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The differences between accountant-contractors and senior cost accountants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both an accountant-contractor and a senior cost accountant. Additionally, a senior cost accountant has an average salary of $65,824, which is higher than the $56,906 average annual salary of an accountant-contractor.
The top three skills for an accountant-contractor include reconciliations, general ledger accounts and payroll taxes. The most important skills for a senior cost accountant are reconciliations, variance analysis, and GAAP.
| Accountant-Contractor | Senior Cost Accountant | |
| Yearly salary | $56,906 | $65,824 |
| Hourly rate | $27.36 | $31.65 |
| Growth rate | 6% | 6% |
| Number of jobs | 60,024 | 45,010 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 72% | Bachelor's Degree, 79% |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
An accountant contractor directly manages a customer's business. The contractor works exclusively on the company and organizes all its financial reports. The accountant contractor controls, inspects, and encodes all the company's financial transactions, ensuring that everything is well-accounted for and adequately documenting its activities. The contractor must be licensed, have expert skills in accountancy, be well-organized, have a high level of communication skills, and work under pressure.
A senior cost accountant is an individual who maintains detailed costs in a company's system and provides cost analysis that supports operations and sales. Senior cost accountants are required to review inventory and deal with manufacturing personnel to control and analyze standard costs. They must record cost information to be used in controlling expenditures as well as recommend cost efficiencies in new product layouts. Senior cost accountants must also provide reports that specify and compare factors affecting prices and profitability of products or services to the management.
Accountant-contractors and senior cost accountants have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Accountant-Contractor | Senior Cost Accountant | |
| Average salary | $56,906 | $65,824 |
| Salary range | Between $44,000 And $73,000 | Between $48,000 And $89,000 |
| Highest paying City | Newark, NJ | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | New Jersey | New Jersey |
| Best paying company | Broadridge | OraSure Technologies |
| Best paying industry | Energy | Health Care |
There are a few differences between an accountant-contractor and a senior cost accountant in terms of educational background:
| Accountant-Contractor | Senior Cost Accountant | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 72% | Bachelor's Degree, 79% |
| Most common major | Accounting | Accounting |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between accountant-contractors' and senior cost accountants' demographics:
| Accountant-Contractor | Senior Cost Accountant | |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 43.8% Female, 56.2% | Male, 59.7% Female, 40.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 8.9% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.2% Asian, 12.1% White, 63.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% | Black or African American, 8.4% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 10.8% Asian, 12.3% White, 64.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |