By Nathan Keeley, CEO, Summa Tech
Most partners I speak to have a version of the same story. A good manager hands in their notice, the advert goes out and the recruiter comes back a few weeks later with two CVs and a salary expectation that would have looked like a director’s package not long ago.
Meanwhile, the work keeps arriving.
The data supports what practitioners already feel, as Advancetrack’s 2026 Accounting Talent
Index, which surveyed 500 practice leaders across the UK, US, Australia and Canada, found that 73% of firms are turning away potential clients because they don’t have the people to service them.
Holding on to staff is just as hard, as Reed’s latest salary guide data suggests around 64% of accountancy and finance professionals are either open to or actively looking for a new role.
I have spent decades in public practice, so I write this as someone who has wrestled with the problem from the Partner’s chair and seen the industry and its expectations of the workforce, change.
The shortage is real
When a team is stretched, the instinct is to recruit another qualified accountant and for some firms that is exactly the right call.
Before the advert goes out, though, it’s worth asking an awkward question. How much of your qualified team’s week is spent on work that doesn’t need their qualification?
We know that the pool of qualified accountants and tax advisers is not meeting demand and many firms are even asking questions about the next generation of professionals.
In most practices I know, the honest answer isn’t always comfortable, as many qualified accountants still get dragged into chasing a new client for a second form or ID or writing up letters of engagement and proposals.
Technology is already helping with these tasks to an extent, but it is rarely joined up or visible in a single place.
It is necessary for a firm’s growth, but often it is viewed as a box to be ticked rather than billable hours and creates a time drain on qualified people, which only makes the shortage feel worse than it is.
Professional or administrator?
This is where the hiring conversation gets more interesting within many firms and where questions often get asked.
Why hire a qualified accountant or even a junior to do this work, when it could be just as easily handled by a practice administrator?
I am not advocating for replacing accountancy-qualified people, but why make them focus on work that doesn’t require their type of qualifications?
The obvious answer might seem to be hiring administrators rather than accountants, as they are often easier to find and just as suited to the role, with the right training and software to support them.
Anyone reading this is probably thinking that this is just another tech leader advocating for software to replace people.
To some degree I am, but rather than replacing certain expertise, I am suggesting that innovation can be used to support and, effectively, upskill people who aren’t as challenging to recruit and whose time could be spent serving the needs of clients.
Why onboarding is where many firms start
Client onboarding is a good example of work that sits awkwardly between the professional and the administrative or chargeable and often non-chargeble.
Bringing on a new client involves identity verification, KYC data collection, risk assessment, an engagement letter and the documents needed to actually start the job.
Parts of that carry real professional responsibility, in particular the Money Laundering Regulations, which will only become stricter as the Financial Conduct Authority becomes involved in the next few years.
To serve this someone suitably senior has to be satisfied that the risk assessment and AML process is suitable and rigorously followed.
However, much of the process wrapped around that judgement is collecting and chasing.
In a firm that is short of people, onboarding can often be where delay shows first and a prospect who waits a fortnight for an engagement letter is forming a view of how you work before you have done any work for them.
That is why I’m seeing more practices automate onboarding before almost anything else. It is a contained process with a clear beginning and end and the rules are well understood.
In larger firms, they have built app stacks that try to address this issue, but at the other end of the market much remains too manual.
When ID checks, risk assessments, document collection and engagement letter signing run as one digital flow, in a single platform, as opposed to many different ones, the qualified person’s role narrows to reviewing and approving. They stop being the one doing the gathering.
What technology won’t do
I’m wary of overstating any of this. Software doesn’t qualify anyone. It won’t replace the experienced manager who knows which client needs a phone call rather than an email and it won’t fix a culture that wears people down.
Software also cannot replace the judgement gained from experience and the interpretation of the results of a risk assessment, elements which will become more important in the process as the FCA take on a larger role
However, what it can do is protect the hours you already have. If a practice can hand back a few hours a week to each qualified member of staff, that time goes back into review work and the client conversations people came into the profession to have.
There is a retention angle here as well, as I know good people rarely leave because the technical work is too demanding.
More often they leave because too much of the week is spent on tasks perceived as well below their ability, or because the workload never seems to ease.
Taking some of the admin away isn’t a perk, but it does change what the job feels like on an ordinary Tuesday.
A practical starting point
For partners weighing up their next hire, I’d suggest a simple exercise before anyone drafts a job description.
Ask the team to note, for a couple of weeks, where their time goes on new client work and separate the judgement calls from the process.
Then look at the process of the work first and decide how much of it could be automated. Whatever is left will tell you far more clearly whether you need an administrator or another qualified professional.
The answer may well still be a qualified hire, but in a market this tight, though, it pays to be certain you’re recruiting for work that only that person can do.
Technology can and will fill the gaps, especially if firms can find a catch-all solution that provides complete visibility of the workflow and a single login.
With further challenges inevitable for recruitment in future and as the number of newly qualified accountants falls, the firms that find a solution sooner will be in a better position to grow.