TOA Global Review (2026): Pricing, Public Reviews & Better Alternatives for CPA Firms

TOA Global offers offshore staffing services for accounting firms, providing dedicated bookkeepers, accountants, and CPAs based in the Philippines and other offshore locations — designed for CPA practices seeking capacity at offshore rates. In this blog, we provide an objective review of TOA Global, compare it with Maxim Liberty, and outline the key differences to help CPA firms make an informed decision. You’re a CPA firm partner evaluating offshore staffing. TOA Global comes up in nearly every conversation — they advertise 1,100+ firm clients across the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, an Australian parent company, a US sales office in Fort Worth, and Philippine-based delivery teams. The headline pitch: “save up to 66% on staffing costs.” The catch: TOA publishes no standard per-role rates — the closest it comes is a generic “$500 to $10,000 per month” industry range in a 2024 savings-calculator article (checked Aug 24, 2026).

For a human-led alternative, our virtual bookkeeping service starts at $75/month and never locks up your data.

This 2026 review of TOA Global takes that opacity seriously. We compare TOA’s quote-only model and target market against the public review evidence available on TrustPilot, the Better Business Bureau, and Glassdoor — and against a US-headquartered alternative (Maxim Liberty) that publishes pricing openly and offers a dedicated $300/month CPA white-label plan.

Transparency Note: This review is researched and published by Maxim Liberty. While we are a direct competitor, we have utilized objective pricing data, BBB ratings, and verified customer reviews to provide a fair market analysis of the best bookkeeping services available. Every third-party fact on this page is sourced and dated, and quotes are verbatim and linked. Ratings, pricing and company details change over time, so please check the linked source before relying on any figure. If you find an inaccuracy, tell us and we will correct it.

TOA Global vs. Maxim Liberty: At a Glance

Factors	TOA Global	Maxim Liberty	The Advantage
Customer Rating	× No client reviews on independent platforms	4.9 weighted average Trustindex 4.9 (92)Clutch 5.0 (14) Trustindex aggregates Google (57), Trustindex (10), Yelp (9), G2 (7), Facebook (5) and BBB (4)	Verified Public Reviews
BBB Rating	× No BBB profile found	A+ (Accredited)	BBB A+ accredited vs. none
Built-in Supervision	×You supervise. TOA places full-time staff into your firm, so reviewing their work is your responsibility. Its published “team management, oversight and engagement” refers to HR support through its people-management platform, not review of the work product (toaglobal.com, checked 21 September 2026).	We supervise. Every plan includes an assigned bookkeeper and a supervisor, from the $75/mo Standard plan up — no management burden on your side.	Managed, not staffed
Pricing Transparency	Quote-only — no published rates (TOA quoted $1,900–$2,400 per FTE per month in September 2026)	Published: $75/mo, $10/hr, $300/mo CPA plan	Transparent Pricing
Service Model	Offshore FTE staffing (Philippines) under Australian management	US-HQ accountability with hourly + monthly retainers	US-HQ Accountability
Target Market	Accounting firms — “markets to US accounting firms”, 1,100 served (toaglobal.com, checked 21 September 2026)	CPA firms, businesses, startups, mid-market	Wider Access
Engagement Commitment	Full-time professional placement (per-FTE) — 40 hours per week, month-to-month with 90 days’ notice, plus a refundable one-month security deposit	5-hour increments, scale up or down monthly, no notice period and no deposit	Flexible Hours
Minimum Entry Cost	×~$6,000 to write the first cheque — $1,900 first month at the lowest quoted rate + $2,000 kick-start fee + ~$2,100 refundable one-month deposit, plus equipment (not quoted)	$75 — one month of the Standard plan. No setup fee, no recruitment fee, no deposit, and that first retainer payment is 100% refundable.	$75 vs. ~$6,000
Minimum Commitment	×A full-time seat, 40 hours a week, with 90 days’ notice to exit — about $5,700 of salary still owed after you give notice	5 hours a month. Scale up, scale down, or stop at any time — no notice period and nothing owed	No Lock-In
Refund Policy	×None. The kick-start fee of up to $2,000 per employee and the equipment charge are non-refundable; only the one-month security deposit is returned.	100% money-back guarantee on your first retainer payment	Guarantee vs. none

What Is TOA Global?

TOA Global (originally The Outsourced Accountant) is an Australia-headquartered outsourced staffing firm that places Philippine-based accounting professionals into US, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand accounting firms. Founded in 2013, TOA reports serving 1,100+ accounting firms globally. Their US operations run out of a Fort Worth, Texas office; the actual delivery is offshore.

