BDO Outsourced Accountants

[Lee B]

"BDO USA is planning to double the size of its offshore workforce after a slide in the numbers of young graduates becoming accountants in the US. The accounting firm would add thousands of jobs overseas, largely in India, according to chief executive Wayne Berson, amid a worsening talent shortage affecting the US audit and tax businesses.

BDO USA, which employs about 12,000 people, is aiming to have 5,000 people at its offshore joint venture “BDO Rise” within five years, Berson told the Financial Times. BDO Rise already has 2,000 people in India and recently added about 100 jobs in South Africa, Berson said, with plans to grow in both countries."

 

I read another article earlier this week about how the Philippines now has a serious shortage of accountants

because too many Accounting Graduates are taking accounting jobs outsourced from the US and Europe,

who will be paid less than half of what US graduates get paid.

Apparently the BDO partners aren't making enough money?

[Sara EA]

You don't cite where your article came from, but it almost sounds like advertising for BDO.  US federal law requires accountants to get client consent to offshore tax prep.  Few have consented, understandably so.  The tax prep industry has been greying for some time.  Just look around you at an EA meeting.  I suspect the same for the accounting side but don't know for sure.  Why?  I'll offer two of what I suspect are a million reasons.  One is that CPAs have gotten bad raps from highly publicized failures to catch fraud/trouble when they should have, starting with Enron and Anderson and extending to errors uncovered within the Trump organization and recent crypto and bank collapses.  Another reason is that young people today are being pushed into STEM studies, although I suspect that for many that isn't a good fit.   Anyone have more ideas to offer?

[Lee B]

Actually it was an article in The Financial Times which is a British Daily Business Newspaper.

First,  part of the problem is that wages for US staff accountants and auditors for the last 20 years haven't kept up with inflation.

Second, the number of US Accounting graduates are  less than the number of retiring baby boomer accountants.

The articles I have read didn't say anything about outsourcing tax return preparation.

Personally, I have been receiving weekly solicitations both by email and by phone about outsourcing my own tax return preparation.

 

[ILLMAS]

I wonder how many “Made in the USA” companies already outsource some of their operations in the recent years.  

[Lee B]

While making arrangements for our next vacation in October, I had some issues using the airline's website so I called their 1 - 800 support number.

Their phone support has been outsourced to the Philippines. While the support people were nice it was a frustrating experience,

they had trouble understanding my problem and ended up not being able to help me. I ended up losing a $100 discount on our airfare.

 

[schirallicpa]

We just attended the Alfred University graduation ceremony last week.  My younger daughter sitting with me could not believe how few accountants were on the list of business students.  And we also noticed they were all guys.  In fact, the entire business school there is mostly guys.  Which is the way it was when I was there.  I think we squeaked out at least 12 accountants.  In 1990.  But I am telling kids all the time not to go into the tax business.  I don't want them to have this stress.  

[BrewOne]

But in a recession, the accountant majors still get professional offers while the business majors...not so much.

[ILLMAS]

What is worst, people not going into the accounting field or accountants leaving the field?

[joanmcq]

I just went to the CSTC Summer Symposium and was heartened by the amount of young people there! 

[Patrick Michael]

The CPA firm I was working at has also contracted with a firm in India to handle staff accounting tasks because they could not find enough qualified people.  I think the decline of young people getting into the profession started, at least in NY (not sure about requirements in other states), when they upped the number of accounting related course hours, which is close to getting a Master's degree.  And, not sure this is still the case, but the profession has (or had) a reputation for abusing new staff accountants, who were trying to meet the experience requirements to obtain their CPA certificate, with long hours and tedious work.

[Lee B]

Read several in depth articles recently saying that this trend started over 20 years and that the professions leaders never took it seriously.

[ILLMAS]

6 hours ago, cbslee said:

Read several in depth articles recently saying that this trend started over 20 years and that the professions leaders never took it seriously.

I like the fact that some “outsourced” countries can fall below the radar compared to manufacturing countries.