Month-End Close Support From a Contract Data and Accounting Team
An hourly data engineer and senior accountant take the hand work out of your close, and your controller stays in charge.
The seat rates are right below. Reading them takes no form.
KORE1 places an hourly contract team after a Close Replay, a data engineer who automates the feeds and a senior accountant who owns reconciliations. A mid-level contract data engineer bills a $110 national median and a senior accountant $87, about $102,500 together for three months (KORE1 Contract Rate Index 2026-Q4, modeled).
Last updated: October 26, 2026
Most slow closes aren’t slow everywhere. Two or three places eat the days, and nearly all of them are hand work. Somebody keys a bank statement into a workbook in the afternoon, somebody else ties it out to the ledger at nine at night, and the same break shows up next month because nobody wrote down why it happened.
We see it constantly, and this page is the staffing half of the fix. The Close Replay diagnostic finds where the days go on a month you already closed. Then two contractors take the hand work, placed by our accounting and finance staffing practice on contract staffing terms, billed by the hour.
Two seats. Not a department. The data engineer untangles the feeds, the senior accountant owns the reconciliations, and your controller reviews both of them, which is the one part that never moves.
What Does the Contract Close Team Do in the First 30 Days?
Four steps, in order. A contractor prepares each one and your controller reviews it. Nothing on this sheet is signed off by a contractor.
Get access and read the Replay
Both contractors get system access on day one, because you opened the requests when you extended the offer, and then the engineer maps every feed that goes into the close while the accountant reads last month’s reconciliations and the Replay tape. The two of them agree on which stage goes first.Automate the feeds
The engineer builds intake that checks every file the day it lands. Keying and re-keying stop. A bad file gets flagged before anyone builds on it, and the bank, administrator and sub-ledger files all end up in one structured record.Own the reconciliations
The accountant takes the tie-outs for whichever stage the Replay ranked first. Every break gets a written rule for how it clears, so the second time it shows up it takes minutes, not an evening, and that’s the whole point.Run the close beside the old way
The next close runs on the new feeds with the old workbook still open beside it. Any difference between the two gets logged and explained, and the team writes the runbook now, while the details are still fresh in their heads.The order isn’t fixed. If the Replay says tie-out is your biggest stage, step C moves up and the engineer builds the one record both sides reconcile to. The sheet bends to your close. Your controller’s signature doesn’t bend.
What Does Each Seat Cost per Hour?
Every figure is a bill rate, what an employer pays through a staffing firm, at 40 hours a week. Three months is 13 weeks. Six months is 26.
| Seat2 | Level | Market | Bill range1 | Median | 3 months | 6 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit | $ / hr | $ / hr | $ | $ | ||
| The two close seats, U.S. national | ||||||
| Data engineerData Engineer / Database Developer · Modeled | Mid | U.S. national | $98 to $122 | $110 | $57,200 | $114,500 |
| Senior accountantAccountant / Senior Accountant · Modeled | Senior | U.S. national | $77 to $94 | $87 | $45,300 | $90,600 |
| If your review seat is open too | ||||||
| ControllerController / Financial Manager · Modeled | Mid | U.S. national | $112 to $148 | $127 | $66,100 | $132,300 |
| Senior accountant by metro | ||||||
| Senior accountantNew York · Modeled | Senior | New York | $96 to $118 | $109 | $56,700 | $113,400 |
| Senior accountantLos Angeles · Modeled | Senior | Los Angeles | $86 to $105 | $97 | $50,400 | $100,900 |
| Senior accountantOrange County · Modeled | Senior | Orange County | $86 to $105 | $97 | $50,400 | $100,900 |
| Senior accountantDallas-Fort Worth · Modeled | Senior | Dallas-Fort Worth | $74 to $89 | $83 | $43,000 | $85,900 |
| KORE1 observed placements3 | ||||||
| AccountantReal placements · KORE1 observed, n=11 | All levels | Southern California, mostly | $42 to $85 | $44 | $23,100 | $46,200 |
- 1Bill range is the 25th to 75th percentile. It includes payroll taxes, workers’ compensation, insurance and a modeled 24% employer burden.
