Accounting supervisor vs accounting consultant

The differences between accounting supervisors and accounting consultants 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 supervisor and an accounting consultant. Additionally, an accounting supervisor has an average salary of $68,923, which is higher than the $62,830 average annual salary of an accounting consultant.

The top three skills for an accounting supervisor include reconciliations, GAAP and account reconciliations. The most important skills for an accounting consultant are CPA, GAAP, and reconciliations.

Accounting supervisor vs accounting consultant overview

	Accounting Supervisor	Accounting Consultant
Yearly salary	$68,923	$62,830
Hourly rate	$33.14	$30.21
Growth rate	6%	6%
Number of jobs	56,377	74,894
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 73%	Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Average age	44	44
Years of experience	4	4

What does an accounting supervisor do?

Account supervisors are in charge of the accounting and financial operations within an organization's accounting department. They supervise the account team and provide feedback about their performance and recommend improvements when necessary. It is their responsibility to review the company's financial statements for accuracy. They even reconcile the enterprise's general ledger accounts and oversee the communications and marketing plans of the clients. Also, they maintain profitable and long-term customer relationships to keep the trust of the clients.

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.

Accounting supervisor vs accounting consultant salary

Accounting supervisors and accounting consultants have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Accounting Supervisor	Accounting Consultant
Average salary	$68,923	$62,830
Salary range	Between $50,000 And $93,000	Between $45,000 And $86,000
Highest paying City	Washington, DC	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	New York	California
Best paying company	eBay	Jordan Company
Best paying industry	Finance	Manufacturing

Differences between accounting supervisor and accounting consultant education

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

	Accounting Supervisor	Accounting Consultant
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 73%	Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Most common major	Accounting	Accounting
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	University of Pennsylvania

Accounting supervisor vs accounting consultant demographics

Here are the differences between accounting supervisors' and accounting consultants' demographics:

	Accounting Supervisor	Accounting Consultant
Average age	44	44
Gender ratio	Male, 39.7% Female, 60.3%	Male, 49.3% Female, 50.7%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 8.6% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 10.9% Asian, 12.2% White, 63.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%	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%
LGBT Percentage	7%	7%

Differences between accounting supervisor and accounting consultant duties and responsibilities

Accounting supervisor example responsibilities.

Initiate ongoing departmental projects to automate daily tasks which include the calculations for income distributions and the daily income account reconciliation.
Audit ledgers to ensure they contain correct information, such as billing addresses and invoice numbers.
Review the monthly account reconciliations for all GL accounts including inter-company and validate accuracy and substance of schedules supporting the reconciliations.
Process all student account updates and maintain student ledgers.
Verify and post transactions to journal ledgers and other records.
Reconcile foreign tax GL account and remit funds to IRS.

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.

Accounting supervisor vs accounting consultant skills

Common accounting supervisor skills

Reconciliations, 11%
GAAP, 6%
Account Reconciliations, 6%
CPA, 6%
Customer Service, 5%
General Ledger Accounts, 5%

Common accounting consultant skills

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

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Accounting Supervisor
Accounting Supervisor vs Accounting Consultant

Updated January 8, 2025

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