In today’s globalized business landscape, outsourcing has emerged as a game-changing strategy for companies looking to solve the number one issue facing accounting firms today: capacity. Such firms are also taking the lead in streamlining their operations, reducing costs, and achieving scalable growth.
When it comes to outsourcing accounting work, one country stands out as a top choice — the Philippines. With its exceptional accounting talent pool, strong English proficiency, and supportive business environment, outsourcing accounting work to the Philippines offers numerous benefits.
In this blog, we will delve into why the Philippines is an ideal destination for outsourcing accounting work.
Seamless Integration of Talent
In the Philippines, offshored accountants work exclusively for your organization, ensuring seamless integration into your existing workflows and internal processes. This level of assimilation fosters far greater collaboration, enhances communication, and promotes a sense of shared ownership, leading to better coordination and efficiency.
Exceptional Talent Pool
The Philippines boasts a vast pool of highly skilled accounting professionals. The country’s education system strongly emphasizes accounting and financial education, producing many graduates.
In Australia, nearly 9,000 new accounting, audit, and finance professionals are needed every year from 2021 to 2026 to meet the demand for talent. CPA Australia and Chartered Accountants ANZ pointed this out in January 2023, in a joint paper appealing to the Australian Government for migration program reforms.
Both professional accounting bodies called attention to the fact that the number of accounting graduates in Australia had fallen from 4,356 in 2010 to only 2,278 in 2020—down by nearly half.
In contrast, universities in the Philippines have graduated an increasing number of accountants since 2013.
Graduates of Business Administration, Accountancy, and Related Programs in the Philippines
With the profession reaching its centenary in March 2023, by outsourcing accounting work to the Philippines, businesses gain access to a talent pool that possesses a deep understanding of accounting principles.
“The Philippines may have one of the largest numbers of qualified professional accountants among Asian countries,” wrote Joel Tan-Torres, a former chairman of the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy.
With such available and highly skilled global talent, accounting firms can overcome capacity constraints caused by the shrinking talent pipeline, increased demand for accounting services and skills, mounting pressure on current staff and the exodus of professionals reaching retirement age.
For a closer look at how firms can increase capacity, you can download our Accounting Talent Insights Report here.
Reduced Costs
Accounting outsourcing to the Philippines can offer significant cost savings compared to onshore in Australia or New Zealand. The difference primarily stems from variances in labor rates and the overall cost of living. Labor rates in the Philippines are generally lower, resulting in savings of around 70%.
In Australia, the typical salary for an Audit Supervisor in 2023 was $93,000. An outsourced Senior Auditor-Supervisor in the Philippines makes $29,000 to $45,000 over the same period, which is still more than what their peers would receive from local firms.
A Generalist Accountant in Australia will make around $80,000 a year, based on jobs advertised in the online employment marketplace Seek. An outsourced Generalist Accountant capable of performing comparable tasks will make $11,658 to $18,000.
When hiring onshore, businesses must also consider additional costs such as payroll taxes, benefits, and overhead.
Online employment marketplaces like Seek and Jobstreet (Seek’s site in the Philippines) show that practices in Australia and New Zealand can afford to pay above market rates in the Philippines and still save on the cost of compensation.
Average Annual Salaries for Accountants
English Proficiency
Language plays a crucial role in offshoring, as effective communication is vital for collaboration between onshore and offshore teams. The Philippines has long been recognized among the top English-speaking countries globally, with a large population fluent in English. This linguistic advantage eliminates language barriers and allows for clear and concise global team communication.
While accounting outsourcing locations like India also have a significant English-speaking population, this region takes 52nd spot compared to the Philippines at 22.
Supportive Business Environment
The Philippines has established itself as a global hub for offshoring, including accounting services. The government recognizes the economic benefits of the sector, and this support is evident in various incentives and infrastructure development initiatives aimed at enhancing the industry. Additionally, the government has implemented policies to ensure data security, intellectual property protection, and compliance with international regulations as written in the Data Privacy Act of 2012, giving businesses peace of mind when offshoring their accounting work in the Philippines.
Read more: Top Accounting Outsourcing Destination Countries Compared.
For the Philippines to stay competitive as an offshoring destination, business and government leaders support developing workers’ skills.
Today, the Philippines is the largest global provider of voice-based business process outsourcing services,” Rafaelita Aldaba wrote in 2019. She serves as the undersecretary for competitiveness and innovation at the Philippines Department of Trade and Industry and has advocated for fiscal incentives for firms that invest in skills development.
It is important for the country to upgrade from low-end to high-end and shift to value-driven and complex services, given the new age of global offshoring services, emerging technology, new media, and vertical expansion and development.
To enable this shift to higher-value services (including business analytics, consulting, market intelligence, and legal services), business organizations and government policymakers are working toward:
High-speed internet connectivity
Keeping power costs reasonable
Greater ease of doing business
Updating education to weave in emerging technology
Better enforcement of intellectual property law
Next Steps
Complementing your current talent strategy with offshoring in the Philippines offers accounting firms a winning strategy for growth, combining seamless integration of talent, a robust talent pool, exceptional English proficiency, and a supportive business environment.
Not only this, but accounting firms can tap into a dedicated team that becomes an integral part of their global operations, resulting in improved collaboration, streamlined processes, and increased productivity.
“In order for us to grow our business locally, we really had no option other than to use some offshoring opportunities,” said Mark Said, who leads the MKS Group in Melbourne.”
“By having an additional bank of team members with great skills and expertise, we achieved growth in our business, which has helped us immensely and helped our clients as well. We’ve had a nine-year relationship with TOA Global. So far, it’s been a fantastic journey.”
If you need a dedicated offshore accountant who understands the Australian accounting industry, TOA Global provides experienced accountants in the Philippines trained in Australian. standards who are job-ready and available to start immediately.
Forget the time and hassle of recruitment, we’ve done all the hard work for you. With TOA Global, you can enjoy the following benefits:
Dedicated employees working in your time zone
A team trained by an Australian-certified CPA
Accelerated speed to competency in Australian accounting practices, with 260+ hours of training
Immediate availability
Data Privacy and Security
Talent with 2+ years of work experience
Xero certified team members
Want to learn more about hiring specialized global talent or accounting outsourcing to the Philippines?
More about TOA Global
TOA Global has helped more than 1,000 international firms grow on their own terms by adding elite global accounting talent to their teams. With over 10 years of exclusive service to the accounting industry, more than 3,600 accountants and bookkeepers in the Philippines have found fulfilling careers.
For firms that want to stay updated on the latest developments in talent acquisition, people management, and training for your accounting firm, check out our newsletter. We regularly explore these and other offshoring and accounting industry trends.
