Insights from Scrubbed
Insights on the Latest Trends and Best Practices in Accounting and FinanceTop Content
Scrubbed is a Great Place to Work Certified
Scrubbed’s culture reflects our collective aspirations, and being “People First” is a core part of our company. We believe that our professionals are our most valuable assets, and investing in our people is critical to our continued success. We are proud to share that Scrubbed is certified as a Great Place to Work for April 2024 – April 2025. The certification is based entirely on what our professionals say about their experience working at Scrubbed. According to the results, 88% of our professionals say that Scrubbed is a great place to work compared to 53% of employees at a typical global company. An impressive 97% of Scrubbees also say that they feel welcome when they join the company. As Scrubbed’s Chief People Officer, it is my top priority to focus on people empowerment and development as we strive to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and inspired to be their best selves. We’re grateful for the feedback, knowing that it will help make Scrubbed an even better workplace. The participation of our professionals in the Trust Survey shows our proactive efforts to capitalize on our strengths and identify opportunities to create a positive and meaningful impact in the community. Why is Scrubbed a Great Place to Work? Scrubbed is a Great Place to Work because it fosters a supportive and dynamic environment where professionals can embrace change and innovation. We are dedicated to developing leaders who inspire others and drive continuous professional growth while making a positive social impact in the community. By promoting a workplace that prioritizes everyone’s well-being, we ensure our clients feel equally cared for. By always staying true to our core values, we create a thriving, engaged, and successful community for both our professionals and clients. About Scrubbed Scrubbed is a global professional services firm specializing in comprehensive accounting solutions, from meticulous bookkeeping and tax filing to strategic financial advice. We cater to diverse needs, ensuring that clients, whether nonprofit organizations, small businesses, or global corporations, achieve their goals. We provide support in ESG, Technical Accounting, fractional CFO services, Risk Advisory, Financial Accounting, SaaS accounting expertise, Corporate Finance, and Taxation, and understand industry-specific compliance requirements including specialized biotech accounting services. Our team comprises skilled professionals, including CPAs, with expertise in accounting, executive assistance, consulting, financial analysis, information management, and business and marketing. About Great Place To Work® As the global authority on workplace culture, Great Place To Work® brings 30 years of groundbreaking research and data to help every place become a great place to work for all. Their proprietary platform and For All™ Model helps companies evaluate the experience of every employee, with exemplary workplaces becoming Great Place To Work Certified™ or receiving recognition on a coveted Best Workplaces™ List. Learn more at greatplacetowork.com.
The Talent Crisis Protection Strategy: Keep Strategy In-House, Outsource the Grind
The “unicorn” accountant is extinct. Over 300,000 accountants and auditors have left the U.S. workforce in the last three years, shrinking the talent pool by nearly 17%1. If you’re waiting for the perfect Senior Accountant to walk through the door and solve your capacity issues, you’re fighting a losing battle. The crisis isn’t just about who you can’t hire; it’s about who you are about to lose. When you can’t fill seats, the work doesn’t disappear; it lands on the desks of your remaining high-performers. That is a recipe for burnout and turnover. You need a protection strategy, not just a recruiting plan. Your Quick Scrub Problem: You are burning out your best people on low-value work because you can’t fill open seats. Data: 99% of accountants report burnout, largely driven by unreasonable volume, not complexity. Fix: Shift transactional work to a fractional team to protect your in-house talent for high-value strategy. The Math Problem: You Can’t Hire Your Way Out Let’s look at the numbers. This isn’t a temporary cycle; it is a demographic cliff. According to recent industry data, 75% of current CPAs are at or nearing retirement age2. The knowledge base is evaporating. And the pipeline isn’t refilling fast enough. The number of candidates sitting for the CPA exam has dropped significantly, creating a massive gap between demand and supply. Even when you manage to hire an entry-level accountant, attrition remains high: nearly 22% leave within a year3. That means if you hire someone today, there is a one-in-five chance they will be gone within a year. The “churn and burn” hiring model is mathematically broken. You need a different equation. The Burnout Trap: Volume vs. Value Your current team isn’t quitting because the work is too hard. They are quitting because the work is relentless and repetitive. Recent studies show that a staggering 99% of