Retaining key players in 2026: the team-first playbook for accounting firms

Retaining key players in 2026: the team-first playbook for accounting firms

Good accounting talent is hard to find - and harder to keep. Even when the hiring pipeline shows small improvements, experienced team members who can run client work confidently, manage relationships, and contribute to advisory are in high demand.

Recent AICPA pipeline reporting shows the tension clearly: while U.S. accounting degrees fell 6.6% in 2023–2024, spring 2025 accounting-program enrollment rose 12.4% - a hopeful sign for the future, but not an immediate fix for today’s experienced-talent gap!

So in 2026 retention becomes a core part of any firm’s growth strategy. Research consistently shows that firms do not lose people primarily because of compensation or perks - they lose them because day-to-day work feels disorganized, growth feels limited, or burnout becomes routine. It's clear that the best retention strategies start with work design: reducing chaos, reducing rework, and creating the conditions where individuals and teams thrive - delivering meaningful, sustainable work.

The retention reality: most turnover is preventable

Across industries, the data is blunt: 63% of job exits in 2024 were preventable, according to Work Institute’s 2025 Retention Report.

Preventable turnover is usually about things leaders can fix: unclear expectations, lack of professional growth, weak support, and burnout. Career development has now been the most-cited reason people leave for multiple consecutive years - well ahead of pay.

In accounting firms, those factors can often concentrate around one recurring pressure point: period close. Not because close is bad work - but because close becomes frustrating work when it relies on heroics, manual checks, and endless chasing clients for missing items.

When month-end depends on individual memory, last-minute fixes, and overtime as the safety net, even strong performers start to burnout and disengage.

What your key players want in 2026

Research across professional services points to the same themes. Your best people want:

• A predictable operating system (so month-end does not feel like an emergency)
• A real path to career progression (client ownership, advisory exposure, increasing responsibility)
• Tools and clear rules that reduce burnout and risk, including clarity around how AI should be used

If you are already using Karbon, you have invested in workflow discipline and visibility.
The retention opportunity in 2026 is to carry that discipline through the close itself with period close automation - so your team spends less time cleaning up problems and more time delivering high-value, client-facing work. Learn more about how you can automate period close with Aider by booking a demo here.

1) Reduce burnout by fixing the work, not asking people to cope

Burnout is not solved by telling your team to slow down or take another wellness day.
It is solved by removing the recurring causes of overtime and late nights:

• manual close checks that could be automated
• issues discovered too late to address calmly
• document collection and follow-ups spread across email threads
• rework caused by inconsistent processes from client to client

Research shows that predictability and control over work matter more for retention than raw hours worked. People will work hard - but not endlessly and without warning.

This is where period close automation becomes a retention lever - especially when it fits into the systems your team already uses. Karbon + Aider is a practical example: Aider runs close checks, flags exceptions early, and speeds up transaction coding with guided recommendations, while Karbon keeps work, collaboration, and client follow-ups in one place.

The result is less rework and better visibility across every close, which is what your team experiences day to day.

2) Make the first five years sustainable (or you will keep rehiring them)

The profession has been clear that the early-career experience needs improvement. The National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG) - convened in response to the talent shortage - recommended that firms improve their employee experience, particularly in the first five years of employment, when attrition risk is highest.

That recommendation should directly shape how you run close:

• standardize close steps so new staff are not guessing
• make expectations visible (checklists, clear definitions of done)
• surface issues early so managers are not forced into last-minute fixes

Peroid close automation helps because it turns informal know-how into a repeatable process - and reduces the moments where juniors feel like they failed when the real issue was an unclear process.

3) Create capacity you can feel and use it to develop people

When firms talk about retention, they often overlook the biggest constraint: time.

If your best seniors and managers never have breathing room, they will not have time to mentor, document work, improve processes, upskill, or take on high-value advisory conversations. Research shows that stalled growth and poor manager support are among the strongest predictors of voluntary turnover.

Period close automation can free up time in ways that matter:

• routine checks run in the background
• issues are flagged earlier, before deadlines
• coding assistance reduces repetitive work
• missing-document follow-ups are tracked as part of the workflow

But time only helps retention if you use it deliberately:

• 1–2 hours per week for coaching and review training
• planned exposure to higher-value client conversations
• protected time to improve templates, processes, and client relationships / delivery

This is also how advisory actually grows. In 2026, advisory does not come from speeches or strategy decks - it comes from removing unnecessary cleanup from experienced staff’s plates.

4) Train the team to use AI responsibly and set clear rules

AI can reduce workload, but unclear expectations around AI create stress:

Am I allowed to use this? Will I get in trouble? Is this accurate? Who signs off?

A practical approach for 2026:

• Training: Show where AI is useful (drafting emails, summarizing notes, first-pass coding suggestions, investigation prompts) and where judgment and review are required
• AI Policy: Write down what AI tools are approved, what data can be used, where human review is required, and how confidentiality is handled
• Process: Build AI-supported steps into workflows instead of leaving people to figure it out on their own

Clear guidelines and policy reduce uncertainty. When people understand what is expected, quality improves and anxiety drops.

This fits naturally with Karbon’s workflow structure and close automation like Aider, which supports exception-based close work while keeping accountability with people.

5) Make retention measurable: watch the warning signs early

Key people rarely leave without warning. They start to drift when:

• overtime becomes routine
• closes keep getting harder, not easier
• rework increases and deadlines slip
• learning and progression stall
• they become the default owner for every problem

Operational signals to watch in 2026:

• close cycle time and late-stage issues
• rework rates
• overtime hours around close, by team and client
• percentage of unplanned work
• internal movement and development milestones

When these improve, retention usually follows - because the firm feels stable and well-run.

Retention in 2026 is a leadership decision

The talent pipeline may improve over time, but today’s reality is that experienced accounting talent is still hard to replace - and most turnover is preventable.

The winning move is not more perks, but removing the conditions that cause burnout: messy closes, constant rework, unclear expectations, and unclear rules around tools like AI.

If you already use Karbon, adding period close automation in a workflow-first way (such as Karbon + Aider) is not about chasing new technology. It is about protecting your people, freeing up time, and building a firm that can grow advisory work without burning out the team that makes it possible. Book a demo today to learn more.

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