Why US CPA and Accounting Firms Outsource Bookkeeping: The Accountant Shortage in Numbers

Why US CPA and Accounting Firms Outsource Bookkeeping: The Accountant Shortage in Numbers#

Three numbers set the scene. Schools in the US awarded 55,152 accounting bachelor's and master's degrees in the 2023-24 academic year, down 6.6% from the year before. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) counts about 115,300 openings a year for accountants and auditors. And in the AICPA's 2023 MAP survey, about 25% of firms said they sent work offshore.

This article sets out the published figures behind those numbers, what they mean for a firm's staffing, which work firms can send offshore, and what rules apply when they do. We are an Indian firm of Chartered Accountants that does offshore bookkeeping inside the client's QuickBooks Online file, so we have an interest in this topic. We have limited ourselves to figures we could read in the source document, and we give the year and the link for each one.

The pipeline: graduates and CPA Exam candidates#

The AICPA's 2025 Trends report, reported on 27 October 2025, covers accounting education, the CPA Exam and firms' hiring of recent graduates. It is published every two years. Its main supply figures:

• Degrees, 2023-24: schools awarded 55,152 accounting bachelor's and master's degrees, down 6.6% from the prior year. Earlier declines were 9.6% in 2022-23 and 7.4% in 2021-22.
• Bachelor's degrees: 40,817, down 3.3%. The bachelor's figure is provisional federal data, as the Journal of Accountancy's coverage notes.
• Master's degrees in accounting and taxation: 14,335, down about 15%.
• New CPA Exam candidates: 42,626 in 2023, the highest since 2016 and coming after a spike linked to the exam change; 28,082 in 2024; and 16,448 in the first six months of 2025. The 2025 number is a half-year count, so it should not be read as a full-year figure.

The same reporting gives the demand side. Participating firms reported 11,985 new-graduate hires in 2024, and 75% of them were accounting majors. Also, 75% of firms expected to hire at least as many in 2025. These are responding firms only, with a low response rate, so they are not an industry total.

The AICPA's Jan Taylor said graduate supply is still contracting but the decline has slowed. She credited higher entry-level pay and efforts to cut the cost and hurdles of licensure. The article gives no starting-salary figure, and we do not give one here.

The workforce: employment, openings and pay#

The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook publishes figures for two occupations a firm's back office relies on. The accountants and auditors page was last modified on 27 August 2026.

Two cautions. The accountants and auditors figures cover all accountants and auditors, not only CPAs. And for the clerks, BLS projects a decline in jobs while still listing about 144,100 openings a year. We do not state the reason for the openings, because the source page we read does not explain the method.

One more data point on departures. The Wall Street Journal (Lindsay Ellis, 28 December 2022), as republished by Fox Business, wrote that more than 300,000 US accountants and auditors had left their jobs in the previous two years, a 17% decline. The page names no data source for that figure, and it is now nearly four years old. We cite it as the newspaper's own statement, not as a BLS number.

Why it is happening: what the sources support#

The sources we read support a limited set of causes, and we stay within them.

Licensure rules are changing. The Maryland report below refers to a 150-hour route that the new pathway sits alongside. In May 2025, the AICPA and NASBA approved model legislation that adds a pathway of a bachelor's degree, two years of experience and passing the exam. NASBA notes that each jurisdiction must formally enact legislation and pursue rule changes for itself, so the change arrives state by state.

Going Concern reported on 7 January 2026 that almost half of jurisdictions had changed their rules, that ten took effect on 1 January 2026, and that California, Indiana and Illinois follow in January 2027. CPA Practice Advisor reported on 10 April 2026 that Maryland's law sits alongside its 150-hour route and that dozens of states had enacted or were considering changes. NASBA's pathways page carries a map it describes as current as of 1 October 2026. The map is an image, and we do not give a state count here.

We found no source that measures how much the 150-hour requirement itself reduced the pipeline, so we make no claim about that.

