Over the past two years, the number of accountants and auditors in the U.S. workforce has drastically decreased, leaving many businesses with unprecedented staffing shortages, growing workloads, and difficulties retaining employees.
Our CFO, Aira Pineda, hosted a recent CFO DIVE webinar, Fully Staffed! Overcoming Accounting and Finance Talent Gaps, which focused on these concerns. She was joined by Chloe Chan, CFO of URO1Medical, Henry Chavez, partner and co-founder of Cathedral CPAs and Advisors, and Amy Omand, CFO and principal at 7 Seat Consulting, who offered advice on how businesses can turn these staffing obstacles into opportunities
Staffing Shortages and Burnout
Finance teams are overstretched and stressed out. The accounting profession is grappling with a critical staffing shortage highlighted by a 17% decline in U.S. accountants and auditors leaving their jobs over the past two years,” says Aira. “This trend has added unprecedented pressure on accounting and finance teams, pushing organizations to rethink how they manage talent, maintain efficiency, and meet growing demands.”
But on top of the general shortage, the challenge is not just finding any accountant It’s about finding the right people. For Chloe, working with startups, that means finding controllers who can roll up their sleeves and do everything. “They have to be quite seasoned; they have to not have an ego to say that things are below their skill set,” she says.
Henry highlighted a different kind of difficulty for public accounting. “A lot of the Big four and the Big Ten have laid off a lot of people,” he says. “Our challenge isn’t necessarily that the people aren’t out there. The challenge is right now their expectation because they’re coming from, I’ll just call it Mount Olympus down into the valley and the salaries aren’t the same.
The panelists agreed limited budgets, particularly for the nonprofit sector, lack of clear career pathways for smaller organizations, and stiff competition for top talent make recruiting accounting and finance employees easier said than done.
Strategies for Developing and Retaining Talent
Retaining talent requires more than competitive pay—it’s about fostering a culture where employees feel valued, supported, and engaged. According to a survey sponsored by Scrubbed from the Center of Accounting Transformation, 40% of accounting professionals have experienced some level of burnout and it’s a key factor driving professionals out of the field.
The panelists shared some actionable strategies:
- Mentorship Programs: Amy highlighted the importance of hands-on mentorship and supporting training and development opportunities: “Within nonprofits, we can give employees a true connection to our mission. To the extent that finance and accounting folks are passionate about those missions, we can give them the feeling that the work they’re doing is leading to a greater good,” she says.
- Incentives: Henry notes that companies have to think strategically about offering incentives if their firm doesn’t have a big name to attract talent. “And the first one has to be a competitive compensation benefit package. After that, what else can I offer that attracts them to want to stay?” Chloe emphasized that you have to find the right fit for tech startups, as for nonprofits. but the value of equity offerings can also be a powerful motivator.
Henry also underscored the importance of hiring for culture fit. “It’s not just about finding the best person—it’s about finding the right person for our organization.”
Embracing Innovation in Technology and Automation
Accounting and finance operations are changing because of increased automation and new technologies that are helping to reduce the day-to-day tasks and free up time for accounting teams to focus on higher-value and strategic work.
Chloe discussed how her startups have run more effectively with smaller teams because of tools like QuickBooks that can be integrated with additional accounts payable and inventory management platforms. Aira explained how Scrubbed approaches technology and innovation. “This is something we’re very good at,” she says. “We’re knowledgeable of all of the off-the-shelf technologies whether that’s an accounting system, inventory system, app system. We know about putting it all together and integrating it and letting them talk to each other to make our lives easier as accountants.”
For Amy, the value of technology is clear. “It just reduces the amount of time that we’re working on the transactional so that more of our time is spent on actually analyzing the financial statements and, understanding what the impacts are.”
However, Henry cautioned against relying on automation alone. “We have completely automated software…we can do a job and put in different templates and programs that will turn everything into a yes or no type question,” he says. “But it also has the effect of “dumbing down” our people because they’re not thinking through things.” He sees potential issues as lower-level tasks are delegated to technology. For instance, do future managers have the necessary foundational background?
There’s also an issue of effectiveness.”You can have the best technology, but if it’s not used efficiently and maximized, then it won’t do the job,” he says. “This is where Scrubbed has been a huge benefit to me because they’re a much larger team, so they can see across different platforms and how to utilize things in a different way.”
Outsourced and Fractional Accounting as a Strategic Solution
All of the panelists emphasized the importance of outsourcing to tap into expert talent on demand and fill talent gaps.
Chloe shared her experience: “Startups don’t focus on accounting, and people don’t understand that fixing it at the end is going to cost you more time and money than when you do it right up front.” For startups, speed is everything, she says. “And so instead of hiring many different part-time positions, I have the Scrubbed team that helps me to get everything done.”
Aira agrees. “It’s fast pace. You’re a startup. You’re going so fast. And I think the key benefit for you, other than the expertise in accounting, is that we know what technologies to use. It’s all ready for you to use today.”
Expertise was also a key benefit as far as the panel was concerned. “What I like is that because you have a lot of different people with different skill sets, you can pull them in to do different things,” says Henry. “It doesn’t mean the same person is doing every single thing. I have the team to help me without having to worry about hiring many different people.”.
Amy highlighted the flexibility and reliability of outsourced support. As a fractional CFO for multiple nonprofits, Amy brings in an outsourced accounting team for controller to accounting level expertise, which ensures “transactions are clean and accounted for” while she focuses on strategy and financial oversight.
Key Takeaways for Business Owners
If your business is feeling the strain of staffing shortages, consider these actionable steps:
- Invest in mentorship and career development to retain top talent.
- Leverage technology to reduce manual workloads and improve efficiency.
- Explore fractional accounting and outsourcing to access skilled professionals without the overhead of full-time hires.
