Dutch accounting firms are changing where their work gets done. The reason is practical. 

Hiring qualified accountants at home has become slow and expensive. The older habit of sending work to distant offshore providers has not solved this. Quality and control problems still come with the territory in finance work. Nearshore accounting has become the middle option that more firms in the Netherlands now choose.

The direction shows up in the data. The Netherlands is one of Europe’s fastest-growing hubs for finance innovation. That said, and outsourcing finance and accounting work is already common practice across the continent. Most Dutch firms dealing with high local costs and a tight labour market. Therefore, nearshore accounting has become a practical way to reach that support without the drawbacks of distant delivery.

Why Dutch firms are looking abroad 

The Netherlands has one of the highest labour cost bases in Europe. 

Eurostat data puts Dutch hourly labour costs at €47.90, the third highest in the EU. 

On top of gross salary sit employer social contributions, the mandatory holiday allowance, and pension costs. Together, these push the real cost of a mid-level finance hire well beyond the headline figure.

At the same time, finance and accounting skills remain among the most in-demand roles across the European labour market. They’re also among the hardest to fill. Firms wait months to fill positions, and the open roles slow down closing, reporting and compliance work in the meantime.

Nearshore accounting responds directly to that pressure. It gives Dutch firms access to qualified accountants at a lower total cost. And it does so without the distance problems that come with sending work to the other side of the world.

Why finance work favours closer teams

Offshoring finance talent has real strengths. It gives firms access to large talent pools, mature delivery experience and strong cost efficiency. That’s why it remains a sound choice for high-volume, clearly defined work. What has changed is what many Dutch firms now ask of a finance partner.

Finance work runs on tight, shared deadlines and close daily contact. Month-end close, reviews and reporting move faster when the team works the same hours. Questions get answered in real time rather than the next day. That overlap is where nearshore delivery is especially strong. It’s a large part of why more Dutch firms are choosing Gapstars’ Portugal Hub for connected, judgement-based work

Language adds to the appeal too, particularly around year-end audits and IFRS reporting. Both nearshore and offshore teams at Gapstars work under the same GDPR-aligned, ISO 27001-certified framework. Compliance itself is not the differentiator. What often matters more in that window is comfort. 

Teams working closer to the Netherlands tend to be more at ease walking auditors through IFRS nuances and reporting judgement calls in real time. That holds even when the quality of the underlying work is the same either way. The point is not that one model is better than the other. Offshore and nearshore simply suit different needs. How well a team integrates matters more than where it sits. 

At Gapstars Finance, that principle holds across both hubs. Teams follow the client’s own systems and processes, not the other way around. Structured cross-cultural training backs this up, so collaboration stays steady under pressure. DHV Accountancy is a good example. They brought in a Sri Lanka-based colleague who now works as a full member of their team, the same way a Lisbon-based finance professional would.

For the close, deadline-driven, audit-heavy work at the core of most Dutch accounting firms, that closer overlap in language and working hours has made nearshore teams a natural fit. Offshore does not lose ground on compliance or quality.

What “nearshore” means for finance teams 

Nearshore accounting means working with a finance team in a nearby or time-aligned country rather than a distant one. For Dutch firms this increasingly points to EU hubs such as Gapstars’ talent hub in Portugal, alongside talent markets whose working hours overlap with the Dutch day. The advantage is simple. The team starts work when you do, questions are answered in real time, and the cultural and language gap is small.

Nearshore delivery suits teams that need to work in close, day to day contact with the home office, because shared working hours and cultural alignment shorten the time it takes new staff to become productive. For finance, where month-end close and reporting run on tight deadlines, that overlap is worth a great deal.

The embedded finance team, not the outsourced task

The bigger change is in how the work is structured. “Dutch firms are moving away from handing over isolated tasks and towards dedicated teams that operate as an extension of the in-house finance function. This model is also known as an extended workbench (EWB), and it’s what a growing number of firms now rely on. Under it, a provider, such as Gapstars Finance, builds a dedicated accounting team that works inside the client’s own systems and processes. The provider takes on recruitment, HR, training and staff retention, while the client keeps day-to-day direction of the work.

The result is a hybrid setup that has become the standard. The in-house team keeps strategy, client relationships and oversight; the nearshore team handles processing, reconciliations, reporting and month-end work. The two operate as one unit rather than as a firm and a separate supplier.

What makes a good embedded finance team

With cost no longer the main driver, the quality of the people is what makes an embedded team work. Good embedded finance teams are staffed with qualified accountants who know international reporting standards, work within the EU regulatory framework, and are available throughout the Dutch working day. That depth, and how closely the team aligns with the firm’s own way of working, matters more than the hourly rate.

What to look for in a nearshore partner

Not every provider is the same. For Dutch accounting firms, a few things separate a genuine partner from a low-cost vendor:

• Sector knowledge, including familiarity with Dutch accounting rules and the systems commonly used in the Netherlands, such as Exact and Twinfield.
• Dedicated staff who learn your processes, rather than a shared pool that changes each month.
• Clear service levels, transparent pricing and regular reporting.
• The ability to scale up during busy periods such as year-end, then scale back when things are quieter.

Providers built around this model embed qualified accountants, many with strong backgrounds relevant to the client’s industry,  directly into the client’s finance team, which is what lets the arrangement work as a genuine extension of the firm rather than an outside supplier.

Where this leaves Dutch firms

The Netherlands is one of Europe’s most competitive and most regulated markets for finance talent. Firms here cannot afford long vacancies or the delays that come with distant delivery. Nearshore accounting offers a practical middle option: real access to skilled accountants, close working alignment, and compliance that sits inside the EU framework. 

For Dutch firms still relying on a fully in-house team or a distant offshore arrangement, it is worth asking whether that model still fits the way the work now needs to be done.

FAQ