Staff Augmentation vs. Outsourced Accounting and Beyond: How the Two Models Work Together

If a key employee left your organization tomorrow, how long would it take to find a replacement, vet them, and bring them up to speed? For many organizations, the honest answer is months. Accounting staff augmentation and outsourced accounting are both ways to close that gap, but they work differently, and knowing which one fits a given situation matters.

Key Takeaways

• Staff augmentation places an EisnerAmper professional directly on a client's accounting team, working under the client's day-to-day direction, while outsourced accounting has EisnerAmper manage a defined scope of work.
• Organizations turn to staff augmentation when a key employee leaves unexpectedly, when a role requires extensive vetting or certification, or when they need time to decide whether a full-time hire makes sense.
• Because a staff augmentation engagement is not a direct hire, organizations avoid the recruiting time, wages, benefits, and onboarding commitment that come with bringing on a full-time employee.
• Engagements can run for a few months or several years, and they often expand as an organization's needs change.
• Augmented staff often bring experience across multiple accounting platforms and can give clients access to enterprise-level technology at an economy of scale.
• The same staff augmentation model extends beyond accounting, including HR and IT.

What Staff Augmentation Means

Staff augmentation places an EisnerAmper professional directly on a client's team. The professional works onsite or remotely under the client's day-to-day direction, rather than independently delivering a defined scope of work. Depending on the engagement, that might include attending team meetings, staying current on organizational updates, and generally being included as any employee would be. The one thing that does not usually happen is a permanent hire on the client's end. Once the immediate need is resolved, the engagement is often complete, though clients frequently call back later if a similar need comes up.

This also distinguishes staff augmentation from a staffing agency or temp-to-hire model, where the expectation is often that the person eventually joins the client's payroll. With staff augmentation, the goal is to get the work done, train a replacement if the client hires one, and move on to the next engagement.

Staff Augmentation vs. Outsourced Accounting at a Glance

Both models give organizations access to EisnerAmper's accounting staff augmentation and outsourced accounting expertise, and many clients use them at different points depending on what they need. For more on how outsourced accounting works on its own, see EisnerAmper's guide to outsourced accounting. The table below breaks down how the two models differ.

Neither model is a lesser version of the other. Some organizations use staff augmentation to bridge a gap and later shift to a fully outsourced arrangement once they know what ongoing support looks like. Others start with outsourced accounting and add staff augmentation for a discrete need. Visit EisnerAmper's Outsourced Accounting and Finance Services page to see the full range of arrangements available.

3 Common Reasons Why Organizations Bring in Augmented Staff

1. A Role Requires Time-Consuming Vetting

In one engagement, an EisnerAmper accounting professional was placed at a chemical manufacturing facility after an accounting staff member quit. Because of the safety and security requirements at that kind of facility, hiring someone directly would have meant extensive background checks and certification classes, a process that can take months.

It took about a week to get the EisnerAmper professional onsite, since the background work was already complete and only facility-specific safety training remained.

The client skipped the weeks of recruiting, interviewing, and onboarding that a direct hire would have required, and was not paying wages or benefits. They were paying to get the work done immediately.

1. Someone Leaves Unexpectedly

Accounting cannot pause. Bills still need to be paid and cash still needs to be tracked, so when a client loses someone unexpectedly, staff augmentation lets them keep operating while they figure out their next step. (For a broader look at handling this kind of transition, see EisnerAmper's guide on what to do when a key accounting employee leaves.)

1. The Organization Is Considering Long-Term Needs

Bringing in outside staff for a defined period lets a client determine whether it needs a full-time hire, a reduced-hours arrangement, or a different structure altogether, informed by what the augmented staff member has seen work at other organizations.

Engagements Evolve as Client Needs Change

Staff augmentation rarely stays static. At the chemical manufacturing facility mentioned above, once the client hired a permanent replacement, the EisnerAmper professional trained that person, then took on a different role in the client's finance department because someone else had left. The engagement, originally estimated at six months, stretched to two and a half years as the client's needs shifted.