Pipeline working-group findings. The National Pipeline Advisory Group, convened by the AICPA council, released its final report around 1 August 2024. Inside Public Accounting's summary lists six areas of recommendation: the cost and time of education, an engaging academic experience, the employee experience in the first five years, access for underrepresented groups, support for exam candidates, and career storytelling. The group drew on about 8,000 survey responses. We read the secondary report, not the group's own report.

What it means inside a firm: the Top Issues survey#

The AICPA's PCPS CPA Firm Top Issues Survey is biennial, and the two latest editions differ, so the year matters.

• 2024 edition (AICPA, 6 June 2024): 667 respondents, surveyed from 22 April to 27 May 2024. Finding qualified staff was the top issue for every firm-size category except sole practitioners. Retaining qualified staff was the second issue for firms with 11-20 and 21 or more professionals.
• 2026 edition (Journal of Accountancy, 23 June 2026): 629 respondents, surveyed from 20 April to 22 May 2026. Technology and AI change management ranked first over five years. Hiring experienced staff ranked first for firms with 11-30 employees. Staff retention was in the top five over five years for every size except solo practitioners, and staff recruitment was in the top five for 4 of 6 size groups.

So staffing was the top issue for most firm sizes in 2024, but it is not the universal first issue in 2026. It remains in the top five for most size groups. We read the Journal of Accountancy's account of the 2026 survey, not the full AICPA summary.

One older figure applies to small firms only. In a 2020 AICPA PCPS and Succession Institute survey of 587 US firm representatives, run in September and October 2020 and reported by the Journal of Accountancy on 2 December 2020, 26% of single-owner and sole-practitioner respondents planned to retire within five years. In the same survey, 55% of multi-owner firms reported succession challenges, against 26% in 2016.

How firms respond: outsourcing and offshoring#

The AICPA's 2023 National MAP survey covered more than 1,100 firms. As described in the Journal of Accountancy's November 2024 article on offshoring for CPA firms, about 30% outsourced domestically and about 25% sent work offshore. Another 14% planned to start domestic outsourcing and 12% planned to start offshoring.

These are 2023 figures. A 2025 MAP survey exists, but we found no offshore percentage from it, so we do not give a more recent share.

The sources above point to other responses too: raising entry-level pay and working on the cost and hurdles of licensure (the AICPA's Jan Taylor), and the recommendation areas in the pipeline group's report. Outsourcing is one response among several. The surveys do not tell us how any one firm should weigh them.

What can and cannot be outsourced#

The line is about who is responsible to the client. Work that stays with the firm:

• Sign-off on financial statements and the firm's own review conclusions
• Preparation and signing of tax returns
• Advice to the client
• The client relationship

Work that can be done by an offshore team inside the client's QuickBooks Online file, and that we do:

• Monthly bookkeeping and month-end close
• Accounts payable and accounts receivable
• Bank, credit card and loan reconciliations
• Cleanup of past periods: recategorization, duplicate entries, undeposited funds, "Ask My Accountant" balances
• Financial statements and management reports for the firm to review
• Year-end close and tax-ready workpapers, and 1099 preparation support

We do not prepare tax returns, file sales tax, process payroll or prepare Form 990, and we work in QuickBooks Online only. For the mechanics, see our guides on backoffice support for CPA firms, the month-end close, cleanup work and audit support, workpapers and PBC schedules.

The pay data in context#

The BLS figures above are facts about the US labour market: a median of $83,680 for accountants and auditors and $50,670 for bookkeeping clerks, with about 115,300 and 144,100 openings a year respectively. We include them as background to the hiring problem. We do not use them to compare what any option costs, and nothing in this article states or implies what outsourcing costs or saves.

Why India#

The profession's size. ICAI's 77th Annual Report for 2025-26 records 452,825 members as on 1 April 2026: 123,155 Fellows and 329,670 Associates. Of these, 158,887 were in full-time practice. ICAI enrolled 29,720 new members in the year ended 31 March 2026. That is new member enrolments, the nearest published figure we found to newly qualified Chartered Accountants per year. ICAI's own website uses a rounder "5 lakh members" in places. We use the Annual Report figure.

