Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between finance assistants and finance clerks can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become a finance assistant, becoming a finance clerk takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, a finance clerk has an average salary of $39,225, which is higher than the $37,926 average annual salary of a finance assistant.
The top three skills for a finance assistant include customer service, data entry and payroll. The most important skills for a finance clerk are data entry, purchase orders, and HR.
| Finance Assistant | Finance Clerk | |
| Yearly salary | $37,926 | $39,225 |
| Hourly rate | $18.23 | $18.86 |
| Growth rate | -8% | -5% |
| Number of jobs | 118,749 | 143,372 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 59% | Bachelor's Degree, 44% |
| Average age | 50 | 51 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 6 |
A finance assistant is responsible for supporting the financial department with daily operations by doing administrative and clerical tasks as needed. Finance assistants' duties include sorting financial records, updating account spreadsheets, assisting on bank statements reconciliation, processing payments, generating an invoice, auditing financial statements, escalating financial discrepancies for review, and reviewing cost analysis reports. A finance assistant must be knowledgeable of the financial industry and accounting processes, as well as have strong analytical and organizational skills.
Finance clerks are financial professionals who are responsible for performing various administrative tasks such as keeping financial records, preparing bills, and delivering excellent customer service. These clerks are required to process bills, checks, receipts, and other documents to ensure that they are all properly signed and distributed. They must verify financial and other data so that they can enter those data into the database and maintain updated records. Finance clerks must also assist with account reconciliations and should report the status of accounts and discrepancies to the management.
Finance assistants and finance clerks have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Finance Assistant | Finance Clerk | |
| Average salary | $37,926 | $39,225 |
| Salary range | Between $27,000 And $52,000 | Between $27,000 And $56,000 |
| Highest paying City | Washington, DC | New York, NY |
| Highest paying state | Connecticut | New York |
| Best paying company | Boston Consulting Group | United States Courts |
| Best paying industry | Manufacturing | Government |
There are a few differences between a finance assistant and a finance clerk in terms of educational background:
| Finance Assistant | Finance Clerk | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 59% | Bachelor's Degree, 44% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between finance assistants' and finance clerks' demographics:
| Finance Assistant | Finance Clerk | |
| Average age | 50 | 51 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 24.9% Female, 75.1% | Male, 26.2% Female, 73.8% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 9.3% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 16.3% Asian, 3.8% White, 66.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% | Black or African American, 6.9% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 14.7% Asian, 6.6% White, 67.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 7% |