20 Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Trends for 2026
Outsourcing is not just about saving money, it’s also about gaining access to quality personnel. The following finance and accounting outsourcing trends show how teams can add capacity and support, while keeping review and control close to the business.
Let’s dive in and see what the numbers say for 2026 and what the future holds.
Accounting and Finance Statistics – Snapshot
- 87% of finance leaders say there is a talent shortage in accounting
- 8 in 10 US leaders reports an accounting talent shortage
- The Philippines ended 2024 with 1.82M IT-BPM jobs and $38B in revenue
- North Macedonia reached €664M in ICT services exports in 2024
- Colombia has 752,600+ BPO jobs and 6% growth
- Global finance and accounting BPO is projected to reach $110.74B by 2030
Worldwide Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Statistics
These numbers show how finance leaders think about staffing, workload, and how work gets done. Many teams now split work based on risk, repeatability, and how easy it is to check quality.
1. 87% of finance leaders say there is a talent shortage in accounting.
A shortage at this level usually means the problem is structural. Finance teams are not only competing on salary. They are competing on workload, flexibility, and career paths, which makes experienced hires harder to attract and keep.
According to the latest accounting outsourcing trends, almost 9 in 10 leaders say there is a talent shortage in their accounting department.
When resourcing stays tight, leaders often protect the work that requires business context (policy decisions, approvals, stakeholder work) and look for dependable capacity for repeatable processes. That is where finance support for close cycles, reconciliations, and reporting prep becomes a common focus.
Source: Business Wire – New CFO PULSE Report
2. Open finance and accounting roles increased 150% in the past year.
A jump like this often means teams are hiring for multiple needs at once: growth, replacements, and work that has accumulated during lean periods. It also suggests more roles are taking longer to fill, which increases the burden on the people already doing the work.
Teams handle that pressure best when work is easier to hand off and review. Clear role scopes, documented steps, controlled access, and steady review routines reduce rework while new hires ramp.
Source: Business Wire – New CFO PULSE Report
3. 47% of CFOs rank talent (hiring and retention) as a top three internal threat.
When CFOs label talent as a top threat, it tends to change how work is planned. Finance leaders start thinking in terms of continuity risk: what breaks if one key person leaves, and what work cannot slip without causing downstream issues.
In response, many teams standardize process-heavy work such as accounts payable support, reconciliations, and reporting preparation. They also lean more on automation and structured external support so deadlines do not depend on a single hiring outcome.
Source: Deloitte – CFO Signals 2Q 2024
4. 83% of executives leverage AI as part of outsourced services.
The pairing of AI and outsourcing usually points to a simple goal: fewer manual steps and fewer avoidable errors. Automation can speed up routine tasks, while people focus on exceptions, approvals, and judgment calls.
These AI in finance statistics also highlight an operational shift. Documentation quality, clean handoffs, and clear escalation rules become more important when workflows are partly automated, because tools tend to push edge cases to humans rather than solve them.
Source: Deloitte – Global Outsourcing Survey 2024
5. 80% of executives plan to maintain or increase investment in finance and accounting outsourcing.
This signals that outsourcing is staying part of how organizations run finance operations, not a short-term workaround. When leaders plan to keep investing, they usually expect outsourced teams to deliver steady output and meet clear performance standards.
In finance operations, that often means using outsourced support for repeatable work such as accounts payable support, reconciliations, reporting preparation, and documentation upkeep. Consistent access controls, review routines, and reporting are what help keep quality stable as volumes change.
Source: Deloitte – Global Outsourcing Survey 2024
Accounting and Finance Trends by Country
Large service sectors often give a clearer picture of where teams can scale. One quick note – the country figures later in the post are proxies for delivery scale, while the global section contains the most direct trends in this industry.
6. 83% of US finance and accounting leaders say there is an accounting talent shortage.
A shortage of this size usually means hiring becomes slower and onboarding becomes more expensive. Teams spend more time reviewing work, coaching new hires, and building redundancy so deadlines are not tied to one person. Within the US only, 8 in 10 finance leaders state accounting talent shortage, based on the latest accounting outsourcing trends.
