Reshoring Accounting Talent Accelerated by AI

Read Time: 3:36 minutes

✋Welcome to The CAS Cache, a newsletter designed to help accounting firms grow their CAS offerings. Each issue will feature my insights on a topic.

In addition, perspectives from gurus on the topic that I am listening to 👂, reading 📚, or watching 👀 and one thing I am talking 🗣 to my clients about in my firm newsletter. Please feel free to R&D (rip off and duplicate) the Client Cache.

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The shortage of accounting talent in the US has been widely reported. However, a recent tweet by Chris Hervochon about hiring US-based contractors caught my attention:

Like Chris, I have been considering bringing domestic talent to spend less time on client work myself.

I agree with Chris that hiring someone based in the US is crucial because of potential communication gaps with overseas contractors.

I currently have an offshore contractor working for me who does excellent work. However, as more firms continue sourcing talent abroad, quality candidates will become even more scarce.

How AI Could Create a Reshoring Trend

Reshoring accounting work is also a way to prepare for the inevitable encroachment of AI on traditional offshore tasks. While we are still years away from advanced AI capabilities, new tools are emerging rapidly. 👀👇

These tools will eventually be capable of the mundane tasks most firms outsource outside the US.

A couple of apps that come to mind in this category are Chris's Herv.ai and Digits. Both of these tools are doing some of what my contractor does overseas. These tools will only get smarter as their models train on more data.

People Buy People

Accounting firms are relationship-based businesses. Clients are paying for an experience, not just services. The more you focus on the relationship side, the better pricing you will command.

Automation and AI are fantastic, but people still value human connection. Providing a personalized service commands higher prices. Think about the last time you spent on the phone or chat messaging with a bot. If you are like me, you were trying to get to a human as fast as possible.

This is why my next hire will be based in the US. I need someone who can allow me to focus more of my time working on the business rather than in the business. So, if you know someone who loves the role of an Integrator and doing advisory work, I would love to meet them.

The accelerating march of AI technology means reshoring accounting talent is a smart long-term play. Hiring domestically will pay dividends as offshore talent becomes more challenging to find and AI takes over more offshore work in the coming years.

Thank you, Dan Gertrudes, for sharing the last issue! 🙏

Guru Cache 👂📚👀

📚 CFO Dive piece on accounting salaries increasing 14% due to talent shortage.

This is interesting because CPA Practice Advisor had this piece on Ranstand USA projecting salaries starting to decrease in the accounting industry. Here are others’ take on the article 👇:

📚 My new favorite AI tool is Claude. Inc. asked me to write this piece. I was stumped on a title, so I had Claude give me a few options. One ended up being the accepted title by Inc.

Plus, my daughters are digging Claude’s storytelling skills 👇.

Client Cache 🗣

📚🧘 Want to be more productive and save your sanity? Then, learn how to say NO like a pro by clicking here.

Thanks for reading, Luke Templin!

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