Australia’s accounting profession is short of people, and the gap is set to widen. Two reports released this September put numbers to what most practices have felt for years: fewer people are entering the profession, more are leaving, and the work isn’t getting any simpler.

We’re accountants ourselves, so we’ve seen how this plays out in practice. Lodgment deadlines still have to be met when the team is a person down and a junior role can sit open for months while everyone else covers the gap. None of that reflects how well a firm is run. It’s the reality of practising through a shortage.

Below is a summary of what the research found, followed by three practical steps you can start on now.

What the latest research tells us about the skills gap

New research from Oxford Economics Australia, commissioned by CA ANZ, projects that Australia will be short almost 18,000 accounting, audit and finance professionals by 2035. Around 108,000 people are expected to leave the profession over the next decade, while course completions have fallen 61% since 2018. The gap is sharpest in junior and intermediate roles.

The Tax Institute’s State of Tax Education in Australia 2026 Report found domestic accounting completions halved between 2019 and 2024, and 58% of registered tax agents are now aged 50 or over.

The graduates who do arrive need more support, too: 82% of employers said new starters were underprepared.

These problems need industry-level responses, but there are three things every practice can work on now.

1. Use technology so the right people do the right work

If your team has fewer accountants than it needs, the ones you do have should be spending their time on the work they’re qualified for. Getting qualified takes years of study and exams, and plenty of tasks in a practice don’t need that level of training.

Much of that repetitive work can now be handed to software. Meeting notes can be taken by Vinyl, client query follow-ups can run through Content Snare, and engagement letters can be prepared in Ignition. Each tool takes something off your team’s plate, so your limited accounting resources go where they’re needed most.

Matching people’s experience and expertise to the complex accounting and tax work is the best use of the resources you have.

This is a big part of why we built Cimplico Workpapers. Carrying forward prior-year balances, running standard calculations and pulling data in from Xero are all part of preparing workpapers, but none of them needs an accountant’s full expertise. We automate as much of that as possible so your team can focus on the review and the judgement calls.

2. Invest in the next generation now

With more than half of registered tax agents aged 50 or over, succession planning affects the whole practice, not just the partner group. Every firm needs a plan for where its next seniors and managers will come from, and for most that means developing them in-house.

Start by understanding what accountants want from their workplace. The CA ANZ 2025/26 Remuneration Survey found that nearly a third of members would favour better work-life balance over salary, and more than a third were seriously considering leaving their role in the next 12 months. Flexibility, manageable workloads, working from home, career progression and meaningful work all ranked as essential to attracting and keeping people.

Some of these are policy decisions you can make tomorrow. Others depend on how the work itself is structured. A graduate who spends their first year on data entry is less likely to find the work meaningful, and a team buried in manual rework will struggle to offer a manageable workload. The technology decisions in the first step feed directly into retention.

3. Build your team’s AI and technology literacy

As more routine work is automated, the skills your team needs are changing. Knowing how to work alongside AI and new technology is becoming as important as technical knowledge, for new starters and experienced staff alike.

Your team doesn’t need to become developers, but they do need to understand what AI tools can and can’t do, where they fit into your workflows, and how to review their output with the same professional scepticism they’d apply to anything else.

There are plenty of ways to build these skills. CA ANZ members have access to LinkedIn Learning, which covers AI fundamentals as well as practical software skills. If your practice uses Cimplico Workpapers, Cimplico certification gives your team a structured way to learn the platform properly. Whatever you choose, make learning part of the job rather than something squeezed in after hours. Set time aside for it, and link it to career progression so people can see where it leads.

Preparing your practice for the accounting skills shortage

The skills shortage is likely to be a long-term feature of the profession. The practices that cope best will be the ones that treat their team’s time as the scarce resource it now is. In practice, that means automating the work that doesn’t need an accountant, giving newer accountants a reason to stay, and building the skills the profession will need over the next decade.

If you’d like to see how Cimplico Workpapers takes routine workpaper preparation off your team’s plate, you can book a demo here.