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

What is an accounting officer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Stephen Moehrle Ph.D.

An Accounting Officer supervises the financial bookkeeping and financial records of an organization. As a financial officer, you will be responsible for recording payments, transactions, expenses, and processing invoices. You may supervise an organization's general bookkeeping staff and monitor all account transactions.

Responsibilities of an Accounting Officer include maintaining and reviewing financial records, ensuring compliance with accounting and tax laws, preparing budgets, and monitoring expenditures, and providing reports. You will also evaluate external management systems, procedures, and financial risks to provide financial recommendations. You may also review code and input accounts payable into accounting systems, process wire transfers and checks. It will be your job to standardize methods for semiweekly payroll and quarterly payroll tax returns.

During auditing, you will assist the external auditor's team and ensure proper records of fixed assets. You will work with internal controls and other systems relevant to personnel. An Accounting Officer needs at least a bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, or a financial business. You may need experience as an accountant or experience as a staff accountant or controller. An Accounting Officer can make an average of $31.24 an hour or $64,986 per year. The career is expected to grow in the next ten years and produce up to 90,000 job opportunities.

What general advice would you give to an accounting officer?

Stephen Moehrle Ph.D.

Professor and Chairman of Accounting, University of Missouri - St. Louis

It was a great time to be entering the accounting industry, before the pandemic. Our students were serving in internships in huge numbers and our graduates were enjoying 100% placement, usually with multiple offers. The entry-level professionals were entering a profession marked by emerging and evolving technologies that made even the entry-level duties especially interesting. Further, our tech-comfortable young professionals were experiencing quick advancement because of their ability to employ the new technologies.

Most of the above remains true so the only open question is job availability. It would be unrealistic to say things are great. However, it seems that job prospects for accounting majors will be better than for those of virtually every other entry-level profession during difficult times. I have been speaking with firm leaders across the spectrum of firms and most do intend to be on campus in the fall recruiting season. Of course, they have a lot of time to learn more about the economy over the next few months, but we are cautiously optimistic. Again, I am confident that whatever the state of job availability for young CPAs-to-be, prospects will be better for accounting graduates than virtually any other profession.

They will be entering the profession at a fascinating moment in time. Of course, the technological advances assure this regardless of economic conditions. However, there are business disruption-related issues that will provide rich opportunities for making a difference. For example, audit staff will be working with clients to see them through these troubling times. Lamentably, I fear that these young professionals will learn more about the going concern determination than they desire to know. Tax staff will help clients to optimally use the tax loss carrybacks and carryforwards that are arising by the day. Entry level professionals in corporate accounting will get a day-to-day front row seat in business management through crisis. While lamentable times, these are times when young professionals can make a difference that saves jobs.

ScoreAccounting OfficerUS Average

Salary

4.8

Avg. Salary $61,731

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.4

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.46%

Asian 14.86%

Black or African American 8.57%

Hispanic or Latino 10.90%

Unknown 3.96%

White 61.26%

Gender

female 48.28%

male 51.72%

Age - 43

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 - 43

Stress level

5.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.7

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an accounting officer

Explore accounting officer education requirements

Most common accounting officer degrees

Bachelor's

69.4 %

Master's

13.8 %

Associate

7.9 %

Start to develop specific accounting officer skills

Skills	Percentages
CPA	7.80%
External Auditors	7.60%
Payroll	7.42%
GAAP	7.32%
Reconciliations	5.75%

Complete relevant accounting officer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New accounting officers 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 officer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real accounting officer resumes.

Gain additional accounting officer certifications

Accounting officer certifications can show employers you have a baseline of knowledge expected for the position. Certifications can also make you a more competitive candidate. Even if employers don't require a specific accounting officer certification, having one may help you stand out relative to other applicants.

The most common certifications for accounting officers include Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Certified Management Accountant (CMA).

More About Certifications

Research accounting officer duties and responsibilities

Initiate ongoing departmental projects to automate daily tasks which include the calculations for income distributions and the daily income account reconciliation.
Prepare the GAAP financial statements and federal income tax returns for a group of 19 relate closely hold companies.
Perform monthly bank reconciliations through analyzing receipts and disbursements, verifying accuracy, and researching and resolving any reconciling factors.
Compile and analyze financial data used to prepare entries to general ledger accounts, document business transactions, and complete reconciliations.

Prepare your accounting officer resume

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

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an accounting officer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable accounting officer resume templates

Build a professional accounting officer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your accounting officer resume.