The True Cost of Delayed Hiring in Finance—Why Waiting Jeopardizes Your Fiscal Close
Fiscal closes, quarterly reporting, and audits come with immovable deadlines. Even a short delay can create a chain reaction of missed milestones, costly errors, and compliance concerns. Many organizations wait to add resources until the workload becomes overwhelming, but that choice often increases costs and risk instead of saving money.
Why Delayed Hiring Happens
Budget caution
Leaders hesitate to add headcount until the workload becomes unmanageable, fearing unnecessary labor expenses.
Talent shortage realities
With 83% of CFOs reporting difficulty finding qualified accounting professionals (CFO Pulse Survey, 2024), even a short hiring delay can stretch into months.
Overconfidence in current capacity
Teams that are already stretched thin often believe they can push through until the deadline, only to face costly overtime, burnout, and mistakes.
The High Price of Waiting
When deadlines like fiscal closes approach, hiring delays can trigger multiple negative outcomes:
- Missed deadlines: Delays in reconciliations, reporting, or audit prep disrupt leadership decision-making and investor confidence.
- Higher labor costs: Waiting often means relying on last-minute hires or premium contract rates.
- Increased overtime and burnout: Overloaded employees are more likely to make mistakes, take sick leave, or resign.
- Risk of restatements: A FloQast and University of Georgia survey found that 85% of accounting teams had to reopen closed books to fix errors, and nearly half did so multiple times per year (cfodive.com).
- Reputational damage: Late or inaccurate reports can reduce credibility with boards, lenders, and regulators.
Why Early Hiring Saves More Than It Costs
Hiring before your fiscal close or other major deadlines is more than a convenience; it’s a cost-control strategy. Engaging talent early prevents last-minute scrambling and ensures your team has the time and resources to deliver accurate, compliant work.
- Secure the best talent before competitors do
Top candidates often receive multiple offers. Early engagement increases the likelihood of securing them. - Allow for smooth onboarding
Having time to train contract or interim hires on your systems and processes ensures better productivity. - Reduce overtime costs
Workload can be distributed evenly across the team, avoiding costly overtime. - Protect accuracy and compliance
Adequate staffing reduces the risk of reporting errors and potential regulatory issues.
How to Prevent Costly Delays in Your Fiscal Close
Step 1 – Forecast workload peaks
Review your fiscal calendar to pinpoint periods of intense activity, such as quarter and year-end closes, audits, or large-scale reconciliations.
Step 2 – Create a talent readiness plan
Work with a staffing partner to maintain a bench of pre-vetted accounting professionals, including CPAs, auditors, AR/AP specialists, analysts, payroll specialists, and bookkeepers.
Step 3 – Engage early
Begin recruitment well before peak season so that you have talent ready to start when needed.
Step 4 – Blend permanent and flexible staff
Use a mix of full-time and project-based hires to adapt to fluctuations in workload without increasing fixed costs.
Hiring Early Protects Accuracy, Compliance, and Team Health
Waiting until the last minute to hire costs more in overtime, premium rates, and rework than engaging talent early. A proactive staffing plan for fiscal close ensures deadlines are met, reporting is accurate, and your team avoids burnout.
Need Specialized Accounting Support?
At PrideStaff Financial, we specialize in recruiting top accounting and finance professionals. Whether you need a full-time hire or contract staff to support closes, audits, or special projects, we can help. Just complete this short form and contact one of our offices today. Explore our locations to find the office nearest you.