- 2Modeled rows use BLS OEWS May 2025 wages mapped to SOC 15-1243 (data engineer), SOC 13-2011 (accountant) and SOC 11-3031 (financial manager, the nearest SOC for a controller).
- 3The observed row is KORE1’s own accountant placements at all levels, 11 started 2023 to 2026, primarily Southern California. Eleven is a small sample.
The city moves the accountant more than most buyers expect, because New York’s senior median is $109 an hour and Dallas-Fort Worth’s is $83, a $26 gap that adds up to about $13,700 over three months for the same seat. Los Angeles and Orange County match at $97. All four are modeled from BLS wages, so plan with a range.
The observed row is different in kind. It’s real placements, 11 of them, and it covers every level, which is why its $44 median sits far below the senior-only rows. It doesn’t price this seat. We show it and don’t build on it. A controller row is there for one reason, if your own review seat is empty too, and controller staffing covers that search. Seat-level detail sits on the contract accountant bill rate page, and other cities are in contractor rates by city.
Get a bill rate quote for a close team
Five fields. Seats, levels, metro, start date and length. A KORE1 recruiter prices it from the same index you just read.
Why Start With the Close Replay?
Because it tells you which seat to hire first. The Replay takes a month you already closed and sorts every day into waiting, hand work or judgment, and only hand work is something a contract seat can take. A bank that sends its files late? That’s a waiting day, and no contractor fixes it.
The sorting is why this team has two seats. Keying and feed work point to the engineer, tie-out and break work point to the accountant, and review stays with your controller, because review is judgment and judgment isn’t something you rent by the hour.
Khurram Tehseen used the Close Replay to cut one firm’s month-end close from 26 days to 3, and our private credit data operations consulting page walks through that engagement. One firm, not a promise. The number that matters for you is the total on your own tape.
Haven’t run one? Replay your last close first. It takes two minutes and costs nothing.
26 to 3
Close days at one firm after a Close Replay
3 days
Median from accepted offer to first day
86%
Started within a week of the offer
$102,500
Both seats for three months at national medians
The 26 to 3 is Khurram Tehseen’s own engagement record. Start data is KORE1’s job-activity report, 1,997 placements from 2019 to 2026. The cost is the index cells for the data engineer and senior accountant, modeled. Method is in how the contract rate index is built.
Hourly, Managed by Your Controller: How Does the Engagement Run?
Think of it as borrowing two sharp people for a quarter. KORE1 places them on W2 and bills their hours, and your controller tells them what to do on Monday morning. There’s no fixed-scope close sprint with a finish line, because a close changes every month and we’d only be guessing at where it ends.
RYou keep
Direction, review and sign-off
Your controller runs the calendar and owns the definitions. Your manager approves the hours. Your people decide who gets system access, and every reconciliation gets your signature before it counts, even the ones a contractor built. When the close runs without help, you end the engagement. No drama.
PThey bring
The skill and the hand-off
SQL and Python on one side. Tie-out discipline on the other. And a written hand-off before the last day, because a close that lives in two contractors’ heads walks out the door with them.
“Hourly, which we prefer. It’s really more of a staffing model to do the hourly billing and you manage the person.”
Devin Hornick, Partner at KORE1, October 16, 2026
Want the whole foundation rebuilt and handed back? That’s consulting, not staffing. Need more seats than these two? Accounting staff augmentation and data engineering staff augmentation cover the rest.
What Do the Contractors Leave Behind?
Here’s the test. If your close only works while two contractors are in the building, it hasn’t been fixed, it’s been rented. So the last job is writing it all down, and four things stay when they leave.
PData engineer
A feed runbook
Every feed, what time it lands, the check each file passes and the person to call when one fails at nine at night.
PSenior accountant
Reconciliation workpapers
One per account, each with its tie-out rule and the break log your auditors will ask for in fieldwork.
PBoth seats
Break rules in plain words
How each recurring difference clears, written so a new hire never digs the answer out of an old email thread.
RYour controller
A hand-off you accept
The access list, the open items and what comes next. It’s done when you sign it, not when we stop billing.
