Think you won’t need interim accounting help this year? Think again!

It’s time to recognize the fact that your accountant probably won’t be around forever. With the trend of accounting professionals changing roles every 3-5 years and the current accounting exodus that the industry is facing, the odds of your current accountant staying in their role for the next 3 years is only moderately likely, the next 5 years are very unlikely, and the next 10 years is almost certainly not going to happen. That means you need to be prepared to utilize an interim accounting services company sooner rather than later. Don’t put off for next year what you should address this year!

​When done wrong? Yes. But when done right, it doesn’t have to negatively affect them.
In recent years most of the workforce has gotten used to working from home. However, that doesn’t mean that their employers have gotten wise about how to best manage these remote employees. Too often companies are leaving the management of remote skilled employees up to the employees themselves by failing to invest in their ongoing development and facilitate the kind of true collaboration that lifts them up.

Time and time again we have clients come to us expressing regret over their accounting hiring decisions. They say things like:

“…We hired what we could afford and the person we brought in is totally underqualified…”
“…We’ve had so much turnover in the role – we just can’t keep anyone, and we don’t have the budget to get someone who will stick around…”
“…We simply can’t find what we’re looking for these days at the price we’re willing to pay…”
“…We put off hiring because we didn’t want to spend the money before, but now we’ve waited far too long and we need to find someone immediately!..”

​The lesson here is clear – trying to cut costs with accounting hiring is always going to cost more in the long run! Let’s look at why hiring a “cheap” accountant is actually more expensive than hiring a good accountant and how you can improve your hiring strategy. 

A resource offered in partnership between The ASP Team and CFO Selections

​One commonality among our businesses at The ASP Team and CFO Selections is that we often talk to business leaders that aren’t sure which kind of accounting role they need. They typically understand the duties they would like the person to perform and the deliverables they expect to receive, but they aren’t sure what to call the role exactly. Without the proper title it makes it difficult to hire into the role or find an accounting services company to provide exactly what they need.

Sometimes clients will come to us at The ASP Team saying that they need a “bookkeeper” as a catch-all phrase for someone doing any kind of accounting work but what they are really looking for is something more – an Accountant, Senior Accountant, or even Controller. Similarly, sometimes clients will come to us at CFO Selections saying that they need a “CFO” as a catch-all phrase for someone doing more advanced accounting work or leading an accounting team but what they actually need is something less – a Controller, Accounting Manager, or Senior Accountant. How do you know which you need? 

So, what can you do to prepare yourself for the wave of turnover that may be coming?
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When they hear about this trend most employers will go into “fix it” mode and ask what they can do to keep their accountants from bolting soon. Unfortunately, at this point there’s probably very little that can be done to keep them long-term. If the year-end bonus they just got wasn’t enough persuasion, any sort of incentive you throw at them is likely just going to delay the inevitable. (Plus, the quality of work they do and passion they bring to the role is only going to suffer further if they already have one foot out the door.) Instead, your best bet is to get ready for what’s coming next. Take the steps now to be prepared in case your accountant leaves so that you’re not scrambling during tax season to find and onboard someone new. 

​However, employers can do their part to reduce the accounting exodus by recognizing the warning signs of accountant burnout and taking the right steps to find help. Companies that prioritize the needs of their accounting team can not only help keep accountants in the pipeline, but also increase their own revenue and profitability.
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Find out what kind of red flags to be on the lookout for that indicate accounting team burnout, as well as how you can offer your accountants the support they need to thrive in their roles.  

However, you can’t guarantee that the process will go this well. Sure, you can communicate that you expect employees to bring this kind of tact to the transition, but you cannot control their timing or actions during the process (and sometimes neither can they depending on the circumstances involved!). Instead, you need to have a formal succession plan in place to safeguard the business against the kind of disruption that can happen when an accountant leaves unexpectedly. 

The time to get ready is now!

Plan for your accountant’s departure before you need to do it so you can be properly prepared.​

1. If I don’t hear from my accountant, that means everything is fine and I shouldn’t worry.
2. If everything was going fine, my accountant would want to tell me. So, if I don’t hear from my accountant, something must be wrong.

From our experience, clients seem to believe one of these perspectives wholeheartedly – there’s very little in between. And yet, neither is entirely right.
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On the one hand, if you never hear from your accountant, that’s a troubling sign because you can’t be sure what they’re even doing on behalf of your organization. This kind of communication gap removes accountability, creating the opportunity for underperformance, mistakes, and even fraud to occur. However, hearing from your accountant constantly means they are spending their time talking to you instead of doing the work you have hired them to do, which is problematic (not to mention wasteful). Neither is a desirable scenario!

​The role you need depends on your business needs, so let’s look at common business triggers that most likely require needing the next level of financial role, and what kind of activities and responsibilities each role typically includes. We’ll start with bookkeeper and work our way up to Chief Financial Officer (CFO). 

No matter what the specific scenario is, they always come to us with the same two pain points: cost and fear of making a mistake. 

​Every decision-maker we talk to is juggling concerns around price (“How much will accounting services cost?” and “Is there room in the budget for outsourced accounting?”) and purchase anxiety (“How do I know what to look for in an accounting company?” and “What if I chose the wrong accounting provider?”) Unfortunately, sometimes we see these concerns derail the research process and the organization chooses to take the “I’ll do nothing for now” approach. Trust us when we say that is never the right solution! If you were at the point of looking for outsourced accounting and bookkeeping services, there was a reason why and that reason will not simply disappear because you feel overwhelmed by your options.
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If your team is stretched too thin to keep up, does not have the experience needed to do a good job, or has a new situation that they need help with (like an expansion or audit), you need to get someone in to help right away.  So, let’s discuss what you should be on the lookout for and how to know when you find it: