Senior accountant vs finance manager

The differences between senior accountants and finance managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 2-4 years to become a senior accountant, becoming a finance manager takes usually requires 6-8 years. Additionally, a finance manager has an average salary of $101,374, which is higher than the $71,967 average annual salary of a senior accountant.

The top three skills for a senior accountant include reconciliations, CPA and GAAP. The most important skills for a finance manager are financial analysis, CPA, and customer service.

Senior accountant vs finance manager overview

	Senior Accountant	Finance Manager
Yearly salary	$71,967	$101,374
Hourly rate	$34.60	$48.74
Growth rate	6%	17%
Number of jobs	76,816	125,345
Job satisfaction	4	5
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 78%	Bachelor's Degree, 66%
Average age	44	46
Years of experience	4	8

What does a senior accountant do?

A senior accountant is responsible for organizing financial reports, analyzing cost estimates, reviewing budget goals regularly, and making adjustments with the company's account statements as necessary. Senior accountants' duties also include managing account reconciliations, preparing tax documents, maintaining audit records and balance sheets, generating invoices, and providing recommendations to minimize possible financial loss. A senior accountant must have excellent analytical and critical-thinking skills and extensive knowledge of accounting and financial principles.

What does a finance manager do?

A finance manager is responsible for monitoring the financial system of a company. Their tasks include handling their organization's financial status, generating cost estimates and budget goals, identifying business opportunities to increase revenues and profitability, improving financial strategies, reducing costs, analyzing account statements, processing invoice as needed, analyzing market trends, searching potential partnerships, and presenting reports. A finance manager must have excellent analytical skills and knowledge of the accounting and financial industry. They are responsible for providing the best recommendations for the organization's growth.

Senior accountant vs finance manager salary

Senior accountants and finance managers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Senior Accountant	Finance Manager
Average salary	$71,967	$101,374
Salary range	Between $55,000 And $92,000	Between $71,000 And $144,000
Highest paying City	Washington, DC	New York, NY
Highest paying state	New York	New York
Best paying company	Google	Barclays
Best paying industry	Finance	Finance

Differences between senior accountant and finance manager education

There are a few differences between a senior accountant and a finance manager in terms of educational background:

	Senior Accountant	Finance Manager
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 78%	Bachelor's Degree, 66%
Most common major	Accounting	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	University of Pennsylvania

Senior accountant vs finance manager demographics

Here are the differences between senior accountants' and finance managers' demographics:

	Senior Accountant	Finance Manager
Average age	44	46
Gender ratio	Male, 46.9% Female, 53.1%	Male, 60.0% Female, 40.0%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 8.5% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 10.8% Asian, 14.5% White, 61.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%	Black or African American, 7.6% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 14.6% Asian, 10.2% White, 63.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage	7%	11%

Differences between senior accountant and finance manager duties and responsibilities

Senior accountant example responsibilities.

Manage complex pricing structure and maintain SalesForce CRM funnel for forecasting accuracy.
Prepare internal financial reports for treasury manage accounts include in external compliance reports.
Manage the review, enhancement, and creation of department policy and procedure documentation require for Sarbanes-Oxley auditing and compliance.
Compile and analyze financial information to prepare monthly accruals, payroll journal, general journal and bank reconciliations.
Research and develop policies around Medicaid and Medicare billings and prepare Medicaid cost reports.
Coordinate submissions of financial data from regional divisions and prepare the consolidated company financial statement using Hyperion program.

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Finance manager example responsibilities.

Manage the preparation of monthly reporting packs and board presentations with robust variance analysis, commentaries and forward looking KPIs.
Manage a team of sales persons, business managers, sales manager, A/R, A/P, and general managers.
Lead successful sales team and provide direct oversight on overall dealership business profitability.
Manage accounts payable/receivable, deposits, payroll preparation, purchasing and inventory management, liaison to accountant.
Oversee financial analysis, financial audits, G/L, A/R, A/P and fixed-asset accounting in accordance with GAAP standards.
Execute simple SQL queries to validate data in tables.

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Senior accountant vs finance manager skills

Common senior accountant skills

Reconciliations, 13%
CPA, 8%
GAAP, 7%
External Auditors, 4%
Internal Controls, 4%
Payroll, 4%

Common finance manager skills

Financial Analysis, 7%
CPA, 7%
Customer Service, 6%
Hyperion, 4%
Financial Models, 4%
Strong Analytical, 4%

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Updated January 8, 2025

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