TOA’s model is fundamentally different from a direct-bookkeeping service like Maxim Liberty: TOA places full-time equivalent (FTE) professionals into your firm on a long-term monthly retainer, where the offshore staffer becomes part of your firm’s daily workflow. You pay TOA a per-FTE monthly fee and the offshore staffer effectively becomes a remote employee.

TOA Global Pricing: What’s Public, What’s Not

TOA Global does not publish standard rates on its website. Its savings calculator claims firms can save “up to 66% on staffing costs,” but the actual per-FTE monthly rate is provided only by custom quote after a discovery call.

Monthly cost per full-time team member

The engagement is a dedicated full-time employee — 40 hours per week, based in the Philippines, working 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. US Eastern time.

• No US experience: $1,900 – $2,100 per month
• One to two years of US experience: $2,100 – $2,400 per month
• Work-from-home discount: about $90 per month less than a team member working from one of TOA’s four Philippine offices, because no office space is required

Roles available on this model include accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, tax preparation, and assistant controller.

What you pay before anyone starts work

TOA requires three things upfront, plus a deposit once a candidate is selected:

1. Business services agreement — month-to-month, with 90 days’ notice to terminate.
2. Kick-start / recruitment fee — a one-time $2,000 for a single hire; $1,500 each for two hires; $1,250 per employee at higher headcount.
3. Computer equipment — a one-time charge for the team member’s machine.
4. Security deposit — one month, approximately $2,100, fully refundable, payable once you have selected your team member.

Added together, that comes to roughly $6,200 before the first month of bookkeeping is delivered.

The real entry point

Published entry prices are one thing; the cheque you actually write in month one is another. On TOA’s quoted terms, the smallest possible start looks like this:

• $1,900 — first month at the lowest quoted rate (no US experience)
• $2,000 — one-time kick-start / recruitment fee
• ~$2,100 — one-month security deposit (refundable)
• Equipment — a one-time charge that was not quoted to us

That is roughly $6,000 before a single transaction is categorized, and it is the floor, not a mid-range figure. There is no smaller version of the product: the minimum unit TOA sells is one full-time person at 40 hours a week, and the agreement runs with 90 days’ notice — so leaving costs you about another $5,700 in salary after you give notice.

The comparison that matters is not $1,900 against $300. It is ~$6,000 and a 90-day exit against $75 and no notice period. Maxim Liberty’s Standard plan starts at $75/mo for 5 hours with no setup fee, no recruitment fee and no deposit, and the first retainer payment carries a 100% money-back guarantee. If the fit is wrong, you are out $75 and you get it back.

How the hire actually happens

TOA recruits for the role and the client conducts the final interview. TOA does not keep a deep bench, so the person is recruited for your seat rather than pulled from an existing pool — which means a recruitment lead time rather than an immediate start. TOA cites an average engagement of about four years per team member, and the majority of its business comes from accounting firms.

On security and assurance, TOA states it is SOC 2 Type 2 attested by a third party and is an AICPA-recommended provider.

What that means next to a Maxim Liberty retainer

The two models are not the same purchase. TOA sells you an employee: you carry the recruitment fee, the equipment, the deposit, the interview process, and the 90-day exit notice, and you get 40 hours a week whether or not your books need 40 hours a week. Maxim Liberty sells you finished bookkeeping: our CPA firm plan is $300/mo for 30 hours at $10/hr, our business Standard plan starts at $75/mo for 5 hours, additional hours are $15/hr, there is no recruitment fee, no equipment charge, no security deposit, and no notice period. Every hour is supervised by a second reviewer before it reaches you, and the first retainer payment carries a 100% money-back guarantee.

If you genuinely need a full-time seat — 160 hours a month of steady work, a person you interview and direct yourself — TOA’s model can be the cheaper way to buy it. If your volume is uneven, seasonal, or well under full-time, you are paying for a salary you cannot turn down.

The Public Review Evidence Gap

For a firm serving 1,100+ accounting practices for over 10 years, you would expect a substantial public client-review record. TOA Global’s evidence is unusually thin:

• TrustPilot: No public TrustPilot profile found for toaglobal.com
• Better Business Bureau: No US BBB profile listed for TOA Global at the Fort Worth address
• Glassdoor: 4.6/5 across 1,840 employee reviews — strong, but these are employee reviews from staff in the Philippines, not client reviews from accounting firms
• Industry directory mentions: Listed on Outsource Accelerator, BookkeepingServices.com directories — but these are largely company-supplied listings, not third-party verified reviews

By contrast, Maxim Liberty maintains a 5.0-star Clutch.co profile with 14 verified reviews, plus 4.9 across 92 reviews on Trustindex, BBB A+ Accreditation, recognition on Forbes Advisor, and multiple named CPA testimonials — all from clients, not employees.

