How To Become A Senior Accounting Clerk: What It Is and Career Path

What is a senior accounting clerk and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Scott Anderson CPA,

Jodi Olson

Senior accounting clerks have the receipts, literally. Their duties include, but are not limited to, receiving and processing daily invoices, performing audits, overseeing payroll, organizing accounting statements, and general bookkeeping activities. They also supervise the junior members of their team and are often involved in their training.

You don't have to hold a college diploma to become a senior accounting clerk. However, degrees in accounting, business, finance, or management do give you an edge on the job market. Experience is generally more valuable to employers than a formal education. Most companies require at least three years of prior experience as a finance or accounts clerk.

The average American senior accounting clerk earns roughly about $41,000 a year. That's more or less $20 an hour. Senior accounting clerks in technology, health care, and insurance industries earn slightly higher yearly salaries. More specifically, companies like the Avis Budget Group can offer their senior accounting clerks a whopping $55,000 a year.

What general advice would you give to a senior accounting clerk?

Scott Anderson CPA

Lecturer, UC Santa Cruz

Strong candidates will continue to find career opportunities at CPA firms, much like they have in the past. Start date commencing in Fall 2020 will very likely hold, but earlier scheduled start dates may be delayed because many firms are not yet prepared for remote training recent graduate hires.

ScoreSenior Accounting ClerkUS Average

Salary

3.6

Avg. Salary $46,531

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.0

Growth rate -5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.63%

Asian 6.56%

Black or African American 6.80%

Hispanic or Latino 14.45%

Unknown 3.97%

White 67.60%

Gender

female 82.03%

male 17.97%

Age - 53

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 53

Stress level

6.0

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.4

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.3

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a senior accounting clerk

Explore senior accounting clerk education requirements

Most common senior accounting clerk degrees

Bachelor's

46.9 %

Associate

31.5 %

High School Diploma

9.7 %

Start to develop specific senior accounting clerk skills

Skills	Percentages
Data Entry	10.09%
General Ledger Accounts	9.35%
Reconciliations	8.19%
Senior Accounting	7.04%
Purchase Orders	6.66%

Complete relevant senior accounting clerk training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New senior accounting clerks learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a senior accounting clerk based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real senior accounting clerk resumes.

Research senior accounting clerk duties and responsibilities

Manage payroll general ledger accounts including account reconciliations and monthly accruals.
Implement premium accounting statistical reports of all monies collect, including return items and general accounting from bank reconciliations.
Process ACH payments in accordance with company deadlines.
Cross train on many functions within the ACH department.

Get senior accounting clerk experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a senior accounting clerk. The most common roles before becoming a senior accounting clerk include accounting clerk, accounts payable clerk team lead and office manager.

Prepare your senior accounting clerk resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior accounting clerk resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a senior accounting clerk resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

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