Some teams keep a seat. After 1,040 hours a contractor can convert to your payroll with no fee from KORE1, and the cost math against a direct hire fee lives in contract-to-hire staffing. The accountant role has its own page at accountant staffing.
Auditors weigh original evidence above converted copies, which is the logic of the PCAOB audit evidence standard, and it’s why the reconciliation workpapers keep the source files attached.
What Does KORE1 Commit to on Contract?
Four commitments, and one of them is a limit. A promise is only worth what you can hold us to.
Arrival
Show up on time
Contractors start on the day you agreed and are at their desks when your team is.
Payroll
Paid on Fridays
Every contractor gets paid weekly, on Friday. Your team never fields a call about a late paycheck.
Conversion
No-fee conversion at 1,040 hours
Once a contractor logs 1,040 hours, which is 26 weeks at 40 a week, you can hire them onto your payroll without paying KORE1 a fee.
Replacement
No guarantee on contract
A contract seat carries no replacement guarantee. We say so before you sign, so build the plan without leaning on one.
A seat held for a full 26 weeks is exactly 1,040 hours, so if the accountant is the one you’d keep, say so in week 20 and not in week 26, when the decision has already been made for you.
How the Rates Are Built
Two kinds of cell, always labeled. You’ll know which rows are placements and which are a model.
- VersionKORE1 Contract Rate Index 2026-Q4, effective October 16, 2026. Updated quarterly, next in January 2027.
- ObservedKORE1’s own W2 contract placements with 2023 to 2026 starts, published only where a cell has five or more. 180 placements sit behind the 15 observed cells.
- ModeledBLS OEWS May 2025 wages, a 24% employer burden and the bill-to-cost range KORE1 sees on its own placements.
- Left outPayrolling, direct hire, offshore and corp-to-corp work, and placements whose bill and pay fall outside the normal range. Contractor pay isn’t published.
- SourcesBLS OEWS May 2025 release, BLS OEWS metro and national tables, IRS Publication 15 for the employer payroll taxes inside the burden, and how the contract rate index is built.
Cite this page
KORE1. KORE1 Contract Rate Index, version 2026-Q4 (effective October 16, 2026). https://www.kore1.com/month-end-close-contract-team/
Common Questions
What does a contract senior accountant cost for a month-end close?
A senior accountant on a W2 contract bills $77 to $94 an hour nationally, median $87, about $45,300 for three months at 40 hours a week (KORE1 Contract Rate Index 2026-Q4, modeled). That’s a bill rate, so it already carries payroll taxes, insurance and a modeled 24% employer burden. Metro matters though, and New York’s median runs $109.
What does a contract senior accountant cost in Orange County?
In Orange County a senior accountant on a W2 contract bills $86 to $105 an hour, median $97, about $50,400 for three months and $100,900 for six (KORE1 Contract Rate Index 2026-Q4, modeled). Los Angeles lands on the same range. Dallas-Fort Worth runs cheaper at a median of $83.
How fast can a contract accountant start?
A KORE1 contractor starts a median of 3 days after the offer is accepted, measured across 1,997 placements from 2019 to 2026, and 86% started within a week. The clock starts at your yes, so sourcing comes first. We don’t guarantee a start date, and system access at your company can add days. Open those requests early, and don’t wait for the contractor to accept.
What does a two-person close team cost for three months?
A mid-level data engineer and a senior accountant at national medians cost about $102,500 for three months, which is $57,200 plus $45,300 at 40 hours a week (KORE1 Contract Rate Index 2026-Q4, modeled). One week of both seats is about $7,900. Six months is about $205,100.
Do we need a Close Replay before we hire the team?
No, but it’s the surest way to pick the right first seat. A Close Replay runs on a month you already closed and shows which stage holds the days, so you hire for the stage that matters. Skip it and you’re guessing at the seat, which is an easy way to hire for the wrong stage.
Run the Numbers for Your Close Team
Enter the seats, the weeks and your metro, and see the cost before you talk to anyone.
Open the Cost Calculator →Ready for real seats? Get a bill rate quote, replay your last close first, or see the 2026 contract rate card.