A similar pattern shows up in a state disaster recovery program, where an EisnerAmper professional runs the finance area. At its peak, that assignment took up all of the professional's time (40 hours per week). As the program has wound down, the hours committed there have dropped, freeing up capacity for other client work, including an advisory-side engagement where the client specifically requested that professional based on experience with a similar disaster recovery program years earlier.

There is also a practical benefit to embedding staff: Augmented professionals often hear about needs before anyone formally raises them. Being inside a client's operations means an EisnerAmper professional may learn about a related program that needs support, or a function outside their own area, before the client thinks to mention it to their EisnerAmper contact. Flagging those needs to the right partner has led to additional engagements for clients already being supported by a professional well-versed in that organization.

Access to Broader Technology Experience

Staff augmentation also gives organizations access to technology experience they may not have in-house. An in-house accounting hire has typically only worked with whatever software their previous employer used. An EisnerAmper professional placed through staff augmentation, by contrast, often has hands-on experience across multiple platforms, such as QuickBooks, Sage Intacct, and Xero, and can step into whichever system a client already uses without a long ramp-up period.

That range of experience also becomes useful if a client is weighing a software change. An augmented staff member who has worked across several platforms can speak to the strengths and limitations of each, offering a perspective an organization would not get from a hire who has only ever used one system. (For related considerations, see EisnerAmper's guide on whether cloud-based accounting is right for your organization.)

Staff augmentation can also give organizations access to the technology itself at an economy of scale that would be difficult to justify on their own. Rather than a client purchasing and maintaining its own licenses for every accounting platform it might need, EisnerAmper's existing investment in these tools means clients get the benefit of enterprise-level technology without the capital outlay or maintenance burden of acquiring it individually.

And Beyond: Staff Augmentation for HR, IT, and More

Everything above focuses on accounting staff augmentation, but the same staff augmentation model applies across other functions as well. One client engagement, for example, includes several outsourcing team members plus a dedicated HR professional, and IT staff augmentation has come up as a need for that same client.

As organizations identify new gaps, whether in accounting, HR, IT, or another back-office function, the same staff augmentation approach can apply: bring in an experienced professional to fill the need directly, on the client's terms, for as long as it takes.

Frequently Asked Questions about Staff Augmentation

What is staff augmentation?

Staff augmentation is a staffing model in which an outside professional, such as an EisnerAmper accountant, joins a client's team directly and works under the client's day-to-day direction, rather than delivering a defined scope of work independently. It fills a specific gap, often on a temporary basis, without the client making a direct hire.

Why is staff augmentation gaining popularity?

It gives organizations a way to fill urgent or specialized staffing gaps, such as a sudden departure or a role requiring extensive vetting, without the time and cost of a full-time hire. It also lets organizations test their actual staffing needs before committing to a permanent position, which has become more valuable as hiring timelines and labor costs have both increased.

Is staff augmentation the same as outsourcing?

Not exactly. Staff augmentation is a form of outsourcing, but the professional works as part of the client's team, under the client's direction. Outsourced accounting, by contrast, has EisnerAmper manage a defined scope of work independently.

How long does a typical staff augmentation engagement last?

It varies widely. Some engagements last only a few months, while others extend for several years as a client's needs change. The engagement usually ends once the immediate gap is filled, whether that means the client hires a permanent employee or no longer needs the role covered.

Does staff augmentation cost more than hiring a full-time employee?

Clients pay for the augmented professional's time rather than a salary, but they avoid the recruiting costs, benefits, onboarding time, and long-term commitment of a direct hire, along with the risk of having to let someone go if the need changes.

What This Means for Your Organization

Organizations that have lost a key employee unexpectedly, need to fill a role requiring extensive certification or vetting before a direct hire is possible, or want time to determine their actual staffing needs before committing to a full-time position should consider staff augmentation.

Whether the need is in accounting, HR, or IT, staff augmentation provides an experienced professional inside an organization's operations, integrated into the team, without the recruiting time, wages, benefits, and onboarding commitment that come with a direct hire, and without the risk of having to let someone go if the need changes or disappears.

To talk through whether staff augmentation, outsourced accounting, or a combination of the two fits your organization's needs, visit EisnerAmper's Outsourcing Services page or reach out to us using the form.