A busy accounting department is not unusual. Deadlines are constant, priorities shift and there is always another close, report, reconciliation or request around the corner.
But there is a difference between being busy and being stretched too thin.
That difference can become especially clear as organizations move into the final months of the year. Accounting teams are managing their regular responsibilities while preparing for year-end close, supporting audits, working through budgets, handling reporting requirements and trying to finish projects that have been pushed throughout the year.
A team that had enough capacity six months ago may suddenly find itself struggling to keep up.
And the pressure is not limited to one level of accounting. Recent labor data continues to show a significant number of annual openings for accountants, auditors and accounting support professionals. At the same time, research among finance leaders has identified increased workload for existing employees as a major concern when organizations do not have enough accounting talent.
Adding permanent headcount is not always the answer. Sometimes the issue is timing, a temporary vacancy, a backlog or simply too much work hitting the team at once.
The important part is recognizing the signs before a capacity problem starts affecting the rest of the business.
Here are three indications that your accounting team may need additional support.
- Your most experienced people are spending too much time keeping up with routine work
One of the clearest signs of a capacity problem is not necessarily missed deadlines. It is where your team is spending its time.
Accounting leaders and senior professionals will always need to stay close to the details. But when Controllers, Accounting Managers or Senior Accountants are consistently pulled into work that prevents them from focusing on their primary responsibilities, the team may be operating without enough support.
Maybe your Accounting Manager is spending hours clearing a reconciliation backlog. Your Controller is chasing documentation that should already be organized. Senior employees are stepping in to help process invoices, resolve basic account issues or complete routine reporting because there is nobody else available to do it.
The work still gets done, but at a cost.
Every hour a senior employee spends covering a gap is an hour that cannot be spent reviewing financial results, strengthening controls, improving processes, supporting leadership or addressing more complex accounting needs.
Over time, this can create a chain reaction. Higher-level work gets pushed back. Projects move more slowly. Managers have less time to coach their teams. Employees who are already carrying full workloads take on even more.
This is where additional accounting support can make a meaningful difference.
A contract professional does not necessarily need to take over an entire function. Sometimes adding the right person to support accounts payable, accounts receivable, reconciliations, bookkeeping, payroll, general accounting or month-end responsibilities can free the rest of the team to focus on the work they were hired to do.
The goal is not simply to add another person. It is to put the right level of talent against the right work.
- Small delays and backlogs are becoming normal
A late reconciliation here or an unusually difficult close there is not automatically a staffing problem.
Patterns are different.
When invoices routinely pile up, reconciliations remain unfinished, reporting takes longer or employees are constantly working around backlogs, the team may be signaling that its workload has exceeded its capacity.
These problems can be easy to normalize because they often build slowly.
An open role leaves the team short-staffed for several weeks. Someone takes on additional responsibilities to compensate. A large project requires more time than expected. Another employee takes PTO. Month-end arrives. Then another deadline comes up.
Before long, the temporary workaround has become the normal way of operating.
That matters in accounting because one delayed process can affect another. If transactions are not recorded promptly, reconciliations can become more difficult. If reconciliations fall behind, reporting can take longer. If documentation is not kept current, audit preparation may require more work later.
The closer organizations get to year-end, the less room there is for those backlogs to continue growing.
Capacity issues can also increase the amount of manual checking required from managers and senior employees. When teams are moving quickly just to complete the work, there is less time to review processes, investigate unusual items and improve how the work gets done.
Technology can help improve many accounting processes, but automation does not automatically eliminate the need for people. In fact, as accounting work changes, organizations continue to need employees who can manage exceptions, maintain accurate records, review outputs, understand the systems being used and make decisions when something does not look right.
If a backlog is becoming part of the team’s normal workload, adding temporary capacity can provide an opportunity to catch up before the problem becomes larger.
That might mean bringing in support for a few weeks during a peak period, covering an open position while a permanent search continues or adding someone specifically to work through an existing backlog.
Not every workload problem requires a long-term hiring decision.
- Important projects keep getting pushed because everyday accounting always comes first
Accounting teams rarely manage only accounting.
They may also be helping with system implementations, process improvements, audit requests, data cleanup, internal controls, acquisitions, reporting changes, documentation projects or broader finance transformation efforts.
Those projects can be important to the business, but they often have one major competitor for attention: today’s workload.
Payroll still has to run. Vendors still need to be paid. Customers still need to be billed. Accounts still need to be reconciled. The books still have to close.
When capacity is limited, the urgent work almost always wins.
That is understandable. It can also leave organizations in a cycle where valuable projects are continually pushed to the next month or the next quarter.
Sometimes the issue is not a lack of knowledge or commitment. The team simply does not have enough hours available to manage its regular responsibilities and complete additional work at the same time.
This is an important distinction.
If a project keeps falling behind even though the right people are involved, adding capacity may be more effective than continuing to rearrange the same workload.
Contract talent can be particularly useful in these situations because organizations can decide where additional help would create the most value.
One approach is to bring in someone with the skills to support the project directly. Another is to add help with day-to-day accounting responsibilities so existing team members have more time to focus on the project.
Either way, the objective is the same: create enough capacity for both priorities to move forward.
Extra help does not have to mean permanent headcount
Organizations can be hesitant to add support because hiring is often viewed as an all-or-nothing decision.
But accounting workload rarely fits neatly into that model.
A company may have enough permanent employees for its typical workload but still need additional help during year-end. Another organization may be waiting to fill an open position. A team may need coverage for a leave of absence, support during an audit or additional resources for a project with a defined end date.
Those situations call for different solutions.
Temporary and contract accounting professionals can give organizations more flexibility to align staffing with the work that actually needs to be completed.
That flexibility can be especially valuable when leaders know the team needs support but are not ready to make a permanent hire.
It also allows organizations to respond before the situation becomes urgent.
Waiting until employees are overwhelmed, deadlines have been missed or a major backlog has developed can make the problem harder to solve. Addressing capacity earlier gives leaders more options and gives new support time to become familiar with the team’s processes before the busiest periods arrive.
Take a closer look at capacity before year-end
As organizations prepare for the final stretch of the year, it is worth looking beyond whether every position on the accounting team is technically filled.
Look at the work.
Are senior employees spending significant time covering routine responsibilities? Are backlogs or delays becoming common? Are projects continually being pushed because the team has to focus on immediate accounting needs?
Those can all be signs that the issue is not performance. It is capacity.
The right additional support can help accounting teams manage peak workloads, maintain day-to-day responsibilities and keep important work moving without immediately committing to permanent headcount.
Brilliant works with organizations to identify accounting staffing needs and connect teams with professionals who can provide support across day-to-day accounting, peak periods, open positions and special projects. When workload begins to outpace available resources, adding the right support at the right time can help keep the accounting function moving into year-end and beyond.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026; Deloitte, 2025; AICPA & CIMA, 2025.