Hiring Update: August 2024 | Accounting Salaries, Freelancers, and DIY Recruiting

Sharing our perspective on the latest trends impacting talent acquisition in the accounting industry – Freelance Recruitment 2.0, Salary Trends, and DIY Recruiting. 

All content is 100% written by the real humans working here at Accountingfly.

Market Trends: Accounting Salary Trends 2019-2023 – Equity Partners Win; When to Reconsider DIY Recruiting; RTO Salary Math Goes Viral

• 5 Year Accounting Salary Trends: Partners Win; Staff Lose (?!)

  • We all know that accounting salaries have trended up, but a recent Going Concern article shows that not everyone has benefited equally. 
  • Equity partners have seen the biggest gains, increasing from average compensation of $620k in 2019 to $840k in 2023. 
  • Non-equity partners saw a much smaller increase, going from $275k in 2019 to $307K in 2023.
  • Meanwhile, the average staff compensation rose from $90k in 2019 to $104k in 2023.  
  • As noted in the article, once you adjust for inflation, staff and non-equity partner salaries have actually decreased in real dollar terms since 2019.  

• DIY Recruiting: 3 Times to Reconsider

  • How do you determine that your DIY recruiting isn’t working? Generally, we advise reevaluating and if any of the following occur:
    • You don’t have viable candidates 120 days before you want a candidate to start.
      • It typically takes 30 days to select, sign, and onboard with a recruiter, and we recommend allowing 90 days to complete a hire.

• • • You’ve been recruiting for 60 days and are not attracting suitable candidates.
      • This usually indicates an underlying issue–a mismatch between the market and your comp, a hard-to-fill role, or an ineffective marketing strategy. 
      • Experienced recruiters can help identify and address all of these issues.

• • • DIY recruiting is interfering with your core business functions.
      • Self-explanatory. If recruiting takes time away from your core responsibilities, especially impacting revenue generation, it’s time to outsource to a recruiter.

• RTO Salary Math Goes Viral

• • An Instagram guy went viral recently when he crunched the numbers and concluded that returning to office costs an average worker 750 additional hours/yr.
  • At $50/hr, that comes out to more than $37.5k/yr in uncompensated time.
  • The other key number: his post received more than 310,000 likes.

Salary News: Starting Salaries for Recent Hires by Accountingfly Clients

Here’s a snapshot of recent hires by Accountingfly clients. Let us know if you want more data or details on market-rate salaries!

• Remote Tax Manager 

  • CPA
  • 6 years of experience, all at the same firm
  • 1,500 billable hours required, overtime anticipated during busy season
  • Hired at $115K, signing bonus, 5-10% bonus

• Remote Senior Accountant 

  • QBO ProAdvisor, Bill.com Certified
  • 15+ years experience 
  • Hired at $85K, $3.5k training bonus 

• Remote Tax Accountant 

  • CPA
  • 7 years experience
  • Hired at $84.5k, additional comp for > 40 hrs/wk

Meta-trend to Watch: The Opportunity Presented by US-Based Freelance Talent 

• • How Freelancers Staffing Solves Accounting Firm Challenges

    • In their July 18 podcast, Rob Brown (Accounting Influencers Roundtable) and Jeff Phillips (Accountingfly founder and CEO) talk about how US-based freelance talent fits into accounting firms’ talent stack.
      • A few key takeaways:
        • The labor market has changed: 30% of knowledge workers identify as freelancers/project-based talent
        • Practice management principles are key to successfully using freelancers (for a full discussion of specific policies, check out the discussion beginning at the 12:30 mark) 
        • Freelancers fall into three separate categories: interim, fractional, and project-based. Each category fills a different role, so it’s critical to understand the categories and create a match between freelancer type and employer needs. (15:00 mark for details)
    • Listen to the full podcast or watch on YouTube as Rob and Jeff roll out freelance recruitment 2.0 and how it will solve the talent gap for accounting firms.

 

Working with Accountingfly

If you’re looking for pre-screened and interviewed candidates delivered to you without any hassle or upfront fees, learn more and sign up for Always-On Recruiting on our website.

We also had a lot of fun working together. Click here to schedule a call or get more information.