How To Become An Accounting Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is an accounting director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Thomas King

It's all about the money for accounting directors. They supervise the accounting department at a company and manage the company's finance. Accounting directors usually do not bother with smaller tasks like managing payroll or preparing tax returns, instead they supervise junior staff members that do those jobs. Supervision is an important part of the accounting director's job since they have to ensure that the company is following relevant government regulations. In addition to managing their department, the director helps manage the organization's big-picture financial strategy. They analyze financial reports and accounting records to write forecasts about the company's financial future.

Accounting directors earn a generous average salary of $118,316 a year. However, they usually need many years of accounting experience, including management experience, before earning the title of director.

Accounting directors often must have at least a bachelor's degree in accounting. Usually they are also required to have a CPA license.

What general advice would you give to an accounting director?

Thomas King

Department Chair, Director, Master of Accountancy Program, Professor, Accountancy, Case Western Reserve University

Be dependable. Reputations form quickly after people join organizations. A newly hired professional who demonstrates the ability to get things done rapidly and accurately will soon become a "go-to" person when new opportunities arise. Such exposure early in a career is invaluable.

ScoreAccounting DirectorUS Average

Salary

8.4

Avg. Salary $132,126

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.5

Growth rate 17%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.34%

Asian 8.60%

Black or African American 7.67%

Hispanic or Latino 14.74%

Unknown 4.11%

White 64.54%

Gender

female 48.02%

male 51.98%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress level

9.5

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.3

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.9

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an accounting director

Explore accounting director education requirements

Most common accounting director degrees

Bachelor's

76.3 %

Master's

14.5 %

Associate

6.7 %

Start to develop specific accounting director skills

Skills	Percentages
CPA	10.34%
GAAP	9.10%
Internal Controls	6.63%
Reconciliations	5.44%
External Auditors	4.92%

Complete relevant accounting director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New accounting directors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an accounting director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real accounting director resumes.

Research accounting director duties and responsibilities

Manage and coordinate ACH preparation, positive pay and execution activities.
Manage and review annual preparation of work papers for CPA firm to coordinate federal returns and state franchise returns.
Manage daily receipts, payment reversals, adjustments, ACH and wire payments, and other accounts receivable activity.
Lead finance team in major ERP implementation project in the areas of inventory, accounts payable, and general ledger.

Get accounting director experience

Generally, it takes 6-8 years to become an accounting director. The most common roles before becoming an accounting director include controller, accounting manager team lead and staff accountant.

Prepare your accounting director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your accounting director resume.

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