How much does accounting cost for a new Sagl?

Anyone setting up a Sagl (the Swiss equivalent of a limited liability company) almost always comes prepared for the formation costs: the share capital, the notary, the entry in the commercial register. Far less often are they prepared for what happens right afterwards, namely the ongoing accounting work, which continues every month regardless of how much the company bills in its early days. And it's this item, not the formation costs, that weighs most heavily in the first year.

How much basic accounting costs, without employees

For a Sagl with no staff and a still-modest turnover, the cost of outsourced accounting usually ranges between CHF 200 and CHF 500 a month, which works out at CHF 4,000 to CHF 9,000 a year. The figure depends mainly on the number of documents to be recorded: a business with 20-50 invoices and receipts a month stays in the lower bracket, while going above 100-200 entries a month pushes the cost towards CHF 800-1,200 a month.

If the Sagl is liable for VAT, you also need to add the quarterly return filings: around CHF 150-300 a quarter with the flat-rate method, CHF 200-400 with the effective method. Staying below the VAT exemption threshold, when the business model allows it, saves between CHF 600 and CHF 1,200 a year on this item alone.

What changes when the first employee arrives

Hiring even a single person introduces a level of complexity that goes beyond simple bookkeeping: monthly payroll, declarations to the various insurance bodies, year-end reconciliation. For a Sagl with 1-3 employees, this translates into an additional cost of around CHF 150-400 a month on top of basic accounting, rising to CHF 400-800 with 4-10 employees.

On top of this comes the time the owner themselves loses gathering receipts, responding to requests from the fiduciary or chasing deadlines, a cost that never appears on any quote but still eats into the hours available to grow the business.

The real cost of an employee, beyond the gross salary

The gross salary agreed with an employee isn't what the company actually pays. On top of that figure come the employer's social security contributions: 5.3% for AHV, IV and EO, around 1.1% for unemployment insurance up to an annual salary threshold, a contribution to family allowances that varies from canton to canton, around 0.8% for occupational accident insurance, and the contribution to the BVG occupational pension fund, which ranges from around 3.5% for younger employees up to 9% of the coordinated salary for workers closer to retirement.

Adding up all these items, the additional cost for the employer usually comes to between 13% and 19% of the gross salary, depending on the employee's age, the sector and the canton. For a gross salary of CHF 5,000 a month, this means a real cost for the company of close to CHF 5,700-5,900, contributions included, even before factoring in the accounting needed to manage all this every month.

Hiring an in-house person for accounting: when it makes sense

Hiring someone dedicated to accounting makes sense when the volume of documents and transactions is already high and steady, or when the Sagl manages a warehouse, multiple locations or internal processes that require a daily presence. In these cases, the cost of the employee, social contributions included, is justified by a workload that would otherwise require an external fiduciary at a similar or higher price anyway.

For a newly formed Sagl, with a still-small volume of documents, this kind of investment is rarely justified in the first year: the fixed cost of an employee stays the same even in months with little accounting work to do, while an external fiduciary bills according to the actual volume.

Why outsourcing is almost always worth it in the early years

Entrusting accounting to an external partner avoids the fixed cost of an employee and their social contributions, and means paying only for the work actually carried out according to the month's volume. It also includes skills already up to date on tax deadlines, VAT rates and regulatory changes, without having to invest time training them in-house. We discussed this more broadly in the article you don't always need to hire: when outsourcing can be the answer, where the same principle also applies to other business functions besides accounting.

With our administration and accounting service, we handle the accounting, VAT and administrative requirements of newly formed Sagls and established SMEs in Ticino, with a cost proportionate to the actual volume of documents and without the social contributions of a hire. If you've just set up your Sagl and want to find out what it would really cost to entrust your accounting to us, get in touch: we'll look at your volume of invoices together and give you a precise figure.