Smarter Systems vs Bigger Teams

Accounting salaries are rising, and fast.

Not because firms are feeling generous, but because there simply aren’t enough people to do the work.

Accounting salaries have jumped 15%, outpacing even software engineers.

But this is not a talent story. It’s a throughput story.

More Time, Less Leverage

For the past 6 months I’ve spoken to a bunch of firms leaders around the globe, and what I’m hearing is pretty much the same across the board:

“We’re not short on clients. We’re short on time. I’ve got people spending hours downloading reports to finish month-end, or matching figures from seven different systems just to complete a workpaper.”

This isn’t about headcount. It’s about leverage.

The work is growing more fragmented. More client demands. More data sources. More integration points. And more complexity—across GAAP, tax treatments, entity structures, you name it.

That complexity isn’t going away. And throwing bodies at it isn’t scalable.

The Next Leap Isn’t Headcount: It’s Capability

Here’s where things get interesting: firms aren’t going to solve this with hiring alone.

They’re going to start evaluating agentic capabilities in the software they already rely on.

Agentic accounting tools won’t just automate individual tasks.

They’ll be able to move across steps, connect systems, and complete multi-stage workflows securely and independently. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s a quick guide to types of AI)

We’re building Archie to do exactly that.

Archie won’t just speed things up, he’ll be able to fetch data from different systems, tie out numbers, generate draft workpapers, and surface what needs human attention.

Don’t Wait Until Your Team Is Burnt Out.

The demand for accountants isn’t slowing down. But your firm’s ability to keep up without burning out your team? That will hit a wall.

Agentic accounting isn’t a far-off vision: it’s a path forward, right now.

Start exploring. Start experimenting. Start scaling.

If you need a framework to get started, we built a simple and easy-to-implement one for you.

And if you want to share the work you’d like Archie to do at your firm, we’d love you to be part of our Design Partners. Sign up to the waitlist here.

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