Accountant Job Description
An accountant maintains the financial records of a firm or an individual. He/she is also responsible in analyzing the profit and loss, tax liability and other financial transactions of a company. Thus, an accountant is an important part of any business organization. The field of accounting is vast and varied, thus, there are different types of accounting careers and a student aspiring to become an accountant can choose a career path of his/her choice. Given below are some of the important types of accountants:
- Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
- Forensic Accountant (read more on, what is forensic accounting)
- General Accountant
- Comptroller
- Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
- Internal Auditors
- Government Accountant
Each of these jobs has a different set of financial responsibilities to perform. The type of the accounting career decides the educational requirements to become an accountant. But the basic educational requirement for becoming an accountant is bachelors degree, with accounting as a major course and other finance and economic courses. The student can further do specializations depending upon the accounting career chosen.
Accountant Salary Range
It has been observed that the undergraduate degree obtained to become an accountant does not influence the accountant salary range. But if an individual has obtained a masters degree in business administration, then he/she is offered a good salary range. Even students who complete the certification required for CPA, earn a good salary. A survey done in the year 2007, reported that a Certified Public Accountants earns an average annual salary of $92,000. Many of these CPAs were working as managers or directors of a company. Thus, any advance training in the accounting field promises a good accountant salary range. Online accounting programs, which also include online MBA degrees, are quite popular these days.
According to a survey, an average accountant starting salary ,in the year 2009 is $40,000. One more survey done in the year 2006 stated, that the average annual starting salary of accountants, who earned a bachelor’s degree was $46,718, while those who earned a master’s degree earned $49,277 annually.
The accountant salary pay scale is influenced by the type of employer. An accountant can be self-employed or he/she can work for an organization, hospital, government, etc. Given below is a table that gives the average salary of an accountant, depending upon the employer type.
Employer Type Accountant Salary Range (in Dollars) Government - Federal 40,428 - 70,537 Company 38,363 - 51,562 Non-Profit Organization 33,831 - 47,232 Firm/Private Practice 37,121 - 51,136 College/University 33,639 - 45,657 Hospital 38,311 - 48,548 Self Employed 30,066 - 50,849 Franchise 34,184 - 51,450 Contract 40,708 - 63,918
Work experience affects the salaries of almost all jobs and same is with accounting. Accountants with good and practical work experience, earn good salary range. The table given below will give you a brief idea on the accountant salary range, depending on the years of work experience,
Work Experience (Years) Accountant Salary Range (in Dollars) Less than one year 34,453 - 46,033 1 - 4 35,797 - 48,423 5 - 9 39,231 - 53,367 10 - 19 39,677 - 54,937 20 or more 40,516 - 56,821
The salary of an accountant is also affected by the geographical area or the city where he/she is working. Firms established in smaller towns, do not pay as much as the firms in larger cities. However, we should also note that big cities have a higher cost of living. Thus, we can conclude, that factors that rule the accountant salary range are, higher education, type of employer and work experience. The above given figures related to accountant salary range are approximate and may vary under different circumstances.