Many companies respond by keeping ownership and approvals in-house, then adding external capacity for repeatable work like accounts payable support, reconciliations, and reporting preparation. That approach can reduce backlog risk while keeping control points in place.
Source: Personiv (2024) – CFO Talent Pulse Survey 2024: Finance and Accounting Talent Market Outlook
7. 37.3% of businesses expected labor-related obstacles in Q4 2024 in Canda.
A labor-obstacle forecast at this level usually shows broad competition for staff, not just in one sector. Finance teams feel it most in roles tied to fixed deadlines and compliance requirements, where delays create knock-on issues.
To reduce dependency on one market, some organizations spread execution work across locations. Local teams retain ownership and review, while additional capacity supports routine processing and documentation upkeep.
Source: Statistics Canada (2024) – Analysis of labour challenges in Canada
8. 1.82M IT-BPM jobs and $38B in 2024 revenue support scaling finance teams in the Philippines.
Scale at this level typically supports stronger delivery infrastructure. Large services sectors often have established training programs, experienced team leads, and support functions such as quality assurance and workforce planning.
For finance and accounting outsourcing, those support functions matter because they help keep work consistent as teams grow. Consistency is often the difference between stable month-end support and constant rework.
Source: IBPAP (Jan 2025) – Philippine IT-BPM Industry Caps 2024 with Milestone Achievements
9. North Macedonia – ICT services exports hit €664M in 2024, up 20%, signaling nearshore finance support capacity.
Export growth suggests that teams are already set up to deliver for overseas clients. That usually comes with stronger routines for documentation, reporting cadence, and cross-border communication.
Nearshore delivery can also help when finance work needs closer coordination, such as close support, daily reporting handoffs, and faster turnaround on exceptions and clarifications.
10. 752,600+ BPO jobs and 6% growth point to scalable nearshore finance operations talent in Colombia.
Workforce size combined with growth often indicates depth beyond entry-level roles. Larger sectors tend to develop more team leads, trainers, and quality specialists, which helps stabilize delivery over time.
Colombia’s nearshore advantage is often practical as well. Time zone overlap can make daily check-ins, handoffs, and review loops easier to run for North American teams.
Source: VUI Colombia (2024) – The BPO industry in Colombia: An unstoppable engine of growth
Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Trends Over the Years [2022 to 2025]
Year-by-year shifts help explain how resourcing pressure builds over time. The patterns below tie into wider ongoing trends, especially where workflow design and delivery models changed the fastest.
11. US accounting grads fell across both degrees, with bachelor’s down 7.8% to 47,067 and master’s down 6.4% to 18,238 in 2022.
When both the entry pipeline and the advanced pipeline shrink, finance teams feel it later in two places: fewer juniors coming in, and fewer technical specialists moving up. Hiring pressure tends to build slowly, then shows up as longer time-to-fill and more reliance on the same small pool of experienced staff.
Many teams respond by standardizing routine work, tightening review steps, and using offshore support for repeatable tasks so internal teams can stay focused on judgment-heavy work.
Source: AICPA (2023) – Pool of Accounting Graduates Continues to Shrink in US
12. In 2023, 60% of organizations expanded shared services or increased outsourcing instead of changing their footprint.
This suggests many organizations are scaling through extension rather than reinvention. Instead of changing locations or rebuilding structures, they add capacity where they already have routines, controls, and reporting in place.
For finance teams, that approach reduces disruption. Close calendars and compliance work do not leave much room for “resetting” how delivery works every year.
Source: Deloitte (July 2023) – 2023 Global Shared Services and Outsourcing Survey
13. 25% of executives reported lower vendor service costs or improved service quality in 2024.
An outcomes signal like this suggests that leadership is judging outsourcing on performance, not just coverage. Improved quality often comes from stable finance teams and consistent standards, not from short-term staffing.