The route to the qualification. Under ICAI's New Scheme, launched on 1 July 2023, the CA course has three levels: Foundation, Intermediate and Final. ICAI's FAQ on the New Scheme (October 2024) gives practical training as 2 years, with 9-12 months of industrial training permitted within it. ICAI's own pages are not consistent on this: one still refers to three years of articleship. We use the figure in the FAQ, and the length applies to the New Scheme.

Standards. India issues Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) "based on IFRS Standards" with "certain carve-outs and carve-ins", according to the IFRS Foundation's jurisdictional profile. The profile gives mandatory adoption as phased from FY 2016-17. India has not simply adopted IFRS. Ind AS is a related set of standards with differences.

Reciprocity, stated precisely. ICAI's FAQ on MoUs and MRAs, updated on 20 May 2026, lists 8 agreements: memoranda of understanding with ICAEW and CPA Canada, and mutual recognition agreements with Chartered Accountants Ireland, SAICA, CPA Australia, ICAN (Nepal), MICPA (Malaysia) and CA ANZ. No US body, whether the AICPA or NASBA, appears in ICAI's list. The agreements apply to members only. The FAQ says audit and practising rights are not included, and the route into another body needs limited exams. Our qualification therefore carries no US recognition and no right to audit or practise in the US, and we do not claim either.

The services export figure. The Reserve Bank of India's survey of software and ITES exports for 2024-25, published on 4 November 2025, put exports of "finance and accounting auditing bookkeeping and tax consulting services" at Rs 69,245 crore (US$ 8.2 billion). That was 12.3% of ITES/BPO exports. The same row for 2023-24 was Rs 60,415 crore (US$ 7.3 billion), or 12.2%.

Time zones. India Standard Time is UTC+5:30, per the Press Information Bureau. US Eastern is UTC-5 in winter and UTC-4 in summer, and US Pacific is UTC-8 and UTC-7, per NIST. By our arithmetic, India is ahead of US Eastern by 10 hours 30 minutes in winter and 9 hours 30 minutes in summer. It is ahead of US Pacific by 13 hours 30 minutes in winter and 12 hours 30 minutes in summer. The gap shifts for a few weeks each year because US daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday of March and ends on the first Sunday of November. The gap means work can be done overnight in US time. It is not a promise about turnaround, which depends on the file.

Rules a US firm must follow when work goes offshore#

We are not US lawyers, and your own counsel or tax-return preparer should confirm how these apply to your firm. These are the rules the sources describe.

Taxpayer consent (Section 7216). Under 26 CFR 301.7216-3, disclosing tax return information to a preparer located outside the US requires the taxpayer's consent before any disclosure. For Form 1040-series filers, the regulation also limits consent to disclosing a Social Security number abroad. Without an adequate data protection safeguard, the number must be redacted or masked before it is disclosed. Rev. Proc. 2013-14 sets the format and content of 1040-series consents, effective 14 January 2013, and refers to this limit on consents covering Social Security numbers.

Professional guidance. AICPA guidance addresses the use of third-party service providers. The Journal of Accountancy's 2022 article on working with third-party providers describes it. We have not read the AICPA Code text itself, so check the current wording with the AICPA.

Service-provider oversight and a security plan. The FTC Safeguards Rule, 16 CFR 314.4(f), requires covered firms to take reasonable steps to select and retain service providers capable of appropriate safeguards. IRS Publication 4557 (Rev. 6-2024) says tax return preparers must create and enact security plans to protect client data, and that the Safeguards Rule requires a written information security plan. It also says firms should select service providers that can maintain appropriate safeguards through contract and oversight. The Publication and the regulation text differ on which parts must be written, so confirm with your counsel.

Who does the work at our firm#

CA Alok Kumar Acharya, ACA, founded the firm and has 11+ years of professional experience. His earlier work was at PwC and Grant Thornton, in accounting, taxation, audit and financial reporting. He later worked with the William J. Clinton Foundation (India), the Indian affiliate of the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI). Work done in a client's file is reviewed by a Chartered Accountant before it is returned.

