If you work in public accounting, you know that you go from a staff or junior accountant to a senior accountant as you advance in your career. But what does a senior accountant do? Find out more about the job description, salary, credentials, and tips for success.
Summary
The Senior Accountant job description includes managing financial records, ensuring data integrity, and maintaining compliance with accounting standards. They often supervise or mentor entry-level staff, serving as a liaison between junior accountants and management. This role requires strong analytical and problem-solving skills, advanced proficiency in Excel and accounting software, meticulous attention to detail, and excellent communication and leadership abilities.
Advancing your career into a senior accountant job position and beyond happens with experience, credentialing, and continuing professional education.
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What is the job description for a senior accountant?
Senior accountants are experienced accounting professionals who take on complex accounting tasks and responsibilities, also managing entry-level or staff accountants. As a senior accountant, you lead accounting teams in daily tasks, review financial data and reports, and liaise with company leadership about financial forecasting and decision-making.
In this role, you'd most likely be responsible for accounting tasks like financial reporting, budgeting, and bookkeeping, as well as records and compliance with reporting standards, laws, and regulations.
Senior accountant tasks and responsibilities may include, among others:
- Leading the accounting team and delegating tasks
- Reviewing financial statements for accuracy and compliance
- Analyzing financial data to create forecasts and recommendations
- Preparing reports for external and internal auditors
- Reconciling accounts for accurate reporting and maintenance
- Developing and monitoring budgets
Senior accountant skills
Skills often found in a senior accountant job description include:
- Strong analytical skills
- Advanced accounting abilities
- Proficiency in Excel and accounting software
- Strong communication
- Excellent people management
- Deep understanding of federal, state, and local tax regulations
Senior accountant salary
The average senior accountant salary in the US is around $84,000 per year.1 This number varies by location, company, years of experience, and credentials, but sources generally report the senior accountant salary range between $73,000-$94,000 annually.2
How to become a senior accountant
Becoming a senior accountant requires a combination of skills, experience, and credentials.
Of course, you can’t become “senior” without starting in an entry-level position and gaining the skillsets that come with practical experience. However, you can’t climb the ladder without credentials that certify your aptitude and authorize your ability to perform certain tasks.
The Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license is the most important qualification for public accounting professionals. Not only does it bring you increased job opportunities because you’ve demonstrated advanced accounting expertise, but there are many tasks a CPA can do that an accountant can’t. A non-licensed accountant, for example, cannot represent clients before the IRS, perform external and SOC audits, or file financial reports for the SEC. You need a CPA license for all these tasks, and you need to be a CPA to move into senior accountant jobs that include these responsibilities.
To move into an internal senior accountant job within a single organization, the Certified Management Accountant (CMA) certification is your ticket to growth. Like the CPA license, the CMA certification requires a rigorous credentialling process that proves your expertise and ability to take on advanced financial and people management responsibilities.
How to be successful as a senior accountant
#1: Be the senior accountant you wish you had
When you become a senior accountant, reflect on your experience thus far. What does a senior accountant do, and which senior accountants at your firm have been the most successful? Learning from the best (and worst!) traits of other senior accountants will help you develop into being a great leader for your new staff.
#2: Stay organized
As a senior accountant, each project’s timeline rests on your shoulders. The client, manager, senior manager, and partner may ask you at any given time to report on the status of an engagement. It’s therefore essential to stay organized. One trick is to keep a detailed Excel tracker of everything that needs to get done, the deadline for each task, and who on your team is assigned to prepare and review it. Update this tracker consistently to ensure that you’re always informed of real-time progress and that your team is meeting its deadlines.
#3: Communicate often and clearly
As a senior accountant, you’re the client contact, leader of your team, and liaison with upper management. Clear and effective communication is essential for your role’s success. Set up recurring status meetings and send out updates regularly.
#4: Keep learning
You'll never stop learning throughout your career. But it's also important to understand that your professional credential will also require that you complete formal continuing professional education (CPE). Use this opportunity to choose CPE courses that advance your expertise and give you an edge in specific client services, people management skills, and up-to-date information in your area of specialization.
What comes after being a senior accountant?
Within the typical hierarchy of public accounting firms, after working as a senior accountant, you’ll move into a management position, senior manager, director, and eventually, partner. Within management accounting at a private organization, you could move into financial management positions and, eventually, a C-suite role as CFO or controller.
You can also advance your career through specialization. Again, using your CPE requirements is the perfect way to expand your skillsets; likewise, you can earn additional certifications that will grant you more job opportunities. For example, by becoming a Certified Internal Auditor, you gain invaluable knowledge in the practice of internal auditing and secure your resume as highly competitive in entering the auditing specialty.
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