Let’s be honest: the CPA talent shortage is real – it’s been building for a while now, and it’s not getting better anytime soon. Organizations everywhere who employ regular finance teams to meet their business needs are scrambling to meet demand, with overworked teams, delayed deadlines and not enough qualified people to go around. The old playbook – just hire more local staff – isn’t working anymore.
So what can you do to make sure your team is ready to rise to the occasion?
It’s time for a smarter, more flexible approach to staffing. One that’s built for today’s realities and tomorrow’s curveballs. Whether you’re running a tax-heavy operation, a mixed-service firm, or you’re growing fast and needed people yesterday, there are five key areas to consider when planning for scalability.
Here’s a breakdown of the five pillars of a future-ready CPA staffing strategy – plus how tapping into remote talent from countries like South Africa can help solve your biggest capacity headaches.
If you’re treating global or remote staff like optional add-ons – stop. They’re not “nice to have.” They’re quickly becoming the main engine of CPA staffing at some of the largest organizations in the world, who realize how to get both quality and quantity…and save money at the same time.
Remote professionals, especially from talent-rich places like South Africa, are incredibly well-trained, fluent in English, and already familiar with international accounting standards. But to get real value from them, you need to bring them into the center of your firm’s operational planning.
That means:
If they’re just hanging out in a corner of your org chart, doing seasonal overflow work, you’re missing out. The firms getting this right are the ones treating their remote team members as true colleagues, not temps.
You know the feeling – tax season hits, someone leaves, we forgot to plan for a key account we acquired last year, and suddenly you’re buried. Partners and other organizational leaders are scrambling to fill the holes, and you’re getting farther behind. Sound familiar?
Or maybe you’re outside of tax season and forgot to account for the non-profit work and employee benefit audits that are right on its the heels without dragging some of your exhausted Q1 performers back into the mix.
One of the smartest ways to protect your firm from that chaos is cross training your team. When staff can move between tax, audit, advisory, or data work, you don’t get stuck when a few people are out or one service line is slammed.
The last two decades saw the rise of the “specialist,” but the pendulum has started to swing back in the other direction for the past several years. The more formalized and pigeon-holed your staff roles, the more vulnerable you become. Cross-training staff in audit, advisory and data analytic functions makes you resilient and sets free new models of service delivery.
Cross-training does a few magical things:
This applies to everyone, not just your on-site team. Imagine having a South African team member who can handle bookkeeping, help prep for audits and do tax projections. That kind of versatility adds huge value – and it means fewer fires for you to put out throughout the year.
Rigid job descriptions are out. Adaptable teams are in.
Let’s talk quality control. Just because you’re building a flexible, global team doesn’t mean you can afford to let things slide. In fact, when you’re working with a distributed team – especially across time zones – you need strong safety rails. Think:
These structures aren’t just for compliance – they build trust. Internally, your team knows they’re supported. Externally, your clients know that every deliverable has passed through a consistent, reliable process.
Overseer, mentoring, and graduated reviews are not optional –especially for distributed staff. You can’t grow capacity without growing accountability. And let’s face it: if you’re bringing on junior staff (locally or remotely), you have to back that up with support and supervision.
Here’s what workforce planning shouldn’t look like: someone pulling up a spreadsheet once a year and trying to guess headcount needs for the next 12 months.
Instead, the best firms are doing scenario-based planning – a living, breathing process that changes as your business evolves.
Why it matters:
For example, if your tax workload is going to spike in Q1, scenario planning lets you get in touch with your South African staffing partner in Q4 to line up support. No scrambling, no surprises. You don’t have to over-engineer it. Even simple planning dashboards or headcount forecasts can give you a huge edge – especially if you update them regularly.
Let’s say you decide to bring in outside help – maybe a team in South Africa to support tax prep or back-office accounting. Great move. But here’s the catch: if you treat your staffing partner like a vendor, you’ll get vendor results.
The best staffing relationships feel like an extension of your firm. Your partner should:
Bottom line: pick partners who act like teammates, not order takers.
You might be wondering why South Africa keeps popping up in this conversation. Here’s a quick rundown of why it’s becoming a go-to source for accounting talent:
If you’re facing a local hiring crunch, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better professional option for better rates.
The CPA pipeline isn’t bouncing back overnight. Universities are graduating fewer accounting students, experienced professionals are burning out and choosing other careers, and you still need the same fast, high-quality service.
If you’re waiting for things to go back to “normal,” you might be waiting a long time.
Instead, the firms that are thriving right now are the ones that are open-minded to embracing the possibilities of remote workers, including:
It doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Start with one pillar, then layer in the rest as you go. But the key is to start now.
With the right structure and the right people – wherever they sit – you can build a team that’s built for anything. Ask us how we can help. At Southwestern Talent, we’ve seen just about everything and can help you explore options for building your team to be dynamic and flexible in the coming year.