News & Insights

Your controller just announced plans to retire after 30 years with the company. 

Before lunch, someone has pulled the old job description. Leadership is discussing salary ranges. A recruiter’s name comes up. 

It’s a familiar reaction, but it may be the wrong first step. 

The biggest question isn’t who should replace the employee… It’s what work actually needs to be replaced. 

Every long-tenured accounting employee leaves behind more than a position. They leave behind financial oversight, institutional knowledge, undocumented processes, and years of practical problem-solving that rarely appear on an organizational chart. 

Replacing the person before understanding the work often recreates yesterday’s finance function instead of building one that’s better suited for tomorrow. 

Should You Rehire or Outsource Accounting After an Employee Leaves? 

The answer depends on the work that actually needs to be performed. Before hiring another employee, businesses should evaluate recurring accounting tasks, financial oversight responsibilities, and strategic finance needs. In many cases, the best solution is hiring internally, outsourcing accounting services, or combining both through a hybrid finance model. 

In our experience, companies often move too quickly to fill an open position because they’re solving a staffing problem rather than evaluating a finance function. 

The organizations that make the best long-term decisions start by understanding the work, not the title. 

What Should You Do When a Controller or Accounting Manager Leaves? 

When an experienced accounting professional leaves, most organizations assume they’re replacing one job. 

In reality, they’re often replacing several. 

Over time, responsibilities expand because someone is capable, trusted, or simply available when problems arise. Reporting, reconciliations, lender requests, forecasting, cash flow management, process improvements, technology projects, and troubleshooting gradually become bundled into one position. 

Eventually, one employee becomes the process. 

Leadership often discovers that critical accounting processes were never fully documented. 

The monthly reporting package depends on spreadsheets only one person understands. Lender covenant calculations exist in a workbook with years of hidden formulas. Vendor approvals happen because someone “just knows” how they’ve always been handled. A recurring reconciliation depends on undocumented steps that exist only in one person’s head. 

These aren’t accounting problems. 

They’re business process risks that remained hidden because one experienced employee quietly compensated for them month after month. 

Hiring someone into the same position doesn’t automatically solve those problems. 

In many cases, it simply transfers the same manual workarounds, cleanup tasks, and unclear responsibilities to the next employee. 

A Departure Creates Something Most Organizations Rarely Receive: An Opportunity to Redesign the Finance Function. 

Instead of asking, “Who should replace this employee?” 

Leadership should ask: 

Don’t start with the title. Start with the work. 

How to Evaluate Your Accounting Workload Before Hiring 

One of the most valuable exercises is reconstructing how the departing employee actually spent their time, not how the original job description described the role. 

Most responsibilities fall into three categories. 

1. Recurring Accounting Execution 

2. Financial Oversight 

3. Process Ownership 

Looking at the work instead of the title often reveals a very different hiring need than leadership originally expected. 

Five Questions to Ask Before Replacing an Accounting Employee 

Before posting a job opening, ask these five questions. 

These questions often reveal that the organization doesn’t need another identical position. 

It needs a stronger finance structure. 

Run the 30-Day Replacement Test 

One practical exercise is to ask: 

What would become unreliable during the first 30 days after this employee leaves? 

Consider questions like: 

The answers separate operational priorities from strategic priorities. 

They also reveal where the organization has become dependent on institutional knowledge rather than documented accounting processes. 

When Does Outsourcing Accounting Make More Sense? 

Hiring another employee is often the right decision. 

When workload is consistent, responsibilities are clearly defined, and leadership understands exactly what the role should own, building an internal accounting team makes sense. 

But salary is only part of the investment. 

Organizations also absorb recruiting costs, onboarding, benefits, payroll taxes, software, management time, and months before the new employee reaches full productivity. 

There’s another cost that’s often overlooked. 

Every month leadership spends recruiting is another month they’re covering accounting responsibilities instead of focusing on customers, operations, or growth. 

The decision also isn’t simply internal versus outsourced. 

It’s whether the business needs additional capacity, additional expertise, or both. 

Those are very different problems. 

Some companies have enough staff but lack senior accounting leadership. 

Others have experienced leadership but need additional support completing reconciliations, transaction processing, and month-end close activities. 

Each situation calls for a different solution. 

Should You Hire an Outsourced Controller or Fractional CFO? 

Outsourced accounting isn’t simply a temporary staffing solution. 

For many growing businesses, it’s a long-term operating model. 

Rather than hiring every level of accounting expertise internally, businesses supplement their accounting department with specialized professionals where they create the greatest value. 

That may include: 

This allows companies to access higher-level expertise without committing to another full-time executive before the organization is ready. 

For many organizations, the right answer isn’t hiring or outsourcing. It’s both. 

A staff accountant may handle day-to-day accounting while an outsourced controller oversees financial reporting. 

An internal accounting manager may own operations while a fractional CFO supports budgeting, financing decisions, forecasting, lender communication, and long-term planning. 

The objective isn’t fitting every responsibility into one position. 

It’s building a finance function that supports where the business is headed. 

Define the Gap Before Filling the Seat 

Every accounting departure creates two separate decisions. 

Who will perform the work? 

And perhaps more importantly, should the work be performed the same way going forward? 

Businesses that answer the second question before the first often emerge with stronger accounting processes, clearer responsibilities, better internal controls, and a finance function that’s aligned with future growth, not simply past habits. 

Whether that means hiring, outsourcing, or building a hybrid finance team depends on the organization’s goals, growth plans, and internal capabilities. 

The objective isn’t replacing an employee. 

It’s building the finance organization your business needs next. 

At Maner, we help small and midsize businesses throughout Lansing, Grand Rapids, and across Michigan evaluate accounting staffing needs, outsourced accounting services, controller support, and CFO advisory solutions. 

Sometimes that means providing temporary accounting support while a company recruits or serving as an extension of an existing accounting department. 

Other times, it means providing controller or CFO-level guidance around financial reporting, forecasting, lender communication, cash flow management, and strategic planning. 

Our goal isn’t simply filling vacancies. 

It’s helping businesses build finance organizations that support long-term growth. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Is it better to outsource accounting or hire an employee? 

Businesses with stable day-to-day accounting needs often benefit from hiring internally. Organizations experiencing rapid growth, leadership transitions, or requiring specialized expertise may benefit from outsourced accounting services or a hybrid accounting model.

When should a company hire an outsourced controller? 

An outsourced controller is often appropriate when a business needs stronger financial reporting, month-end close oversight, cash flow management, lender reporting, internal controls, or accounting leadership without hiring a full-time executive. 

What is the difference between an outsourced controller and a fractional CFO? 

An outsourced controller primarily focuses on accounting operations, financial reporting, internal controls, and month-end close management. 

A fractional CFO focuses on budgeting, forecasting, financing, cash flow strategy, business planning, and executive financial leadership. 

Should I replace a retiring controller immediately? 

Not necessarily. Businesses should first evaluate which responsibilities still exist, which accounting processes can be improved, and whether hiring, outsourcing, or a hybrid finance model best supports future growth. 

Not Sure Whether to Hire or Outsource? 

Every business has different accounting and finance needs. 

We’ll help you evaluate your current accounting function, identify capacity and capability gaps, and determine whether hiring, outsourcing, or a hybrid approach is the best fit for your business. 

Working Through Whether You Should Rehire or Outsource the Role? 

We’ll help you evaluate finance capacity gaps and build the right support model for your business.