--- title: "The CPA Talent Gap: What It Means for Your Next Busy Season" description: The CPA pipeline is starting to recover, but not fast enough for January. What the talent gap means for busy season, and how to plan capacity now. image: https://www.sapro.com/hubfs/AI-Generated%20Media/Images/Global%20Accounting%20Team%20Working%20Late%20At%20Office.png --- [![sapro-logo](https://www.sapro.com/hubfs/SAPRO%20Blue%20Logo.svg "sapro-logo")](http://staffingaccountants.com) [![sapro-logo](https://www.sapro.com/hubfs/SAPRO%20Blue%20Logo.svg "sapro-logo")](http://staffingaccountants.com) ![](https://www.sapro.com/hubfs/Close%20Icon.svg) - [Home](https://www.sapro.com/home) - About Us - [About Us](https://www.sapro.com/about-sapro-2) - [Our History](https://www.sapro.com/our-history) - [Our Leadership Team](https://www.sapro.com/leadership-team) - Services - [Our Services](https://www.sapro.com/for-clients) - [Accounting Outsourcing](https://www.sapro.com/cas-accounting) - [Tax Services](https://www.sapro.com/tax-augmentation) - [Assurance Services](https://www.sapro.com/assurance-augmentation) - Center Solutions - [Centers of Excellence](https://www.sapro.com/global-centers-of-excellence) - [Africa](https://www.sapro.com/africa-coe) - [India](https://www.sapro.com/india-center-of-excellence) - [The Philippines](https://www.sapro.com/philippines-coe) - [BINDZ Consulting](https://www.sapro.com/bindz_consulting) - [Articles](https://www.sapro.com/blog) - Careers - [Careers](https://www.sapro.com/careers) - [Life at SAPRO](https://www.sapro.com/life-at-sapro) - [Job Listings](https://www.sapro.com/job-listings) - Contact us - [Looking for skilled talent?](https://www.sapro.com/contact-us) ![](https://www.sapro.com/hubfs/Search%20Icon%20Blogs-1.svg) ![close-search-icon](https://www.sapro.com/hubfs/Close%20Icon.svg) ![mobile-nav](https://www.sapro.com/hubfs/Three%20Dots%20Mobile.svg) ![](https://www.sapro.com/hs-fs/hubfs/AI-Generated%20Media/Images/Global%20Accounting%20Team%20Working%20Late%20At%20Office.png?length=1270&name=Global%20Accounting%20Team%20Working%20Late%20At%20Office.png) [Accounting](https://www.sapro.com/blog/tag/accounting) # The CPA Talent Gap: What It Means for Your Next Busy Season SAPRO | Nov 3, 2026, 2:56:34 AM Busy season is on the horizon, and most firms will walk into it with the same headcount they had last year, or less. The returns, extensions and year-end closes won't shrink to match. The CPA talent gap isn't a hiring blip you can wait out. It is a structural mismatch between how much work firms carry and how many qualified people are available to do it. For firm leaders, the useful question isn't whether the gap exists. It's what it will cost you between January and April, and what you can still change before then. ## The numbers behind the gap Demand is steady and supply is only starting to recover, which means the gap will not close in time for 2027 busy season. - **Demand:** The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects [about 124,200 openings for accountants and auditors every year through 2034](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/accountants-and-auditors.htm), mostly to replace people who retire or leave the field. - **Graduates:** Schools awarded [55,152 accounting bachelor's and master's degrees in 2023–24, down 6.6% on the prior year](https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2025/oct/the-accounting-graduate-pipeline-where-do-things-stand/), according to the AICPA's 2025 *Trends* report. - **New CPA candidates:** New exam candidates fell from 42,626 in 2023 to 28,082 in 2024, the first year of the new CPA Exam model (same source). - **Early signs of recovery:** AICPA data shows [accounting enrollment at four-year schools rose 8.9% in spring 2026](https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2026/08/03/beyond-the-accountant-shortage-the-skills-shortage-facing-cpa-firms/187848/), the third straight year of growth. - **Overtime becomes the plan.** When there is no spare capacity, extra hours are the only lever. The [BLS notes](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/accountants-and-auditors.htm) that longer working periods are already typical during tax season, so a short-staffed firm starts from an overloaded baseline. - **Your best people carry the most.