Outsourcing accounting has become a strategic response to Australia’s accounting talent shortage. Today’s offshore teams are more integrated, more specialised, and better supported by technology than ever before – as TOA Global founder Nick Sinclair puts it, “Offshoring today isn’t what it was ten years ago.” Rather than cutting local capacity, professional services outsourcing firms are using global talent to absorb high–volume compliance work, freeing local staff for higher–value advisory roles.
The headlines have gotten louder in recent months. Woolworths. NAB. Officeworks. One by one, Australia’s most recognised companies have announced they are moving skilled corporate jobs offshore — and the reaction has been swift. Concern. Debate. And, for many Australians, a feeling that something is changing in ways they don’t yet fully understand.
That feeling is worth taking seriously. But the story being told is incomplete.
This is not a new chapter. It’s a familiar one.
Outsourcing has become a strategic response to talent shortages and rising demand, and that is why more Australian companies move jobs offshore.
What is new is who is doing it openly, and the scale at which it is now happening.
Why Australian companies are turning to offshore accounting
Outsourced accounting refers to hiring skilled professionals in other countries to take care of tasks such as bookkeeping, financial reporting, and tax preparation. It helps firms and corporations scale, reduce costs, and access global talent.
The journey began in technology — IT helpdesks, infrastructure management, and software development moved offshore as early as the 1990s. Customer service and call centres followed. Back-office processing came next.
In 1991, the Australian Parliament itself examined the case for outsourcing government IT services, recommending agencies do so when it represented better value, improved efficiency, and connected them to skills they couldn’t easily source locally.
Want the full picture before you read on? The Ultimate Guide to Outsourcing
How outsourcing solves the accounting talent shortage
Accounting and finance were always going to follow the same arc. The talent pool is deep, the skills are internationally recognised, and the need — particularly in Australia’s professional services sector — has never been greater.
What is happening today is not a sudden disruption, but a continuation of that progression.
For more than a decade, we have seen this shift unfold in practice.
While the current conversation is only just beginning, TOA Global has been quietly building models that many are now working to understand and implement.
Founded in 2013 by Australian entrepreneur Nick Sinclair, TOA Global began with a single offshore hire — an executive assistant in the Philippines. She still works with TOA today.
How professional services outsourcing benefits accountants
From that beginning, TOA has grown into one of the most trusted names in accounting outsourcing, supporting more than 1,200 accounting and finance firms across Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Canada.
Today, TOA Global employs more than 4,200 professionals working across the Philippines, Australia, the U.S., and South Africa — handling work that is among the most technically demanding in the professional services sector: tax returns, financial statements, BAS preparation, audit, and management reporting.
“Before 2013, I ran an accounting and financial services firm but found it increasingly harder to find people I could hire at a cost my business could sustain. Offshoring was not a shortcut — it was the only way to keep growing without compromising quality. Thirteen years later, the firms that embraced this model are the ones leading their markets.“
– Nick Sinclair, Founder, TOA Global
Outsourcing today is not what it was 10 years ago
The conversation about offshoring often gets stuck on a version of the model that no longer exists. Basic task execution. Siloed teams. Limited visibility. That model has been replaced by something far more sophisticated.
“Offshoring today isn’t what it was ten years ago. TOA Global is integrating AI into how we work — making our teams faster, more precise, and more valuable to the firms they support. The result is not fewer skilled people. It is skilled people doing more meaningful work, with fewer errors and faster turnaround times. The combination of skilled people, enterprise grade security and smart technology is what separates a great outsourcing model from a basic one.“
– Nick Sinclair, Founder, TOA Global
For Australian accounting firms and corporations, this means a model that keeps pace with the rapid changes reshaping the profession — from cloud accounting and real-time reporting to the growing demand for advisory services that go beyond compliance.
Is offshoring bad for jobs?
Done right, outsourcing accounting functions grows firms and businesses.
The firms choosing to outsource are not doing so to cut corners. They are doing it to solve a problem that has been building for years: a structural accounting talent shortage in Australia that is not going away.
The outcome, for firms that do this well, is not fewer Australian jobs.
It is more senior, better-paid Australian roles — as offshore teams absorb the high-volume compliance work that has historically consumed the capacity of local staff.
Offshoring, at its best, is a partnership — one that benefits the firm, the local team, the offshore professional, and ultimately the clients being served.
The question is no longer whether: it is how to offshore well
The noise around offshoring will continue. Some concerns are valid and deserve honest engagement.
But the evidence — from more than a decade of working with over 1,200 firms — is clear.
The firms that have embraced this model thoughtfully, invested in the right partner, and built genuinely integrated teams are growing faster, retaining better, and serving their clients more effectively than those that have not.
TOA Global exists to make that outcome available to every firm and business that is ready to build that way.
If you’re weighing up what offshore accounting could look like for your firm, let’s talk it through.
Head of Communications
With a background in journalism, Bronwyn joined TOA Global with more than 20+ years of experience in content strategy, corporate communications, and brand storytelling. She is passionate about building trust through clear, purposeful communication and creating content that informs, engages, and connects people.
