Accountant Staffing for Finance Teams That Can’t Miss a Close
Contract, contract-to-hire, and direct-hire accountants placed in the seats that keep the month moving. Specialized recruiters, honest timelines, and a 92% 12-month retention rate.
Last updated: April 19, 2026
KORE1 places staff accountants, senior accountants, AP/AR specialists, and cost accountants on contract, contract-to-hire, or direct-hire terms. Our average time-to-hire is 17 days and 12-month retention runs 92% across more than 30 U.S. metros.
Month-end is coming. Your senior accountant just gave notice. The controller is covering two desks and audit prep hasn’t started. You don’t have six weeks to run an open req, screen 40 resumes, and sit through five rounds of interviews.
That’s the gap we fill. We’re an accounting and finance staffing agency with recruiters who’ve been placing accountants since 2005. We know who ships on day one, who’s worth waiting three weeks for, and which profile actually fits your ERP.
Why finance leaders call us first
Generalist recruiters send you ten resumes with the right keywords. A finance specialist sends two people who’ve closed under your exact accounting method. That difference is everything when there’s a 10-day close bearing down and nobody wants to work the weekend.
Most of our accountant placements come from warm networks our team has built over a combined 15 years of finance recruiting. When Irvine needs a Sage Intacct staff accountant, we usually have someone in mind before the job description hits our queue. When Bellevue asks for a senior GL accountant with NetSuite and multi-entity experience, we don’t start from zero either.
The result is faster qualified submittals and fewer interview cycles. Three of our last five staff-accountant searches in Orange County closed under 12 days because the hiring team ran two 30-minute interviews in the first 48 hours.
Match the engagement to the need
Three models. Three reasons to pick each one.
Contract works when you’ve got a defined runway. Audit prep, ERP migration, parental leave, a one-time restatement. You get seasoned help for the window you need it, and no conversion pressure. Start here with contract staffing.
Contract-to-hire is the play when the role is real but headcount isn’t approved yet, or when you want to see someone work before you commit. Sixty or 90 days, clear conversion math, no surprises. See how contract-to-hire staffing actually works end to end.
Direct-hire is for the seat that’s staying. Senior accountants, accounting managers, assistant controllers. We place those as permanent hires with a replacement guarantee. Learn more about direct-hire staffing.
If you don’t know which fits, tell us the pain. We’ll tell you which model we’d pick.
Roles we place most often
Four seats we fill every month, plus the specialty searches that come in when the standard pipeline won’t cut it.
Staff Accountants
Journal entries, reconciliations, month-end close support. Usually 1 to 3 years of experience and comfortable in whatever ERP you run.
Senior Accountants
Full-cycle close ownership, complex reconciliations, audit liaison. 4 to 7 years of experience and CPA-track or CPA-completed.
AP/AR Specialists
High-volume invoice processing, vendor management, collections. Great for teams scaling transaction volume without scaling headcount prematurely.
Cost & Project Accountants
Manufacturing, construction, professional services. Variance analysis, job costing, WIP schedules, and the ERP skills that go with them.
Also hiring CPAs, accounting managers, assistant controllers, FP&A analysts, and hybrid finance-tech roles via our fintech staffing practice. Need a finance leader instead of an individual contributor? See fractional CFO services.
How we vet accountants
Short on ceremony. Long on relevance. Five steps, usually inside a week.
- 01Intake call. Thirty minutes. We learn the ERP, the close timeline, the personality of the team, and the deal-breakers.
- 02Sourcing. We pull from our active bench first, then warm networks, then targeted outreach. No spray-and-pray job boards.
- 03Skills screen. A finance-specialist recruiter calls every candidate before they hit your inbox. Technical questions, system familiarity, comp alignment.
- 04Reference triangulation. Two references, both direct former managers where possible. We call, we listen, we flag anything that doesn’t add up.
- 05Submittal. Two to four qualified candidates with our scored assessment. You see why we think each one fits, not just the resume.
Common Questions
How much does an accounting staffing agency cost?
Contract accountants bill at a loaded hourly rate. Direct-hire placements run a percentage of first-year base, usually 20% to 25% depending on role seniority and market. We quote the number upfront.
No padded fees, no surprise line items, and every direct-hire placement carries a replacement guarantee. A senior accountant in Irvine looks different from the same role in Dallas, so we work from real market comps rather than a national flat rate. According to the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, accountant and auditor employment is projected to grow 5% through 2033, which keeps wage pressure real. Comparing options? Our 2026 guide to the best accounting staffing agencies shows what rates and retention look like across the market.
How fast can you actually fill an accountant role?
Average time-to-fill across our accountant placements in the past 12 months is 17 days. Staff accountants trend shorter. Senior and controller-level searches trend longer.
The biggest driver isn’t sourcing speed. It’s interview cadence. Teams that run one 30-minute screen in the first 48 hours close searches the fastest. Teams that book interviews three weeks out watch their best candidate take another offer.
What’s the difference between a bookkeeper and a staff accountant?
Bookkeepers record transactions and run AP/AR day to day. Staff accountants handle reconciliations, journal entries, month-end close work, and typically hold a four-year degree in accounting or finance.
A lot of teams hire a bookkeeper when they actually need a staff accountant. Others do the reverse and pay senior rates for entry-level work. If you’re not sure which you need, describe the workload and we’ll tell you the right title and the right comp band. For a broader breakdown, read what an accounting staffing agency actually does.
Should I hire a contract accountant or a full-time one?
Hire contract when the work has a finite window. Audit prep, ERP migration, leave coverage, restatement. Hire full-time when the seat is permanent and the role owner needs to build institutional knowledge.
Contract-to-hire splits the difference when you want a working trial, or when you’re waiting on headcount approval but the work is already on the desk. The Journal of Accountancy has documented the rise of flexible staffing across the profession, and the math usually favors a blended model during transitions.
Can you place CPAs and specialty roles like cost accountants?
Yes. We regularly place CPAs, cost accountants, FP&A analysts, senior accountants with SOX or GAAP specialization, and accounting managers. Specialty searches take longer but close.
Roughly 30% of our annual accounting placements are specialty roles. Where the bench is thin, we’ll tell you what the realistic pool looks like before you commit to a search plan. The AICPA talent pipeline report confirms what our recruiters see in practice: CPA supply is tight and the search windows reflect that.
Where do you source accountants from?
We start with our active bench of vetted accountants who’ve worked with us before. Then we pull from a warm network of referrals, and only last do we run targeted outreach.
We don’t blanket the job boards. Most profiles we submit have worked with a KORE1 recruiter previously or came in through a trusted referral. That’s how we keep 12-month retention at 92% across accounting placements.
Your next close doesn’t have to be the one that breaks the team.
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