In year one a new Indian entity needs accounting, tax, GST, payroll, company secretarial and FEMA skills at once, while headcount is still ramping. That is the hardest moment to staff the function in-house.
What an in-house team costs
For the same scope, an indicative year-one budget is ₹84 to ₹123 lakh, about USD 95,000 to 140,000 at ₹88 per USD. That covers a finance controller, a tax and FEMA lead, a GST executive, two AP/GL accountants, a payroll executive, company secretarial support, employer costs, hiring and equipment, and payroll software.
The costs that do not show in the budget
- Months of hiring before the team is complete, while filings are already due.
- Single points of failure: one resignation can interrupt TDS, GST or payroll.
- Specialist gaps, especially in FEMA, export declarations and GST refunds.
- Supervision time from the parent's finance team.
When outsourcing makes sense
- You are incorporating or in your first 12 to 24 months.
- Headcount is under about 100 and still ramping.
- You want a fixed monthly cost and a written on-time filing commitment.
- You want the option to bring the function in-house later, with documented processes.
When to build in-house
Once the entity is stable and large enough to keep specialists fully busy, an in-house team can make sense. A good provider documents every process from day one so that transition is straightforward.
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