Mid-to-large accounting firms and corporate finance teams are juggling more than ever: a never-ending workload, regulators keep adding fine print, and the U.S. talent pipeline is starting to feel about as dry as last year’s fruitcake, compared to what it was a decade ago. To keep up, finance leaders are rethinking their staffing models – and many are discovering that offshore talent is the not-so-secret ingredient.
At Southwestern Talent, we’ve known for years what most firms are now discovering –mixing an onshore core team with offshore support gives firms the best of both worlds: access to highly trained professionals, strong English skills, convenient time-zone overlaps, and (let’s be honest) dramatically lower costs. It upgrades your firm’s capacity without maxing out the payroll budget.
The result? More scalability, less burnout, and a team that can finally breathe during busy season. Offshore talent isn’t just a quick fix. It’s a long-term strategy for firms that want to grow without over-hiring.
Below, we break down why – and how to do it well.
We know we’re speaking to the accounting nerds here, so let’s start with the economics of it all. U.S. compensation for accountants and auditors is high relative to most geographical regions. If you do payroll, you know that according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics , the mean annual wage for accountants and auditors is around $90,000-$91,000.
By contrast, widely referenced compensation trackers show South African accountant salaries that are a fraction of U.S. levels – sometimes as much as 40% less.
Independent cost-of-living comparisons show that the average cost of living in South Africa is ~60% lower than in the United States, which helps explain why local salary expectations remain meaningfully below the U.S. while still providing strong purchasing power for firms interested in utilizing offshore talent.
Bottom line: Even after adding benefits, training, and tools, firms commonly achieve significant labor cost savings on like-for-like roles when they add South African accountants to their in-house teams.
Now, we know that cost efficiency only matters if work quality holds up. Fair enough. But there’s nothing to worry about if you know where to look. Traditionally firms have looked to Asian staffing partners from India or the Philippines, but the talent pool is growing – specifically the English-speaking talent pool – providing some options that are better language and culture fits for U.S. firms.
South Africa’s accounting profession in particular has a long history of rigorous training and global integration (and superb English skills):
SAICA (the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants) is regarded as one of the world’s leading accounting institutes. Its CA(SA) pathway requires university accreditation, a training contract (articles), and multi-stage professional exams, producing chartered accountants who slot smoothly into audit, financial reporting, and advisory roles at global standards. SAICA publishes member statistics and maintains member verification tools, all useful for your firm’s due diligence.
The Big Four and other global firms maintain significant practices in South Africa, reinforcing training quality and process maturity across the ecosystem.
English proficiency is another differentiator. South Africa ranks #11 of 116 countries on EF’s English Proficiency Index and #1 in Africa, allowing for great collaboration with U.S. and European teams and clients.
Time zone alignment is generally favorable, too – more so than Asia or some Eastern Europe counterparts. South Africa observes SAST (UTC+2), overlapping the entire European working day and giving 3–6 hours of real-time overlap with U.S. teams depending on the time of year (especially helpful for east cost and Central time zones).
Good candidates for offshore talent:
Usually keep onshore (or led on-shore): external auditor relationships, client relationship ownership, final sign-offs, high-judgment technical accounting memos and complex tax positions.
Example: Building a blended monthly close team
A U.S. mid-market SaaS company needs three additional accountants to hit a five-day closing window
Result: A 40–60% cost reduction for the workstream, plus improved close cadence.
Example: Busy-season support
A regional CPA firm needs 8–10 associates/senior associates Jan–Apr for returns and work-papers.
Result: Seasonal help without the year-round payroll burden.
Smaller to mid-tier U.S. CPA and advisory firms, especially those with tax and assurance practices, increasingly pilot offshore staff for return processing, work-paper prep, and client PBC handling. These firms often point to reduced margin pressure, improved staff morale, and fewer late nights during busy season.
Multinational companies with internal finance shared services or global capability centers routinely adopt offshore models. They centralize transactional work, consolidation, KPI reporting, and variance analysis in offshore centers (India, Philippines, South Africa), while retaining strategic, audit, and client-facing roles at local/regional hubs.
Quality depends on structure and processes, not geography, as Covid-19 showed the world. Use the same control frame and onboarding you’d use for a new domestic team.
Apply your normal security stack: VDI or DaaS, SSO/MFA, least-privilege access, data-loss prevention, SOC-2 compliant vendors, and client-specific environments for public accounting. The major offshore providers align to global security standards precisely because they serve multinational clients locally.
No…if anything it might speed things up, as offshore talent is often able to work while the U.S. is sleeping, with still some overlap for meetings and team collaboration.
Not if you pick the right talent provider. Again, countries like South Africa have a greater alignment with U.S. and English speaking territories, with a similar rigor, professionalism, and work ethic.
Yes and no. Offshoring allows you to hire more people to support than you would with typical U.S. salaries, and compensates for the U.S. accounting shortage that has become more prevalent in recent years. Offshoring isn’t necessarily a replacement for your U.S. workers on the first go-round, just a practical supplement.
We say no, but the best way to find out is to try it – pilot the program with a few remote workers to fill in the gaps during a busy season and see how it goes. If it’s a fit, you can always upscale.
At the end of the day, offshoring is about giving your team more breathing room. By blending a strong onshore core with highly skilled offshore professionals, firms gain cost efficiency, scalability, and resilience that a domestic-only model simply can’t deliver in today’s labor market.
If your team is already stretched thin, the real risk isn’t trying offshore talent. It’s waiting too long to act. Start small, start smart, and you may find that offshore support becomes the quiet advantage that sets your firm apart in the years ahead.
Want more info? Let’s connect!