Prior to the pandemic, the accounting profession began experiencing shortages in available talent and fewer people entering the field. In 2019, the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) reported that accounting graduates at both the bachelors and graduate levels were declining and CPA exam candidates were at a ten-year low.

Many public accountants move into controllerships or high-level positions in private companies after they gain experience. This means the pipeline for high-level finance talent was already drying up before anyone had considered the impact of remote work or the Great Resignation. As a result, the demand for all types of employees in finance and accounting continues to exceed the supply of available, qualified talent.

In today’s marketplace, attracting and retaining talent remains one of the most pressing issues facing businesses, particularly for the accounting profession. Companies need to remain agile and open to adopting new processes, systems, or methods to respond to shifting worker demands and to effectively address staffing shortages.

Below are a few strategies to address these challenges:

1. Perform an assessment of your internal finance and accounting systems and processes. This will allow you to develop a current‐state blueprint, list of improvement recommendations, and a gap analysis of the current landscape to what staff levels and processes will be required to support the future needs of the business.
2. Document your internal processes, including the month-end close process, to identify opportunities to improve efficiency and create capacity.
3. Identify any talent gaps or staffing shortages in the finance and accounting department that are preventing a timely month-end close or expected level of reporting. This will allow you to assess the positions that need to be filled through either internal hires or outsourced support.
4. Leverage technology to help streamline processes or automate routine tasks and maximize the utilization of existing staff resources.
5. Perform an analysis of your enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and related technology stack to determine if it is capable of providing you with the real-time information and decision support. This will ensure you are not wasting time and resources getting information to allow you to make effective and timely decisions about the future of your business.

If your business does not have the capacity or resources to conduct these assessments or establish these systems, outsourced support offers the expertise to help you analyze your needs and provide you with customized solutions to overcome today’s talent crunch.

To learn more about how outsourcing could benefit your business and help to mitigate labor shortages, please contact Michael Zyborowicz at mzyborowicz@citrincooperman.com or Ryan Moore at rmoore@citrincooperman.com and access our Complete Guide to Outsourcing Finance here.