Job Placement · Accounting & CPA · Staffing Agency Alternative
Filing season is when most firms search for an accounting staffing agency, and it is often the wrong search. A staffing agency employs the accountant and bills you hourly for temporary coverage. A headhunter places a permanent accountant for a percentage of salary. BEG places permanent accountants too, associate to CFO, on a flat milestone fee fixed before sourcing, and will tell you plainly when temporary coverage is the better answer.
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Why This Search Spikes At Certain Times Of Year
Self-Select The Right Model
| Model | Who employs the accountant | How you pay | Right when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accounting staffing or temp firm | The agency, as the legal employer | Hourly bill rate, plus a 15 to 25 percent conversion fee if you hire the contractor permanently later | Filing-season volume, a leave cover, or a backlog with a defined end date |
| Accounting headhunter or recruiting firm | You (the firm or company) | Percentage of first-year salary, commonly 20 to 25 percent, due at or after start | You want a permanent hire and accept a fee that scales with the offer |
| BEG direct-hire placement | You | Flat milestone fee by tier, $4,680 to $40,128, fixed before sourcing, no conversion event | The seat is permanent and you want the fee known before the first candidate is approached |
| DIY in-house recruiting | You | Internal time, job board and ATS costs, no placement fee | You have recruiting capacity and can compete for candidates outside filing season |
BEG does not employ accountants and does not bill hourly, so seasonal capacity is not something we sell. Corporate finance seats are recruited through the finance staffing agency alternative page instead.
The Conversion Fee Nobody Budgets For
A staffing agreement commonly sets a conversion or buyout fee of 15 to 25 percent of first-year salary if you hire a temp within a 6 to 12 month ownership window, framed as compensation for the agency's lost billings, per staffing industry research on conversion fees. Pay the hourly rate through busy season, then the conversion fee to keep the person, and the total can land above what a direct search would have cost from the start.
Milestone Billing Against Contingency
At the $83,680 BLS accountant and auditor median, a 20 to 25 percent contingency fee is $16,736 to $20,920. BEG's Tier III manager fee of $12,864 to $15,437 is clearly under that. At CFO level, Tier VI, $33,440 to $40,128 runs above a contingency fee benchmarked to the accountant median, because that median is not what a CFO actually earns. Benchmarked to financial manager pay, BEG is again cheaper. We will run the number for your specific seat rather than quote one figure for the whole range.
No commitment. We will tell you what the seat needs and what it costs before you decide anything.
"Accounting Staffing Agencies Near Me"
A nearby staffing branch, whether it calls itself a staffing agency or an accounting employment agency, is built for exactly one thing: getting a temporary body into a seat this week. For a permanent accountant or CPA, that local constraint is not an advantage, because BEG sources candidates directly and nationally rather than from whoever happens to be available in your metro this month. A firm in a smaller market gets access to the same national pool as a firm in a major one.
FAQ
No. A staffing agency employs the accountant and bills your firm or company an hourly rate for the weeks you need coverage, which is a reasonable answer to a filing-season spike. BEG places permanent accountants your organization employs directly, on a flat milestone fee. If seasonal capacity is genuinely what you need, we will say so rather than open a permanent search.
A staffing agency supplies temporary accountants on an hourly bill rate and stays the employer of record for the length of the assignment. A headhunter or recruiting firm places a permanent accountant for a percentage of first-year salary, commonly 20 to 25 percent, due once the hire starts. BEG does the second job, permanent placement, on a fixed milestone fee instead of a percentage.
Partly. Those phrases usually bundle two different practices. This page covers public accounting and the technical accounting seats inside a company, senior accountant through CFO hired for close and controls work. Corporate finance seats, financial analyst, FP&A and treasury, are recruited through the finance staffing agency alternative page instead, and the two pages cross-link so you land on the right one.
Differently structured, not just differently priced. A staffing agency's hourly bill rate keeps running for as long as the assignment lasts and covers the agency's cost of being the legal employer. If your firm later wants to convert that contractor to a permanent hire, staffing agreements commonly charge a separate conversion or buyout fee of 15 to 25 percent of first-year salary, tied to a 6 to 12 month ownership window from the date of introduction. BEG has no conversion event and no buyout fee, because the accountant is never on an agency payroll first.
At the BLS accountant and auditor median of $83,680, a 20 to 25 percent contingency fee is $16,736 to $20,920. BEG prices by tier: $9,381 to $11,257 for an associate-level seat, up to $19,080 to $22,896 for a controller. At senior and manager tiers BEG runs clearly below the contingency range. At CFO level, Tier VI, $33,440 to $40,128, the fee sits above a 20 to 25 percent contingency fee benchmarked to the accountant and auditor median, because that median understates true CFO pay. Benchmarked to financial manager pay instead, BEG is again the cheaper option, and we will show you that math directly rather than round it to one number.
Yes. In May 2025 the AICPA and NASBA approved model legislation adding a pathway of a bachelor's degree with an accounting concentration plus two years of experience plus the CPA Exam, alongside the traditional 150-hour route and the graduate-degree route. Adoption is state by state, so two candidates can be on different licensure clocks, and we screen for which pathway and which state board a candidate is working under before an offer, not after.
If a placed accountant does not work out within 45 days of the start date for a performance-related reason, BEG runs a replacement search at no additional charge, and a repeat search for the same seat is offered at 50 percent off. Forty-five days covers roughly one and a half month-end closes, which is the honest limit of what that window can test.
Both, run as different searches. A firm seat is sold on client mix, the path to manager or partner, and how study time is protected during busy season. A corporate seat is sold on predictable hours and ownership of one ledger rather than many. Using the same pitch for both is a common reason firm searches return corporate-minded candidates who will not survive a second busy season.
Only if the need is temporary busy-season coverage, since a local staffing branch pulls from a nearby available pool for short assignments. For a permanent hire, BEG sources accountants directly and nationally rather than from a local bench, so a firm outside a major market is not limited to whoever already lives there.
An average of 23 to 35 days from discovery call to signed offer, based on isolved placement data, with an 86 percent fill rate on active searches. Searches opened during spring filing, autumn extensions or year-end audit fieldwork run longer, because candidates will not interview mid-close. Opening a search in the trough between those windows is the cheapest scheduling decision available to you.
We will say so. Accounting is the function where internal promotion is most often correct, because a large part of what makes a close work is knowledge of your specific ledger, your systems and which department runs late. Telling you the senior accountant already in the building is the better answer is worth more to you than the fee we would have billed for an external search.
Yes, functionally. An accounting staffing agency, staffing company, accounting recruitment agency and employment agency for accounting and finance all describe the same hourly-billed model, the firm employs the accountant and bills your organization for the length of the assignment. BEG is a different model. It places permanent accountants your organization employs directly, on a flat milestone fee agreed before sourcing starts.
Role-specific detail lives on controller placement, senior accountant placement and CFO placement, or start from the accounting and CPA placement hub.
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