Accounting trends from 2024 also pointed to tighter expectations around how work is measured. Clear review routines and defined outputs make it easier to track whether delivery is improving.
Source: Deloitte (2024) – Global Outsourcing Survey 2024
14. In 2024, 20% of executives report having a digital workforce strategy for AI and automation bots.
A digital workforce strategy usually means leaders expect roles and workflows to change. Routine steps get automated first, which shifts the human workload toward exceptions, approvals, and judgment-heavy cases.
That makes handoffs and documentation more important, especially when work is split across internal and external teams. It also increases the need for clear escalation rules so exceptions do not stall.
Source: Deloitte (2024) – Global Outsourcing Survey 2024
15. Only 15% of CFOs said their organizations were not experiencing a finance talent shortage in 2025.
According to accounting trends from 2025, only 1 in 10 CFOs state no finance talent shortage in their organizations.
A shortage becoming “normal” changes planning behavior. Leaders stop expecting a quick market fix and start designing for long-term coverage and continuity.
This show more emphasis on stability: clearer priorities, more standardization, and capacity that can expand without rebuilding the whole delivery setup.
Source: Deloitte (2025) – 1Q 2025 CFO Signals survey
Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Future Trends & Outlook
Future signals point to a mix of outsourcing and automation, with more focus on how work is designed and checked. Many leaders are moving toward clearer controls and cleaner reporting standards as delivery scales.
16. Global finance and accounting BPO is projected to reach $110.74B by 2030.
Growth at this scale suggests more organizations will rely on outsourced finance support for ongoing operations. As adoption grows, the differentiator becomes how well the work is governed and checked.
Clear scopes, controlled access, written steps, and visible reporting are the basics that reduce risk when work is distributed across locations.
Source: Grand View Research – Finance and Accounting Business Process Outsourcing Market Report
17. Philippines finance and accounting BPO is projected to reach $3,632.4M by 2030 (12.8% CAGR from 2025 to 2030).
The forecast suggests continued investment in finance-focused delivery. Market growth often expands the availability of specialist roles and strengthens training pathways for finance processes.
Long-term scaling becomes easier when the talent pool includes not only processors, but also experienced team leads and quality support roles.
Source: Grand View Research – Philippines Finance and Accounting BPO Market Size and Outlook, 2030
18. The US is projected to average about 124,200 accountant and auditor openings per year (2024 to 2034).
A projection like this suggests ongoing competition for finance talent, even if many openings are replacement demand. That tends to keep pressure on time-to-hire and raises the cost of turnover.
Many organizations respond by keeping control close to the business while using external teams for repeatable support work. That can help protect close schedules and reduce backlog risk during peak periods.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics – Accountants and Auditors
19. 80% of executives plan to maintain or increase investment in outsourcing.
Investment intent at this level suggests outsourcing remains a mainstream resourcing lever. It also suggests that many organizations are focusing on how to run outsourcing well, not whether to use it.
Finance work that follows clear steps tends to benefit most, especially when checks and reviews are built into the process and measured consistently.
Source: Deloitte (2024) – Global Outsourcing Survey 2024
20. 79% of CFOs say they are likely to use GenAI in the next 24 months to help with skills gaps.
GenAI adoption plans suggest many teams expect work design to keep changing. Routine tasks may get handled earlier in the workflow, leaving people to focus on exceptions, controls, and judgment-heavy work.
That shift increases the need for clean knowledge practices, clear escalation paths, and consistent coaching across everyone involved in delivery.
Source: Deloitte (2025) – 1Q 2025 CFO Signals survey
Wrapping Up
Finance and accounting outsourcing keeps coming back to two needs: steady capacity and consistent execution. The stats we outline show that talent pressure is still high, while delivery hubs like the Philippines, Colombia, and North Macedonia have the scale, highly skilled talent, and services experience to support finance work such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, reconciliations, and reporting support.
What we can take out of these finance and accounting outsourcing trends is that teams are pairing outsourced delivery with clearer controls, better documentation, and more automation so quality stays consistent as volume and complexity increase.
