These last few years have created unprecedented demands for the accounting and finance teams of small companies (and larger ones, too!). As a result, we have seen many clients come to us looking for assistance in getting their accounting tasks caught up to enable both internal and external reporting.
 
Let’s take a look at what kinds of requirements exist this year and who should be responsible for meeting them!

Should you outsource a bookkeeping/accounting role or handle it in-house? This is a question that we help potential clients with every day! Unfortunately, there’s not one single right answer for every organization.
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Exploring your needs and expectations around the role will help to determine whether you should keep it in-house or whether it would be best to hire a third-party accounting provider to do it for you. Ultimately, the answer will depend on several factors – time needed, functions needed, and of course cost!

Can you trust an accounting recruiter?

Some business owners and hiring managers are skeptical of the kind of value that recruiters can provide, specifically around whether they’re capable of delivering talent that will actually stick around. Sometimes there’s a misconception that a recruiter will work hard to find a pool of appealing candidates, provide support during the offer process, and then just disappear, leaving clients just hoping that the new hire will remain with the company past the guarantee period (and no recourse if they don’t). However, this simply isn’t true.

Top recruiters will support their clients through every step of the process and remain available even after the hire is made in case additional hiring needs arise. They will walk alongside their clients for the long haul and avail themselves if questions or concerns develop. Their goal isn’t to take your check to the bank and walk away! The best recruiters aim to foster trust to build a relationship that will continue past the current engagement for everyone’s best interest.

Of course, there is always the possibility of bad actors in any industry, which makes being able to discern what constitutes trustworthy recruiters from less reputable recruiters a key component of finding an accounting recruiter for your next hire.
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Let’s look at the value recruiters can bring to your next accounting search and what sets top recruiters apart!

As experienced accounting recruiters our team has their finger on the pulse of what’s going on in accounting hiring. Every month we put out a Recruiting Market Report that details what we’ve been hearing from clients and colleagues, but there are some surprising ongoing trends that we’d like to highlight further. Whether you are a hiring manager or a jobseeker, these are the top trends you need to be aware of as we close out 2024 and head into 2025:

​Here at ASP, most of our clients are small-to-medium-sized businesses and nonprofits that need part-time accounting and bookkeeping help. After years of working with clients, we have noticed that many of them fall into the same few unfortunate patterns. But the good news is that we are uniquely able to help them break out of these patterns to find long-term success. Let’s look at some mini case studies that illustrate the types of scenarios where we can help!

When you decide to say goodbye to your old accounting system a consulting accountant can manage the multi-stage process ahead. Bringing in an outsourced accountant is a great way to ensure that the migration will be done correctly to minimize the time and effort required to make a change of this magnitude and reduce headaches and hassles along the way. Find out how a consulting accountant can help throughout every stage of an accounting platform conversion:

Recent labor data reveals that average salary increases, which rose 4.4% in 2024 are only projected to rise by 3.9% (or 1.2% after adjusting for inflation) next year. This is good news for business owners considering 73% of US companies reported this year that their total 2024 payroll expenses (which included salaries, bonuses, benefits, and variable pay) exceeded their total 2023 payroll expenses. This cooling of year-over-year wage growth should ease that burden at least somewhat.

Additionally, in 2023 more than half of U.S companies reported having trouble attracting and retaining talent, but this year that has fallen to around one-third of employers. Helping in the effort to find and keep employees is a decrease in resignations and job hopping compared to last year. At this point, the overall job market seems to have largely stabilized.
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In fact, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has said, “The labor market, again, has moved into better and better balance to the point where I think you can now say it’s essentially no tighter than it was in 2019 before the pandemic.” This evidence tells us there is still a labor supply shortage in some areas, but slower economic growth has made the previously tight job market loosen over the last year.

As a business grows, staffing requirements increase as well.

​For smaller companies, each incremental hire becomes less critical because there is a wider system to support new employees.

​However, while the company is in its infancy every hire is vital.