The cost accountant is responsible for analyzing ongoing process constraints, costing projects, analyzing profit margins, and linking costs to activities. They build and manage data accumulation systems to provide costing information to management. They also plan budgets and prepare reports for the company and its various departments. Asides from this, they prepare periodic cost forecasts for operational schedules. Additionally, they analyze periodic financial reports to identify and recommend cost-effective strategies for improvements.
Generally, cost accountants have a minimum of a bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, or a related field, with at least two years of related experience. Applicants must be familiar with accounting software, such as FreshBooks and QuickBooks. You must also know about the generally accepted accounting principles. Not just this, but you must possess analytical, time management, collaboration, and computer skills. Cost accountants can either practice independently or work with a firm. The average salary that a cost accountant earns is $60,051. It varies from $54,000 to $81,000.
How to Become a Cost Accountant
What is a Cost Accountant
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a Cost Accountant. For example, did you know that they make an average of $27.11 an hour? That's $56,383 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 90,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Cost Accountant Do
There are certain skills that many Cost Accountants have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed Organizational skills, Analytical skills and Communication skills.
How To Become a Cost Accountant
If you're interested in becoming a Cost Accountant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 76.8% of Cost Accountants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 10.2% of Cost Accountants have master's degrees. Even though most Cost Accountants have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a Cost Accountant. When we researched the most common majors for a Cost Accountant, we found that they most commonly earn Bachelor's Degree degrees or Associate Degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on Cost Accountant resumes include Master's Degree degrees or High School Diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a Cost Accountant. In fact, many Cost Accountant jobs require experience in a role such as Accountant. Meanwhile, many Cost Accountants also have previous career experience in roles such as Staff Accountant or Senior Accountant.
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Cost Accountant Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a Cost Accountant can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as Senior Accountant, progress to a title such as Accounting Manager and then eventually end up with the title Regional Controller.
Cost Accountant Jobs You Might Like
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Average Salary for a Cost Accountant
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12 Cost Accountant Resume Examples
Build a professional cost accountant resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 12+ resume templates to create your cost accountant resume.
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Kathleen Reynolds Cost Accountant |
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Christopher Jenkins Cost Accountant Experience Cost Accountant2019 - Present Deloitte•Arlington, VA
Accounts Payable Clerk2009 - 2019 The Home Depot•New York, NY
Bookkeeping Assistant2008 - 2009 The Home Depot•New York, NY
Skills DeltekBank TransactionsBank DepositsClose ProcessProject BudgetVendor InvoicesA/PArPurchase OrdersJournal Entries Education Bachelor's Degree Accounting2005 - 2008 New York University•New York, NY |
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Learn How To Write a Cost Accountant Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Cost Accountant resumes and compiled some information about how to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Cost Accountant Resume Examples And TemplatesAnd if you’re looking for a job, here are the five top employers hiring now:
Choose From 10+ Customizable Cost Accountant Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Cost Accountant templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Cost Accountant resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Find the best Cost Accountant job for you
Cost Accountant Jobs You Might Like
- High Paying Cost Accountant Jobs - $71K and Up
- Work From Home Cost Accountant Jobs
- Entry Level Cost Accountant Jobs
- Part Time Cost Accountant Jobs
- Actively Hiring
- No Degree Cost Accountant Jobs
Top Colleges for Cost Accountants
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
3. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
4. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Private
5. Villanova University
Villanova, PA • Private
6. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Private
7. Bentley University
Waltham, MA • Private
8. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
9. SUNY Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY • Private
10. New York University
New York, NY • Private
Find the best Cost Accountant job for you
Cost Accountant Jobs You Might Like
- High Paying Cost Accountant Jobs - $71K and Up
- Work From Home Cost Accountant Jobs
- Entry Level Cost Accountant Jobs
- Part Time Cost Accountant Jobs
- Actively Hiring
- No Degree Cost Accountant Jobs
Online Courses For Cost Accountant That You May Like
Learn Cost Accounting for Management. Includes Process Costing, ABC Systems, Variance Analysis, Cash Budgets and more...
Managerial and cost accounting comprehensive course taught bay a practicing Certified Public Accountant (CPA)...
Payroll calculations - federal income tax, social security, Medicare - Payroll journal entries posted to ledger accounts...
Top Skills For a Cost Accountant
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 10.9% of Cost Accountants listed Financial Statements on their resume, but soft skills such as Organizational skills and Analytical skills are important as well.
Best States For a Cost Accountant
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a Cost Accountant. The best states for people in this position are Washington, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York. Cost Accountants make the most in Washington with an average salary of $64,706. Whereas in Massachusetts and New Jersey, they would average $64,178 and $63,996, respectively. While Cost Accountants would only make an average of $63,430 in New York, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. District of Columbia
$69,123
Avg. Salary
2. Nevada
$58,836
Avg. Salary
3. Massachusetts
$64,178
Avg. Salary
How Do Cost Accountant Rate Their Jobs?
Top Cost Accountant Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ Cost Accountants and discovered their number of Cost Accountant opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Robert Half International was the best, especially with an average salary of $52,117. Boeing follows up with an average salary of $53,051, and then comes IBM with an average of $75,257. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a Cost Accountant. The employers include Barnes & Noble, Xylem, and Robert Half International
Cost Accountant Videos