** The work flows to whoever can handle it unsupervised. Those are the managers and seniors you can least afford to burn out or lose in May. - **Review becomes the bottleneck.** Preparation can be pushed through, but review time is fixed by how many experienced people you have. Errors and rework rise when reviewers are rushed. - **Growth gets parked.** Robert Half research found that [75% of finance leaders saw project delays from skills shortages in the past year](https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2026/08/03/beyond-the-accountant-shortage-the-skills-shortage-facing-cpa-firms/187848/). In a firm, that shows up as advisory work, new clients and technology projects pushed to "after April", every year. - **It adds hours where you need them.** Trained offshore accountants take on preparation, reconciliations and workpapers, so your in-house team spends more time on review and client conversations. - **It can use the clock.** Work handed over at the end of your day can be progressed overnight and waiting for review in the morning. - **AI takes out repetitive steps.** Data extraction, categorisation and first-pass checks can be automated, which lets each person, onshore or offshore, handle more files without cutting corners. That last point is good news for the profession, but it doesn't help your next busy season. A student who enrolled this spring is several years away from graduating, sitting the exam and carrying a client file on their own. The people you will have in January are, for the most part, the people you have now. ### Why busy season exposes the gap Busy season is where a thin bench turns into missed deadlines, lost staff and lost clients. For the rest of the year, firms can stretch. For about four months, there is no slack left to stretch. The result is a cycle many firm leaders recognise. A hard season drives turnover over the summer, which leaves the firm thinner for the next season. ### What firms are trying, and where each falls short Most firms are already pulling several levers. Each helps, but few of them add real capacity between now and January. | Approach | What it solves | The catch for this busy season | | --- | --- | --- | | Hire more local staff | Permanent capacity and continuity | Long time-to-fill in a tight market; new hires take months to become productive | | Raise pay and bonuses | Retention of the people you have | Raises cost per hour without adding any hours | | Contract and temporary staff | Short-term surge capacity | Availability is thin in peak season, and onboarding eats reviewer time | | Internships and campus recruiting | Future pipeline | Pays off in years, not months | | Automation and AI tools | Less manual prep and data entry | Needs setup time and people to run and check it | | Turn away or defer work | Protects quality and staff | Caps revenue and can cost you clients for good |   Contract staffing is the lever many firms are reaching for. Robert Half reports that [63% of finance and accounting leaders plan to increase contract or temporary hiring through the end of 2026](https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2026/08/03/beyond-the-accountant-shortage-the-skills-shortage-facing-cpa-firms/187848/). The question is whether that capacity is still available when every other firm wants it in the same months. ### A different model: offshore and AI-enabled capacity If the local pipeline can't supply the people, the answer is to widen where capacity comes from. More CPA firms are building blended teams: their own staff for client relationships, judgment and sign-off, supported by dedicated offshore professionals and AI tools for the volume work. Done well, this model changes the busy-season math in three ways: The firms that get the most from this treat offshore team members as part of the team, not as a ticket queue. They use the same workflows, the same review standards and the same people season after season. That continuity is what turns extra hands into real capacity. This is the model SAPRO builds for CPA and advisory firms: offshore accounting professionals combined with AI-enabled workflows, set up to work as an extension of your own team. ### A busy-season readiness checklist There is still time to change how next season goes, but the decisions need to be made in the next few weeks. 