[Trele6]

So I am curious how other companies match up on job titles for accountants. Below are the titles my company uses from least to greatest experience/role:

Accountant
Advanced Accountant
Accounting Analyst
Advanced Accounting Analyst
Sr. Accounting Analyst
Accounting Representative
Advanced Accounting Representative
Sr. Accounting Representative
Accounting Supervisor
Accounting Manager
Sr. Accounting Manager
Controller
CFO

Then under Audit we have:
Auditor
Advanced Auditor
Sr. Auditor
Advanced Senior Auditor
Audit Specialist
Sr. Audit Specialist

For Tax:
Tax Analyst
Advanced Tax Analyst
Advanced Tax Representative
Sr. Tax Analyst
Sr. Tax Representative
Tax Specialist

First go at the CPA! Only using Becker
Reg / Nov 2015 - 87
Far / Apr 2016 - 79
Bec / May 2016 - 80
Aud / Aug 2016

[CageTheCPA]

Interesting topic, but I'll bite…

I've never worked for a large organization, but typically positions have gone:

Accounting/Finance:

Accounting Clerk
Staff Accountant
Sr. Staff Accountant/Accounting Supervisor
Accounting Manager/Asst. Controller/Director of Accounting
Controller/VP
CFO

No real difference with audit positions or FP&A.

Most positions are synonymous to one another. A manager/sr manager here would be a asst. controller or controller there.

[CageTheCPA]

Forgot AP Manager…

[SomeSomeCPA]

Here everyone lower than manager from tax, finance, and accounting is a Financial analyst. Different levels exist but all Financial analysts. Once you get to manager then they start naming the area, i.e. Mgr Accounting, Mgr Tax, Mgr Budgets, etc.

FAR: 39,59,TBD
BEC: 74,79
AUD: 77
REG: September

[Skynet]

“The Accountant” – Ben Affleck ; )

[VanDammage]

I work in industry in software, and the progression is typically:

Staff Accountant
Senior Accountant
Manager/Senior Manager
Director/Senior Director
VP-Controller

[Anonymous]

I just put “Accountant” on my resume and applications.

Used to work directly with my Senior Manager and reported directly to the Managing Partner at one of my firms. My title is probably “Audit Manager” if in public or “Senior Accountant/Assistant Controller” if in private, but it's not official since I haven't passed the exam yet.

I've recently started my own business venture, so I like Owner/President a lot more 🙂

[CageTheCPA]

@BrickellCPA, in my experience whether or not you've passed the exams doesn't factor in too much (with little emphasis) with your job title. Personally, I'm a senior with no public experience, but have worked for a public company with $300M+ of annual revenues and have wide ranging experience and projects on my resume. I do know, and my current bosses have agreed, that I'm not paid like a senior who has their CPA, which is fair enough. I say all that to say, if you have the public accounting experience, your “private” job may be at the controller/director level.

[Amortized and Energized]

My old company was a large global organization with many operating units and the hierarchy looked like:

Staff/Acct I
Jr. Acct / Acct II
Sr. Acct
Acct Manager
Asst. Controller
Controller/Regional Controller
Regional CFO
Global CFO

Someone leaving Public as a Sr. Associate would probably fall into the Sr Acct realm and somebody leaving public as a Manager/Sr. Manager would most likely enter as a Manager or Asst Controller. Sadly there was a lot of nepotism and the higher ups were bringing in people they used to work with in Public and giving them spots way up the totem pole that were undeserved for their experience.

FAR - Aug 2015 (58), Feb 2016 (81)
u
BEC - May 2016 (79)
AUD - Jul 2016
REG - Aug 2016

[Skynet]

” Accounting Ninja”

It's the secret official title that Jeff assigns to his staff he once told me in confidence.

[ChristieF]

Granted, I work in a law firm's general accounting department, but we have Staff Accountant, Sr. Staff Accountant, Accounting Systems Administrator (me, I do a ton of accounting, and am in charge of the systems and all of the financial statements, etc.) then then General Accounting Manager and Controller. Then of course we have the various roles in AP, AR, Billing and Financial Analysis teams.

[Anonymous]

@FrostyCPA

Accounting Systems Administrator, General Accounting Manager, and Controller. Sounds like overkill haha, are these not basically three of the same positions?

Must be a pretty large law firm though. I used to do the books for a local law firm that did about $10M a year. It was pretty simple really considering all the monthly transactions can be imported directly from the online banking system and AP/AR/Payroll can technically be a 1-2 man job.

[ChristieF]

@BrickellCPA, we're quite large. About 30 offices worldwide plus multiple entities.

[Anonymous]

Gotcha, it's interesting the different structures companies have, even in just the accounting department. I've noticed many companies have began outsourcing accounting as well in the past several years. Instead of hiring several internal accountants that can be very costly and time consuming (recruiting, training, etc) many companies have turned to external accounting firms to handle their accounting and finances. And they save big by doing this too.

[ChristieF]

I agree, it is interesting seeing the different structures. We've been working on a project and were talking to other firms' accounting departments and it was interesting that positions they have we don't because they're squashed in with others, and like you said some are outsourcing it to cut down on recruiting and training costs.

At this point, I love my job and where I'm at, but wonder what else is out there and available, it's amazing how many different types of accounting positions there really are.

[Trele6]

My company outsources a lot of the accounting work we need done to IBM. They basically handle our entire AP, AR, and fixed assets departments, then we have a few company staff employees that vouch their work and manage issues. I'd say about half of those IBM employees are based in Bangalore, India also. While rare, my company doesn't typically hire anyone with less than 5 years of experience. Most of those jobs/roles are filled by the outsourcing to IBM.

First go at the CPA! Only using Becker
Reg / Nov 2015 - 87
Far / Apr 2016 - 79
Bec / May 2016 - 80
Aud / Aug 2016

[Author]

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