Why 300,000 CPAs Have Left The Profession?
And how you can keep your firm thriving in spite of the talent shortage
🌍 The Global Edge
Hire Clients to Make Money or Bleed Money to Get a Team?
“In small businesses, especially, it is difficult to hire people and lose them - they have family and obligations. Once I hired someone from my church, I had to let them go, and then I had to see the family every Sunday. It was hard”, recalls Veronica Wasek, Founder of Mavency, and 5MB, and a key influencer in the accounting community, in an episode of Smart Outsourcing Talks podcast.
This is not just Veronica’s reality, it is common to many small firm owners who are still struggling to choose between hiring a team and bleeding money to get work client work done or hiring clients, doing it all on their own to make money.
Offshoring, here, emerges as a viable solution. “I have a great business, I have processes in place, but what happens when key teammates leave?” The talent crisis continues to be a setback for firms, as the accounting talent shortage in the US is ripe. That is why so many firm owners like Veronica turned to offshoring to meet these needs.
Since 2019, over 300,000 accountants have left the profession. With baby boomers retiring, a new generation of accountants is less inclined to join the profession. Besides that, with the disruption by AI, new-age technology, and innovation, finding skilled accountants is harder than ever.
The right offshoring partner will have just what you need, in terms of people, processes, and platform, ensuring growth and scalability.
📚What We Are Reading
Why Have Over 300,000 CPAs Left the Profession in the US?
Culled from the Accountant Journal
The talent shortage problem has continued to worsen over the past few years. There are about 3,40,000 fewer accountants than it was five years ago. The talent pipeline is continuing to dry up. Some of the key reasons include:
Accounting is perceived as a boring profession
The field has lower starting salaries as compared to finance or tech
The rising cost of the extra year of training to acquire the 150 credit hours
As the talent shortage continues to worsen, it becomes inevitable for accounting firms to figure out a way to find a solution that works. A strategy that helps find skilled talent from different parts of the world, while reducing costs, instead of increasing overhead and more.
To find out how offshoring is helping accounting firms pivot, delve deeper with us in this piece that has caught our attention lately:
🔦 Finsmart Spotlight
Top Countries for Finance and Accounting Outsourcing: India vs. The Philippines
In the context of accounting offshoring, there is always a common debate. “Which country is better- India or the Philippines”?
People are still measuring the pros and cons, instead of sending out the work to just anyone. Because offshoring is not just about getting a third-party service provider. It is a partnership, preferably a long-term one, and hence, accounting firm owners want a culturally-compatible country; they look for a team that can resonate with them, understand their goals and vision, and ultimately, help them grow.
Read this latest piece by Finsmart Accounting, where we compare the pros and cons of partnering with any of these two countries
💰Free Growth Resource
Is hiring a team in-house more cost-effective, or is it better to outsource?
Mulling over the question for a long time? We have got you covered! Download this free Outsourcing ROI Playbook that helps you gain insights into exactly how much you would be saving with offshoring:
🧑💼 Meet Your Future Team
At Finsmart Accounting, our teams work directly with the accounting firms (clients) from Day 1. We hire experienced professionals who are fully capable of tackling crises and are always prepared to put their best foot forward to solve their clients’ problems.
In this first issue of The Outsource Insider, we present to you one of our Team Leaders, Sangeetha S.
A seasoned accounting professional with 13+ years of experience
She has a degree in MBA and M.Com
Her expertise spans General Ledger Maintenance, Accounts Receivable & Accounts Payable, Financial Review & Reporting Reconciliation, Sales Tax, Preparation and Post of Year-End Journal Entries, Payroll Management (Live & After-the-Fact), Intercompany Loan Reconciliation, Depreciation & Inventory Handling, Revenue Recognition & Deferred Revenue Review.
She has experience ranging from all major accounting tasks and tools, including QBO & QBD, Xero, Wave, Sage, Zoho, Quicken, Freshbooks, Netsuite, and MYOB.
At Finsmart, she manages a diverse portfolio of clients and a team of 15 accountants, reviewers, and bookkeepers
She is a process-oriented individual who has been training her team to be excellent at what they do.
In her leisure time, she travels, cooks, and surfs the internet.
“Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.” – Steve Jobs
😄 Funsmart Corner
Now this issue cannot truly come to an end unless we pour just a little dose of fun in your inbox.
📅 What’s Coming Up
The accounting conference season is officially here! Here are the events that we will be attending in May:
AICPA Engage
June 9-12 at Las Vegas, NV.
Scaling New Heights
June 22-25 in Orlando, FL.
See you next time!