team should be a catalyst for growth, not just a record keeper. Yet the traditional in-house model often struggles to deliver this value.

Don’t get me wrong – capability is not the issue. The real challenge here is about perspective and capacity. When your finance team is buried in daily operations, they have limited bandwidth to provide the strategic guidance your agency needs for growth decisions or to implement advanced forecasting and planning.

The expertise gap presents another significant challenge. Consider what your agency is missing:

Access to industry-wide best practices and benchmarks
Exposure to diverse agency finance strategies
Regular innovation in systems and processes
Multiple perspectives on financial decisions

This isolation from broader industry experience means your finance function often operates in a bubble, relying solely on the knowledge and experience of a few individuals. While these professionals might be highly capable, they're limited by their individual exposure to different financial scenarios and solutions.

Perhaps most concerning is the risk factor this creates. When your entire financial function depends on a small in-house team, you're vulnerable to knowledge concentration.

Systems, processes, and critical financial insights become tied to specific individuals. If key team members leave or are unavailable, your agency's financial management can suffer significantly.

Again, no one’s questioning the capabilities of individual finance professionals. Rather, it's recognising the inherent limitations of the traditional in-house model in the current industry.

As agencies grow and evolve, they need a finance function that can scale rapidly, adapt continuously, and provide genuine strategic value – not just maintain the status quo.

The Modern Alternative: A Strategic Finance Function

The evolution of agency finance has given rise to a more dynamic approach: the virtual finance office.

Mind you – a VFO is not merely an “outsourced accountant.” It's a complete reimagining of how financial expertise integrates with your agency.

Modern virtual finance teams combine technology-driven efficiency with deep agency expertise. They bring a proactive approach that transforms your finance function from a cost center into a strategic asset.

The key difference lies in their ability to provide layered expertise – you get CFO-level strategic insight, controller-level financial management, and efficient operational support, all working in harmony.

What makes this approach particularly powerful for agencies is its scalability and depth. Your finance function grows with you, adapting to your changing needs without the traditional growing pains.

When you're planning international expansion, you have instant access to cross-border expertise. When you're considering new service lines, you can tap into profitability insights from similar agencies.

This breadth of experience simply isn't possible with a traditional in-house team.

Technology plays a crucial role here. Modern finance partners leverage advanced systems that provide:

Real-time financial insights through sophisticated reporting dashboards
Automated processing of routine transactions
Predictive analytics for cash flow and growth planning
Seamless integration with your agency's existing tools

But perhaps the most significant advantage is the strategic mindset. Rather than simply reporting on what has happened, a modern finance function helps shape what comes next.

They actively identify opportunities for improvement, spot potential issues before they become problems, and provide data-driven insights for strategic decisions.

Through this approach, you are practically getting a partner in growth. They understand agency dynamics, recognise industry patterns, and can guide you through the financial implications of everything from hiring decisions to pricing strategies.

Making the Right Choice for Your Agency

The decision between building and buying your finance function ultimately comes down to your agency's growth ambitions. Ask yourself:

Do you want financial management that simply maintains the status quo?

Or do you need a strategic partner that drives growth?

For agencies serious about scaling, the modern approach offers clear advantages.

You get immediate access to comprehensive expertise without the traditional overhead and limitations of building an in-house team. More importantly, you get a finance function that's proactive, strategic, and aligned with your growth goals.

Consider these key indicators that you're ready for a modern finance function:

Your agency is generating £20K+ monthly revenue and growing
You need deeper insights beyond basic accounting
You're making strategic decisions about hiring, pricing, or expansion
You want to focus on growing your agency rather than managing finances

Let's be clear: choosing a virtual finance office means changing how your agency handles finance. You will see a more efficient, expertise-driven approach that eliminates the need for traditional in-house financial roles while delivering superior strategic value.

How to Build the Right Agency Finance Team Structure in 2025

While traditional in-house teams focus on keeping up, modern virtual finance offices are actively driving growth. Your choice of finance team structure today will define your agency's growth trajectory tomorrow.

Think about where you want your agency to be in 12 months: