Finding good accounting staff in Ireland right now is like finding a parking spot in Dublin city centre on a Friday afternoon. Technically, it’s possible, but not without headaches, effort, expense, and the odd expletive.
And once you’ve found someone, you’ve got to pay market rates, cover employer’s PRSI, sort the benefits, and hope they don’t get a better offer six months in.
For partners in accountancy practices and CFOs managing finance teams, the staffing problem isn’t going away. And it’s not getting any better.
But there’s something a lot of Irish firms are quietly doing about it, and it’s saving them up to €30,000 per hire, per year.
The talent shortage in Irish accountancy is structural. Fewer people are qualifying, more firms are competing for the same pool, and salaries keep climbing.
The pressure isn’t just at the recruitment stage either. There’s ongoing investment (time and money) in keeping good people, managing their workload, and not burning them out.
The work never seems to stop, which is great because it means you’re in demand. But it invariably piles up, regardless of whether you have the headcount to handle it or not.
The result? Senior staff get pulled into lower-value work. Partners spend time firefighting instead of advising clients. Capacity becomes a ceiling on growth. And you end up with the uncomfortable feeling that your firm could be doing a lot more if you just had the right people in the right seats.
A growing number of Irish practices and finance teams have started building what Teams PLUS calls an Extended Team. This is a model where a dedicated, qualified professional based in India works exclusively for your firm, day in, day out, as if they were sitting in your office.
This isn’t outsourcing in the traditional sense.
It’s not a shared service centre where your files are one of fifty on someone’s desk. Teams PLUS recruits and hires the person specifically for you.
They work your hours. They use your systems (CaseWare, Bright, CCH, Xero, Sage, QuickBooks, Dext, etc.), and they report to you directly.
You manage the relationship. You set the work.
The cost difference is significant. Hiring locally in Ireland typically runs from €45,000–€65,000 per year in salary alone, before you factor in employer’s PRSI, pension contributions, recruitment fees, and the general overhead of a new hire.
An Extended Team member through Teams PLUS comes in at up to 50% of that cost.
You pay a fixed monthly fee, no hidden extras, no recruitment bill.
That’s potentially €30,000 saved. Per person. Per year.
And if you’re growing and need two or three people? You do the maths.
It’s the first question everyone asks. And it’s a fair one.
Kerala, where the Teams PLUS India operation is based, has a literacy rate of over 98% and a long tradition of producing highly educated finance and accounting professionals.
English is the official working language. The professionals Teams PLUS recruits are experienced with Irish and UK accounting workflows, they’re familiar with the software your team already uses, and they’re put through multiple rounds of screening before you ever meet them.
You interview the candidates. You choose who joins your team.
Teams PLUS also has a dedicated account manager based in Dublin or Cork who stays involved throughout. So, if something isn’t working, you’re not raising a support ticket to a call centre. You’re having a coffee with an Irish Accountant or picking up the phone to someone who understands the Irish context and can sort it.
Here’s the thing that tends to resonate most with partners and CFOs once they’ve had an Extended Team member for a few months.
It’s not just about the cost saving (though that’s very real).
It’s about what happens to your senior team when more transactional work gets lifted off of them. When all of that is handled reliably by a dedicated person who knows your systems and your clients, your qualified people can do the work they’re actually trained for. Client advisory. Complex work. The stuff that brings in fees and builds the relationship.
That’s a capacity shift. And for a practice that’s been turning away work or struggling to grow because it simply doesn’t have the bandwidth, it can be transformative.
There are no recruitment costs. No laptop to buy. No HR headaches. Teams PLUS employs the person. We handle contracts, payroll, IT security, and all the admin, but that person works exclusively for you.
One fixed monthly fee, agreed in advance, so you can budget properly and manage your WIP with confidence.
It’s the kind of model that makes you wonder why you didn’t look at it sooner.
Chat to us today
Are you a partner in an accountancy practice, or a FC/CFO leading a finance team? Does this resonate with you?
If you’re tired of the constant recruitment merry-go-round, is a 20 minute conversation to learn more a good investment?
No commitment, no hard sell – just a straightforward chat with someone who can tell you whether it makes sense for your firm.
Email info@teamsplus.ie to set up a call with Jimmy, our Managing Director and your contact point in Ireland.