How to start#

1. Send one client file. We review it and send an estimate within 48 hours, with a capped number of hours.
2. Limited access. Access is limited to the files needed for the work. We sign an NDA first if your firm wants one.
3. Work, review and handover. The work is done inside the client's QuickBooks Online file, reviewed by a Chartered Accountant and returned with a summary of adjustments.

Our guide to sending a client file to an offshore bookkeeping team lists what to prepare. More on our work for accounting firms is on the CPA firms page.

Frequently asked questions#

How many US accounting firms outsource or offshore work? In the AICPA's 2023 National MAP survey of more than 1,100 firms, about 30% outsourced domestically and about 25% sent work offshore. Those are 2023 figures. We found no newer offshore share.

Is staffing still the top issue for CPA firms? In the AICPA's 2024 Top Issues Survey, finding qualified staff was the top issue for every firm size except sole practitioners. In the 2026 edition, technology and AI change management ranked first over five years, and hiring experienced staff ranked first for firms with 11-30 employees. Staff retention and recruitment remain in the top five for most size groups.

Does ICAI have an agreement with the AICPA? No US body appears in ICAI's list of eight reciprocity agreements (updated 20 May 2026). The agreements apply to members only and do not include audit or practising rights.

What does a US firm need before sending tax return information offshore? Under 26 CFR 301.7216-3, disclosure to a preparer outside the US requires the taxpayer's consent first, and special limits apply to Social Security numbers. The firm should also check its service-provider oversight and security plan obligations. Confirm the details with your counsel or tax-return preparer.

Sources#

• AICPA, "Accounting firms report strong hiring outlook, AICPA report finds" (on the 2025 Trends report), 27 October 2025: link
• Journal of Accountancy (B. Strickland), "The accounting graduate pipeline: where do things stand", 27 October 2025: link
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, "Accountants and Auditors", last modified 27 August 2026: link
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, "Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks" (page date not captured): link
• The Wall Street Journal (L. Ellis), 28 December 2022, as republished by Fox Business: link
• NASBA, "New CPA Licensure Pathways and CPA Mobility", 23 December 2025: link
• NASBA, New Licensure Pathways (map current as of 1 October 2026): link
• Going Concern (A. Gonzalez), "These are the ten states where CPA licensure rules changed on New Year's Day", 7 January 2026: link
• CPA Practice Advisor, "Maryland approves new CPA licensure pathway", 10 April 2026: link
• Inside Public Accounting, "Advisory panel on accounting talent shortage releases final report", 1 August 2024: link
• AICPA, CPA Firm Top Issues Survey (2024 edition), 6 June 2024: link
• Journal of Accountancy (B. Strickland), AICPA Top Issues Survey (2026 edition), 23 June 2026: link
• Journal of Accountancy (C. Vien), "Succession issues surge at accounting firms", 2 December 2020: link
• Journal of Accountancy (Whittam and Polakoff), "Offshoring for CPA firms: The hows and whys", 1 November 2024: link
• ICAI, 77th Annual Report and Accounts for 2025-26 (Gazette of India notification dated 31 July 2026): link
• ICAI, FAQs on New Scheme of Education and Training, October 2024: link
• IFRS Foundation, IFRS Standards: Application around the world, Jurisdictional Profile: India: link
• ICAI, FAQs on MOUs/MRAs, updated 20 May 2026: link
• Reserve Bank of India, Survey on Computer Software and ITES Exports: 2024-25, press release, 4 November 2025: link
• Press Information Bureau, draft Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules: link
• NIST, Local Time FAQs: link
• NIST, Daylight Saving Time Rules: link
• Cornell LII, 26 CFR 301.7216-3: link
• IRS, Rev. Proc. 2013-14: link
• Journal of Accountancy (D. Rood), article on third-party providers, 1 November 2022: link
• Cornell LII, 16 CFR 314.4 (FTC Safeguards Rule): link
• IRS, Publication 4557, Safeguarding Taxpayer Data, Rev. 6-2024: link