1. **Count the hours, not the heads.** Estimate total preparation and review hours for the season, then compare them with the hours your team can realistically give without heavy overtime. 2. **Find your review ceiling.** Work out how many returns or engagements your reviewers can sign off per week. That number, not prep capacity, usually sets your real limit. 3. **Sort the work by who must do it.** Separate tasks that need partner or manager judgment from work that can be prepared by others and then reviewed. 4. **Line up surge capacity now.** Whether it's contractors or an offshore team, onboard them before January so they know your workflows when volume hits. 5. **Standardize handoffs.** Clear checklists, naming conventions and client document requests make it far easier to share work across people and time zones. 6. **Pilot one AI-assisted workflow.** Pick one high-volume, low-judgment task and automate it before the season starts, not during it. 7. **Decide in advance what you'll say no to.** If you can't add capacity, choose which clients or services get extended or deferred, rather than letting it happen by default in March. ### The bottom line The CPA talent gap is a long-term problem with an immediate deadline. The pipeline may be turning, but the people you will rely on this busy season are the ones you already have, plus whatever capacity you add in the next few weeks. Firms that plan their capacity now will spend busy season reviewing and advising. Firms that don't will spend it firefighting. **Want to see what a blended team could add before January?** [Talk to SAPRO](https://meetings.hubspot.com/maryke-zulch) about building offshore, AI-enabled capacity that works as part of your firm. ### **Add busy-season capacity before with SAPRO’s offshore, AI-enabled teams.** [Let's connect](https://www.sapro.com/contact-us) ###### [![](https://www.sapro.com/hubfs/Author%20Image-1.png) Connect with SAPRO ![](https://www.sapro.com/hubfs/Author%20Name%20Dots%2050.svg)](https://www.linkedin.com/company/saproconsulting/) Share this: ![](https://www.sapro.com/hubfs/Author%20Name%20Dots%2050.svg) [![](https://www.sapro.com/hubfs/Share%20Icon%20Facebook.svg)](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://www.sapro.com/blog/the-cpa-talent-gap-what-it-means-for-your-next-busy-season) [![](https://www.sapro.com/hubfs/Share%20Icon%20Linkedin.svg)](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https://www.sapro.com/blog/the-cpa-talent-gap-what-it-means-for-your-next-busy-season) Scroll up ![](https://www.sapro.com/hubfs/Chevron%20Down%20Red.svg) [![](https://www.sapro.com/hubfs/SAPRO%20Logo%20Footer%20White.svg)](http://staffingaccountants.com) About SAPRO For clients - [Services](https://www.sapro.com/services) - [Centers of Excellence](https://www.sapro.com/centers-of-excellence) Careers - [Life at SAPRO](https://www.sapro.com/life-at-sapro) - [Job Listings](https://www.sapro.com/job-listings) Connect with us [![linkedin](https://www.sapro.com/hubfs/Linkedin%20Icon.svg)](https://www.linkedin.com/company/staffingaccountants/) [![Instagram](https://www.sapro.com/hubfs/Instagram%20Icon.svg)](https://www.instagram.com/saproconsulting/) [![Facebook](https://www.sapro.com/hubfs/Facebook%20Icon.svg)](https://www.facebook.com/saproconsulting) [![Email](https://www.sapro.com/hubfs/Email%20Icon.svg)](mailto:hr@sapro.com) In Alliance with: [![BDO Logo](https://6144913.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6144913/BDO%20Logo.webp)](https://www.bdo.com/about/bdo-alliance-usa) [![download-1](https://6144913.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6144913/download-1.svg)](https://www.hlb.global/) [![PKF\_Logo\_Mono White\_RGB](https://6144913.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6144913/PKF_Logo_Mono%20White_RGB.png)](https://www.pkf.com/) [![Aicpa and Cima Logo](https://6144913.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6144913/Aicpa%20and%20Cima%20Logo.svg)](https://www.aicpa-cima.com/) Our Newsletter ### Newsletter © SAPRO 2026 [Terms & Conditions](https://www.sapro.com/terms-and-conditions) [Privacy Policy](https://www.sapro.com/privacy-policy) [PAIA Manual](https://www.sapro.com/paia)