Public accountant vs fund accountant

The differences between public accountants and fund accountants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a public accountant and a fund accountant. Additionally, a fund accountant has an average salary of $60,203, which is higher than the $58,843 average annual salary of a public accountant.

The top three skills for a public accountant include CPA, real estate and audit procedures. The most important skills for a fund accountant are reconciliations, calculation, and securities.

Public accountant vs fund accountant overview

	Public Accountant	Fund Accountant
Yearly salary	$58,843	$60,203
Hourly rate	$28.29	$28.94
Growth rate	6%	6%
Number of jobs	46,295	35,702
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 77%	Bachelor's Degree, 84%
Average age	44	44
Years of experience	4	4

What does a public accountant do?

A public accountant handles duties relating to financial planning, bookkeeping, and preparing government taxes and audits. Besides overseeing financial management and budget management, a public accountant also maintains and audits an organization's financial records. Other duties performed by public accountants include creating and analyzing budgets and recommending fiscally practical techniques to save the company's money. A public accountant reports financial information to the organization management and audits its accounts for overspending, fraud, errors, and misinformation.

What does a fund accountant do?

A fund accountant provides accounting for an investment portfolio. The investments needed include commodities, securities, and/or real estate in an investment fund like a hedge fund or mutual fund. The role of fund accountants includes activity capturing and recording. Fund accountants prepare accurate and timely values, distributions, yields, and fund accounting output for review. They manage activities associated with fund accounting and domestic equity transactions. Also, they work alongside supervisors when it comes to budget development.

Public accountant vs fund accountant salary

Public accountants and fund accountants have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Public Accountant	Fund Accountant
Average salary	$58,843	$60,203
Salary range	Between $43,000 And $80,000	Between $44,000 And $80,000
Highest paying City	New York, NY	New York, NY
Highest paying state	New York	New York
Best paying company	Citi	Warburg Pincus
Best paying industry	Professional	Finance

Differences between public accountant and fund accountant education

There are a few differences between a public accountant and a fund accountant in terms of educational background:

	Public Accountant	Fund Accountant
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 77%	Bachelor's Degree, 84%
Most common major	Accounting	Accounting
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	University of Pennsylvania

Public accountant vs fund accountant demographics

Here are the differences between public accountants' and fund accountants' demographics:

	Public Accountant	Fund Accountant
Average age	44	44
Gender ratio	Male, 52.0% Female, 48.0%	Male, 61.5% Female, 38.5%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 8.8% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.2% Asian, 12.4% White, 63.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%	Black or African American, 7.6% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 9.9% Asian, 18.4% White, 59.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%
LGBT Percentage	7%	7%

Differences between public accountant and fund accountant duties and responsibilities

Public accountant example responsibilities.

Manage and monitor accounting procedures for compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and coordinate and facilitate external audit requirements.
Perform write-ups, analysis of general ledger, adjusting journal entries and reconciliations.
Ensure accuracy and completeness of write-ups and monthly bank reconciliations.
Handle tax matters with the IRS for clients and business owners.
Assist clients with IRS correspondence, accounting and recording business transactions.
Collaborate in the resolution of taxation disputes with federal, state and local tax agencies.

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Fund accountant example responsibilities.

Manage fund accounting activities for five funds for an investment manager with $80b in AUM.
Manage accoutningtransition from Quickbooks to Yardi.
Prepare internal financial reports for treasury manage accounts include in external compliance reports.
Record efficiently accounting records, securities positions, corporate actions and journal entries accordance with department policies and procedures.
Process complex transactions for foreign and domestic bonds, equities, futures, and options.
Prepare annual and semi-annual financial statements using GAAP.

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Public accountant vs fund accountant skills

Common public accountant skills

CPA, 17%
Real Estate, 9%
Audit Procedures, 9%
Financial Statement Preparation, 7%
Payroll Tax, 6%
Partnerships, 5%

Common fund accountant skills

Reconciliations, 12%
Calculation, 5%
Securities, 5%
GAAP, 5%
Accruals, 5%
Journal Entries, 4%

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Updated January 8, 2025

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