Annual Cost Math: TOA Global FTE vs. Maxim Liberty CPA Plan

For a representative US CPA firm needing dedicated outsourced bookkeeping support — call it ~30 hours/month of work — here is how the annual cost compares using the top of the per-FTE range TOA quoted in September 2026 ($2,400/month) plus its one-time kick-start fee:

Note: TOA Global does not publish standard rates. The per-FTE figures shown reflect rates TOA quoted in September 2026 and have not been confirmed by TOA in writing. Equipment cost was not quoted and is excluded from these totals. Actual TOA pricing depends on role, experience level, and engagement size — and may be higher or lower than the stated range.

Seasonal Workload Scenario: Where Month-to-Month Pricing Wins

CPA firm workload is rarely flat across the year. A typical mid-sized practice might see 30 hours/month of bookkeeping support for 6 regular months, 0 hours during 3 slow months, and 90 hours/month during a 3-month tax-season crunch — roughly 450 hours total over the year. Here is how the two pricing structures compare under that pattern:

How Different Is This From Just Hiring Someone?

Strip away the offshore framing and the TOA Global model is an in-house hire with a lower wage. You are still buying a salary, and a salary behaves the same way wherever the person sits.

You pay in the slow months. A retainer for a full-time seat does not shrink when your transaction volume does. January is quiet, the invoice is the same. You sell a business, close a location, lose a client — the invoice is the same until the notice period runs out. Every hour your team member is not working on your books is an hour you bought and did not use.

You pay for their time off. The monthly rate covers the employee’s salary and statutory benefits, and those benefits include paid leave. Philippine employment law requires paid leave, and BPO employers typically offer more than the statutory minimum. When your person is on holiday or out sick, the invoice does not pause and the work does not get done — you either wait for them to come back or you cover it yourself.

You still do the managing. Interviewing, onboarding, setting priorities, answering questions, checking the work, and handling it when the work is wrong. TOA Global handles employment; it does not hand you a finished set of books.

What you genuinely avoid

This is not a case against offshore staffing. Compared with a US in-house hire you skip payroll taxes, benefits administration, workers’ compensation, office space, and a US salary — and those savings are real and large. If you have 40 hours a week of accounting work and someone competent to supervise it, the model works.

Where it breaks

It breaks when your actual need is smaller or lumpier than a full-time seat. Most small businesses and most small CPA firms do not have 173 hours a month of bookkeeping. They have 20, or 40, or 90 during tax season and almost none in July. Buying a salary to cover that shape of demand means paying for the peak all year round.

A managed retainer inverts the problem. At Maxim Liberty you buy hours, not a person: 5-hour increments from $75/mo, scale up or down month to month, and no notice period to stop. Slow month, small invoice. Busy month, add hours. Nobody takes a holiday on your payroll, and nobody needs you to check their work — a supervisor already did.

Pros and Cons

Who Is TOA Global Best For?

TOA Global makes sense for established mid-to-large accounting firms ready to commit to one or more full-time offshore FTEs and willing to manage offshore staff inside their own workflow. If you have predictable, year-round high-volume bookkeeping or tax-prep work and want a dedicated person dedicated solely to your firm, the FTE staffing model can be efficient.

TOA Global is not a fit for: solo CPAs or small CPA firms with under ~30 hours/month of bookkeeping work; firms wanting transparent published pricing before any sales conversation; firms that prefer hourly billing and the ability to scale up or down month-to-month; or any direct-to-business client looking for outsourced bookkeeping (TOA markets to accounting firms rather than direct-to-business clients).

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

TOA Global is a well-established offshore staffing firm with a clear value proposition for mid-to-large CPA practices ready to commit to dedicated full-time offshore FTEs. Their employee culture by all accounts is strong (Glassdoor 4.6/5). The challenges for a CPA firm partner doing due diligence: zero published pricing, no TrustPilot profile, no US BBB profile, and a public review record concentrated on employee feedback rather than client outcomes.

For solo CPAs and small-to-mid CPA firms — where the per-FTE monthly commitment is heavier than the actual workload requires — Maxim Liberty’s $300/month CPA white-label plan with 30 hours included delivers a more right-sized engagement at transparent published rates, backed by a 5.0 rating from 14 verified Clutch reviews plus 4.9 out of 5 across 92 reviews on Trustindex, BBB A+ Accreditation, and a 100% money-back guarantee. Firms that want managed delivery rather than offshore seat-leasing can compare our white-label bookkeeping back office for CPA firms.