Finance leaders don’t need another headline reminding them of the talent shortage. They’re living it. 83% of senior leaders report an accounting talent shortage, up from 70% in 2022. Baby boomers with decades of institutional knowledge are retiring in waves. Gen Z, meanwhile, is less likely to pursue accounting in the first place, often citing outdated cloud based accounting software, technology, and tedious workflows as deal-breakers. As one CFO.com article put it, “accounting has a Gen Z problem.”
The result is a shrinking pool of experienced finance professionals, as companies simultaneously ask finance teams to do more, faster, and with fewer mistakes. The urgency here is real. Every year you delay upgrading systems, you risk losing not just headcount, but also the hard-won institutional knowledge those veteran employees take with them.
Outdated tools send talent packing
The day-to-day reality of many accounting teams doesn’t exactly inspire loyalty. Re-entering the same data in multiple systems. Logging in and out of separate QuickBooks instances to manage different entities. Chasing down reports that never quite reconcile.
It’s exhausting. For younger professionals who have grown up with intuitive, seamless apps in nearly every aspect of their lives, this isn’t just inefficient—it feels antiquated. The message is clear: if the technology looks dated, the job will too.
That perception is a big reason why finance roles are becoming harder to fill. It’s not that the work isn’t meaningful; it’s that the tools make it harder than it needs to be.
Why this matters now
The labor shortage isn’t going away. Forbes recently called it “a widening gap” and pointed out that companies can’t hire their way out of it (Forbes). That means the time to modernize your cloud based accounting software isn’t someday—it’s now.
The old guard of finance professionals carried tribal knowledge in their heads: how to spot anomalies, which vendor always pays late, what red flags hide in certain GL codes. When they walk out the door, they take that with them. Without modern cloud based accounting software to capture, automate, and analyze those patterns, newer staff are left scrambling for answers.
This is where urgency meets opportunity. AI and automation can’t replace the wisdom of a veteran controller, but they can absorb some of the muscle memory. Automated anomaly detection. Intelligent cash forecasting. Natural language queries that democratize access to insights. These tools make it possible for the “new guard” of finance professionals to ramp up faster, spend less time buried in spreadsheets, and focus on the strategic work that keeps them engaged and adds measurable value to their companies.
The shift toward intelligent automation
Fortunately, new tools are evolving right when finance teams need them most. Sage Intacct’s Copilot is designed specifically for finance and accounting, not as a generic AI add-on. As we wrote in our recent blog on AI in accounting, Copilot can answer natural language questions, flag anomalies, and even suggest actions in real time. It’s part of a broader wave of AI-powered features Sage is delivering now—from AP automation to cash flow forecasting—that remove repetitive work and give finance professionals space to focus on analysis, strategy, and decision-making.
That shift is critical in the middle of a talent shortage. As experienced staff retire and institutional knowledge walks out the door, newer team members are being asked to step up faster. Tools like Copilot provide the safety net: helping teams close the books more quickly, surface errors automatically, and get new hires productive without years of trial and error. This isn’t abstract future talk—it’s happening now, and it’s one of the most practical responses to a shrinking talent pool.
Modernization as a retention strategy
While AI and automation help fill the talent gap, the bigger picture is cultural. People stay when they see an organization investing in cloud based accounting software that makes their work better. That’s where modernization becomes a retention strategy. The finance talent shortage is often framed as a recruiting issue. In reality, it’s also a retention issue. If your team is stuck babysitting outdated systems, they’ll burn out. If they see that you’re investing in AI and workflow automation, they’re more likely to stay—and to recommend your organization to peers.
Think of modern finance technology as more than a productivity play. It’s an employee experience play. Upgrading your systems signals to current and prospective employees that you value their time and want them to do meaningful work, not endless manual entry.
The bottom line
The accounting shortage is already hitting businesses where it hurts: slower closes, delayed insights, and overextended teams. Waiting for the labor market to magically correct itself is not a strategy.
Modern, AI-enabled cloud based accounting software platforms like Sage Intacct won’t fix the shortage on their own, but they will make your team more resilient, your jobs more attractive, and your institutional knowledge more sustainable. The organizations that act now will be the ones best positioned to weather the generational shift and come out stronger.
At BT Partners, we’re already helping clients navigate this transition. If your finance team is stretched thin and you’re concerned about the road ahead, now is the moment to take a serious look at the tools you’re asking them to use. The shortage is real, but so is the opportunity—if you’re willing to act.
