For accounting and finance teams, the end of financial year is simply part of the job. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make it any less relentless. Reporting deadlines, year-end journals, audit preparation, reconciliations, budget planning for the year ahead, all lands at once, on top of the day-to-day work that doesn’t stop just because the calendar is demanding.
Although most finance teams get through it, there is often an unexpected hidden cost that shows up months later. Finance professionals rarely resign in the thick of the EOFY rush because they’re too busy, and there’s a certain solidarity in surviving a high-pressure period alongside colleagues. However, when the dust settles in July, something shifts. People come up for air, reflect on the past few months, and start making decisions.
It’s no coincidence that August and September are consistently among the busiest months for finance and accounting recruitment. A significant portion of that activity comes from professionals who endured a difficult EOFY and decided, once it was over, that they weren’t willing to do it again.
For employers, this creates a painful irony. The effort your team puts in during your most critical financial period can become the very reason they start looking elsewhere once it’s done.
A CFO at a mid-sized organisation recently faced a situation many finance leaders will recognise. As EOFY approached, her team was strong and experienced but already operating at capacity. The additional demands of the period were coming regardless: increased workloads, all while business-as-usual continued to run.
For employers, this creates a painful irony. The effort your team puts in during your most critical financial period can become the very reason they start looking elsewhere once it's done.
At this point, she had two choices: to either push the team harder as she had done in the past, and risk burning them out, or bring in interim support to absorb part of the load.
She chose the latter and worked with one of our specialist contract recruiters to hire a Senior Financial Accountant on a three-month contract. This person had a strong technical reporting background, experience with audit liaison, and the confidence to take ownership of balance sheet integrity from day one. Within a week, that contractor was on-site and taking full responsibility for reconciliations, preparing the audit schedule, handling complex year-end journals, and supporting the Finance Manager with reporting packs.
Rather than being stretched beyond their limits, this allowed the permanent team to focus on the work that required their company knowledge. Deadlines were still demanding, but they were not overwhelmed. Unlike previous years when the organisation hadn’t hired contractors, that post-EOFY period no one resigned.
The hesitation around contractor costs is understandable, but it often rests on an incomplete comparison. Replacing a mid-level finance professional, when you factor in agency fees, interview time, onboarding, and the ramp-up period before someone reaches full productivity, carries a cost that most leaders significantly underestimate. Furthermore, that figure doesn’t include the company knowledge that leaves when someone resigns, or the additional pressure that gets redistributed onto the colleagues who remain.
Finance leaders who’ve been through this cycle more than once often arrive at the same realisation. For years they’d likely attributed post-EOFY turnover to market conditions, only to eventually recognise that the workload their teams were absorbing each year was a significant part of the problem. When they shift their approach and begin bringing in contractors to cover peak demand, their permanent headcount usually stabilises in a way it hadn’t before.
Finance leaders who staff up proactively for EOFY tend to find that the investment pays for itself, not just in output, but in the stability of the team once it’s over.
Beyond practical capacity relief, there is another benefit that tends to be underestimated. When leadership plans ahead for a known pressure point and invests in support, it sends a clear message to the permanent team. It shows that overwhelm and burnout are not viewed as an unavoidable cost of doing business and that their workload concerns have been heard. That message builds trust, which is a vital component of retaining staff.
Making this approach work is not complicated, but it does require foresight. Identifying which functions will be most strained and when allows you to engage a recruiter early and secure the right person for the role rather than the quickest available one.
For most finance teams, the greatest relief during EOFY comes from senior financial accountants with strong technical and audit capability, management accountants who can absorb reporting and variance analysis, and payroll or compliance specialists in the final quarter.
Finance leaders who staff up proactively for EOFY tend to find that the investment pays for itself, not just in output, but in the stability of the team once it’s over.
The accounting and finance professionals most likely to leave after a difficult EOFY are often your best ones because they know their value and that they have options. If they’ve spent three months running at an unsustainable pace without any visible support from leadership, they’ll use the quiet of July to explore what else is out there.
Bringing in contractors doesn’t eliminate the pressure of EOFY, but having the right people in place, right when you need them, demonstrates that you’ve taken that pressure seriously. For a lot of people, that’s enough to make them want to stay.
Quinn Allan has a specialist team dedicated to delivery temporary resourcing solutions to finance teams across Melbourne and Brisbane. Contact us today to find out how we can support your business this EOFY period.
