1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,584
Enrollment
10,764
The average public accountant salary is $58,843. The most common degree is a bachelor's degree degree with an accounting major. It usually takes 2-4 years of experience to become a public accountant. Public accountants with a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 90,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many public 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 analytical skills, communication skills and detail oriented.
If you're interested in becoming a public accountant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 76.7% of public accountants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 10.0% of public accountants have master's degrees. Even though most public accountants have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of accountant you might progress to a role such as tax accountant eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title tax manager.
What Am I Worth?
There are several types of public accountant, including:
Many businesses rely on staff accountants to handle the "math" of the business. But that's just a lazy way for saying you'll be in charge of handling the budget and tax requirements. Basically, any financial records will be prepared and examined by you.
Depending on the industry you're in, the majority of the year will be your "busy season." Some industries this may not apply and you'll only be required to work the normal 40-hour work week.
Typically, staff accountants need a bit of an education to find a job. And no, we're not talking about a high school degree. Most employers prefer you to have a bachelor's degree. Here's to learning more math!
A certified public accountant, or CPA for short, offers his/her or her services to companies or individuals in preparing forms for tax returns and financial statement documents. CPAs oversee audits, keep track of clients' financial records, and contribute to budgeting processes.
Knowing how to develop and implement bookkeeping policies and being familiar with local and federal laws and regulations of taxing procedures is a must, as this is what poses the challenge for people hiring CPAs. CPAs generally have basic computer skills and use accounting software to make the most of their time and resources.
In order to become a CPA, you need to have a BA in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or a related field. As implied in the name, you need to obtain a certification to fill the role, and this is usually preceded by years of experience in the field as a public accountant.
Project accounting of a company allows keeping a track record of all the financial documents of the company, such as billings, bookings, budgets, costs, and estimates. This team is handled by none other than a project accountant. As a project accountant, you need to maintain the project records with the approval of incomes and expenditures, analyze the project buildings which are issued to the customers.
For this position, you need to have a minimum bachelor's degree in accounting, business management, or finance. Also, you must gain some additional requirements such as excellence in analytical skills, project management skills, communication skills, and maintaining strong relationships with staff and clients. The collected payments provide assistance for the development of financial aspects and more.
Project accountants generally work in the office for about 8 to 9 hours a day, for which they get paid up to $57,000 per annum or $27.82 per hour. You must feel comfortable to move countryside for any work related to the project.
Mouse over a state to see the number of active public accountant jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where public accountants earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
---|---|---|---|
1 | California | 2,887 | $64,225 |
2 | Texas | 1,755 | $56,419 |
3 | Florida | 1,275 | $45,663 |
4 | Illinois | 1,181 | $50,634 |
5 | New York | 1,171 | $78,673 |
6 | Pennsylvania | 845 | $58,677 |
7 | Georgia | 794 | $48,271 |
8 | Massachusetts | 753 | $69,189 |
9 | Virginia | 749 | $70,275 |
10 | Ohio | 719 | $54,248 |
11 | North Carolina | 655 | $57,369 |
12 | Colorado | 568 | $64,290 |
13 | Minnesota | 565 | $52,441 |
14 | New Jersey | 562 | $73,841 |
15 | Michigan | 549 | $57,920 |
16 | Maryland | 548 | $61,651 |
17 | Missouri | 497 | $47,781 |
18 | Arizona | 464 | $54,557 |
19 | Washington | 436 | $58,874 |
20 | Tennessee | 436 | $47,547 |
21 | Wisconsin | 390 | $56,155 |
22 | Indiana | 354 | $47,555 |
23 | Connecticut | 343 | $53,497 |
24 | Oregon | 317 | $61,899 |
25 | Iowa | 295 | $47,423 |
26 | Utah | 281 | $46,482 |
27 | Alabama | 259 | $44,126 |
28 | South Carolina | 246 | $43,779 |
29 | Oklahoma | 231 | $51,476 |
30 | Nevada | 212 | $52,440 |
31 | Kentucky | 205 | $47,610 |
32 | Louisiana | 203 | $49,395 |
33 | Kansas | 168 | $46,084 |
34 | Nebraska | 149 | $45,206 |
35 | Arkansas | 138 | $47,395 |
36 | Mississippi | 122 | $42,253 |
37 | Rhode Island | 121 | $68,688 |
38 | Montana | 118 | $59,622 |
39 | New Mexico | 109 | $48,705 |
40 | Delaware | 104 | $61,612 |
41 | New Hampshire | 104 | $64,043 |
42 | Idaho | 99 | $53,679 |
43 | Hawaii | 73 | $49,845 |
44 | Maine | 70 | $49,540 |
45 | West Virginia | 65 | $46,401 |
46 | Alaska | 57 | $60,927 |
47 | Vermont | 55 | $52,643 |
48 | South Dakota | 54 | $44,993 |
49 | Wyoming | 45 | $44,950 |
50 | North Dakota | 36 | $44,244 |
Philadelphia, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,584
Enrollment
10,764
Evanston, IL • Private
In-State Tuition
$54,568
Enrollment
8,451
Los Angeles, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$56,225
Enrollment
19,548
Vestal, NY • Private
In-State Tuition
$9,808
Enrollment
13,990
Villanova, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$53,308
Enrollment
6,819
San Diego, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$7,488
Enrollment
30,018
Waltham, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$49,880
Enrollment
4,177
Farmingdale, NY • Private
In-State Tuition
$8,306
Enrollment
9,394
Boston, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$53,948
Enrollment
17,238
Stony Brook, NY • Private
In-State Tuition
$9,625
Enrollment
17,407
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, 17.0% of public accountants listed cpa on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and communication skills are important as well.
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Public Accountant templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Public Accountant resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
1. Financial Accounting Payroll
Payroll calculations - federal income tax, social security, Medicare - Payroll journal entries posted to ledger accounts...
2. Financial Accounting Subsidiary Ledgers & Special Journals
Subsidiary ledgers for accounts receivable & accounts payable. Special Journals - Sales journal, purchases journal...
3. Financial Accounting-Adjusting Entries & Financial Statement
Adjusting entry creation, posting adjusting entries to a worksheet, creating financial statements from the trial balance...
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a public accountant. The best states for people in this position are New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and Massachusetts. Public accountants make the most in New York with an average salary of $78,673. Whereas in New Jersey and Virginia, they would average $73,841 and $70,275, respectively. While public accountants would only make an average of $69,189 in Massachusetts, 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. New York
$78,673
Avg. Salary
2. Rhode Island
$68,688
Avg. Salary
3. District of Columbia
$72,705
Avg. Salary
Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Ernst & Young | $95,777 | $46.05 | 7 |
2 | IBM | $92,664 | $44.55 | 3 |
3 | Dell | $87,995 | $42.31 | 2 |
4 | Pwc | $77,947 | $37.47 | 3 |
5 | Billups | $71,629 | $34.44 | 1 |
6 | Benton County | $66,166 | $31.81 | 2 |
7 | Davis & Company | $64,562 | $31.04 | 2 |
8 | KPMG LLP | $64,260 | $30.89 | 3 |
9 | Moss Adams | $64,145 | $30.84 | 2 |
10 | Draffin Tucker | $62,748 | $30.17 | 1 |