accountants suffer from some level of burnout, with “work overload” cited as a primary driver. When a strategic Controller spends their week cleaning up bank reconciliations because you’re short-staffed, everyone loses. You’re paying premium rates for administrative work and pushing your top performers toward the door. The “Protection Strategy” is simple: split the role. Keep Strategy In-House: Your internal team owns the culture, the complex decisions, and the stakeholder relationships. Outsource the Grind: Move the high-volume, transactional work, reconciliations, AP/AR, general ledger maintenance, to a fractional team. This approach protects your top talent and gives them space to do the work they actually enjoy. The Variable Cost Shield Beyond retention, this is a financial safety play. Carrying a heavy fixed-cost headcount in an uncertain economy is risky. Traditional hiring locks you into salaries, benefits, and recruitment fees that don’t scale down when business slows. Outsourcing converts those fixed liabilities into variable costs. Industry analysis suggests that leveraging offshore or fractional talent can reduce operational costs by 50% to 70% compared to traditional hiring5. But the real win isn’t just the savings; it’s the flexibility. Outsourcing gives you a “cash flow shield.” You pay for the capacity you need, when you need it. If you grow, the team scales up instantly. If you need to tighten the belt, you scale back without layoffs. How Scrubbed Can Help You don’t have to overhaul your entire department to fix this. Scrubbed’s Direct Client Services team acts as a seamless extension of your office, handling the heavy lifting so your in-house leaders can get back to strategy. We plug directly into your workflow to handle: Fractional Accounting & Bookkeeping: We take over the day-to-day grind: AP/AR, reconciliations, and general ledger maintenance. Month-End Close Support: We accelerate your timeline by preparing workpapers and preliminary reports before your Controller even logs on. Audit Readiness: We keep your schedules clean and documentation organized year-round, so audit season isn’t a fire drill. Technical Accounting: We handle complex ad-hoc projects (like lease accounting or rev rec) that bog down your core team.
Scrubbed Collaborates on a Pioneering Survey to Address Staffing Strategies in the Accounting Sector
In recent years, the accounting sector has faced a notable talent shortage, a situation exacerbated by a decline in accounting program enrollments and the shifting dynamics of the post-pandemic work environment. Scrubbed, in its commitment to fostering sustainable solutions, is sponsoring a pivotal survey in association with the Center for Accounting Transformation and CPA Trendlines. A Deep Dive into Staffing Strategies The initiative, steered by industry expert Donny C. Shimamoto, CPA, CITP, CGMA, is not just another survey. It is a concerted effort to understand the depth and breadth of strategies firms are employing to navigate the current staffing landscape. From exploring the nuances of workload reduction to understanding the role of technology in easing the staffing crisis, the survey aims to bring fresh perspectives to the fore. Beyond Traditional Hiring The staffing crisis has nudged firms to think beyond traditional hiring paradigms. Part-time roles, flexible career paths, and leveraging gig economy workers are becoming increasingly prevalent. This survey seeks to gauge the effectiveness of these strategies, providing a comprehensive view of the evolving staffing landscape. Workload and Demand Reduction: Untapped Avenues Workload reduction, achieved through automation and process optimization, stands as a promising strategy to maintain service quality without escalating headcount. Similarly, demand reduction strategies, including a thoughtful approach to client management, hold potential. The survey aims to delve into these aspects, offering insights grounded in real-world experiences of firms. We Value Your Insights Your experiences and insights are the cornerstone of this initiative. We invite you to share your journey and the strategies that have worked for your firm through the Staffing Strategies Survey. It is through collaborative efforts like these that we can forge a path to a sustainable future in the accounting sector. Be a Part of the Solution Scrubbed is more than a sponsor; we are collaborators in this journey to foster innovation and resilience in staffing strategies. Whether through corporate finance advisory real estate accounting solutions, or broader workforce insights, we encourage you to lend your voice to this initiative, helping the industry to navigate the unknown with data-driven insights. Take a moment to participate in the survey and contribute to a repository of knowledge that could redefine staffing strategies for the better. Stay tuned as we anticipate sharing the compelling findings publicly early next year, offering a roadmap to a prosperous future in the accounting profession. Together, we can work towards solutions that are not just reactive but proactive, shaping a future where the accounting profession continues to thrive.