Accounting supervisor vs senior cost accountant

The differences between accounting supervisors 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 supervisor and a senior cost accountant. Additionally, an accounting supervisor has an average salary of $68,923, which is higher than the $65,824 average annual salary of a senior cost accountant.

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

Accounting supervisor vs senior cost accountant overview

	Accounting Supervisor	Senior Cost Accountant
Yearly salary	$68,923	$65,824
Hourly rate	$33.14	$31.65
Growth rate	6%	6%
Number of jobs	56,377	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 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 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 supervisor vs senior cost accountant salary

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

	Accounting Supervisor	Senior Cost Accountant
Average salary	$68,923	$65,824
Salary range	Between $50,000 And $93,000	Between $48,000 And $89,000
Highest paying City	Washington, DC	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	New York	New Jersey
Best paying company	eBay	OraSure Technologies
Best paying industry	Finance	Health Care

Differences between accounting supervisor and senior cost accountant education

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

	Accounting Supervisor	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 supervisor vs senior cost accountant demographics

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

	Accounting Supervisor	Senior Cost Accountant
Average age	44	44
Gender ratio	Male, 39.7% Female, 60.3%	Male, 59.7% Female, 40.3%
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, 8.4% 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 supervisor and senior cost accountant 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.

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 supervisor vs senior cost accountant skills

Common accounting supervisor skills

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

Common senior cost accountant skills

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

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Accounting Supervisor vs Senior Cost Accountant

Updated January 8, 2025

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