Accounting consultant vs senior cost accountant

The differences between accounting consultants 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 accounting consultant and a senior cost accountant. Additionally, a senior cost accountant has an average salary of $65,824, which is higher than the $62,830 average annual salary of an accounting consultant.

The top three skills for an accounting consultant include CPA, GAAP and reconciliations. The most important skills for a senior cost accountant are reconciliations, variance analysis, and GAAP.

Accounting consultant vs senior cost accountant overview

	Accounting Consultant	Senior Cost Accountant
Yearly salary	$62,830	$65,824
Hourly rate	$30.21	$31.65
Growth rate	6%	6%
Number of jobs	74,894	45,010
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 73%	Bachelor's Degree, 79%
Average age	44	44
Years of experience	4	4

What does an accounting consultant do?

An Accounting Consultant is a person tasked to assist the accounting department of a company. The consultant advises businesses concerning the accounting system used by the organization. It is also through the accounting consultant's help that improvements in the accounting process are proposed, the determination of problematic areas in the workflow, possible issues in the future, and everything that needs upgrading. The accounting consultant also helps businesses conform to legal policies set about by State and Federal legislation.

What does a senior cost accountant do?

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.

Accounting consultant vs senior cost accountant salary

Accounting consultants and senior cost accountants have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Accounting Consultant	Senior Cost Accountant
Average salary	$62,830	$65,824
Salary range	Between $45,000 And $86,000	Between $48,000 And $89,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	California	New Jersey
Best paying company	Jordan Company	OraSure Technologies
Best paying industry	Manufacturing	Health Care

Differences between accounting consultant and senior cost accountant education

There are a few differences between an accounting consultant and a senior cost accountant in terms of educational background:

	Accounting Consultant	Senior Cost Accountant
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 73%	Bachelor's Degree, 79%
Most common major	Accounting	Accounting
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	University of Pennsylvania

Accounting consultant vs senior cost accountant demographics

Here are the differences between accounting consultants' and senior cost accountants' demographics:

	Accounting Consultant	Senior Cost Accountant
Average age	44	44
Gender ratio	Male, 49.3% Female, 50.7%	Male, 59.7% Female, 40.3%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 8.5% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 10.8% Asian, 13.4% White, 63.0% 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%

Differences between accounting consultant and senior cost accountant duties and responsibilities

Accounting consultant example responsibilities.

Work independently on line of business projects to automate derivative processes and system enhancement testing.
Share oversight for recruitment, human resources and advertising.
Provide support to accounts payable department in tagging and recording of fix assets during an ERP system transition
Work with governance and internal audit team ensuring SOX compliance during monthly & quarterly reviews as well as the annual audit.
Collaborate with accounting department in monthly closing process and development of internal controls to support SOX requirements.
Improve audit performance of major medical center by clearing backlog of account reconciliations across multiple medical billing systems.

Senior cost accountant example responsibilities.

Manage quarterly inventory reserves in accordance with company policy which follows GAAP guidance.
Prepare internal financial reports for treasury manage accounts include in external compliance reports.
Process month end close including journal entries, account reconciliations, variance analysis, financial statement preparation and corporate reporting.
Provide user training and technical support for ERP and payroll systems.
Implement process improvements for monthly close process and SOX documentation retention.
Complete account reconciliations in accordance with maintaining the integrity of assets and liabilities for balance sheet inventory accounts.

Accounting consultant vs senior cost accountant skills

Common accounting consultant skills

CPA, 15%
GAAP, 11%
Reconciliations, 8%
ERP, 4%
Shared Services, 4%
SOX, 4%

Common senior cost accountant skills

Reconciliations, 9%
Variance Analysis, 6%
GAAP, 5%
Account Reconciliations, 4%
SR, 4%
SOX, 3%

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Accounting Consultant vs Senior Cost Accountant

Updated January 8, 2025

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