What does a senior accounting specialist do?
Senior accounting specialists are senior professionals who are responsible for performing various tasks related to financial accounting for an organization. These accounting specialists are required to handle the full accounting process by preparing monthly trial balances and financial statements. They must ensure that financial statements and internal management reports are following the policies of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) by developing and implementing accounting policies and procedures. Senior accounting specialists must also prepare accurate audit reports for the external auditors.
Senior accounting specialist responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real senior accounting specialist resumes:
- Lead the preparation and analysis of the annual audits and NSAR financial reporting in compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley.
- Manage and maintain direct relationship with CPA firm KPMG for audit, corporate tax, tax filing, and others.
- Accomplish through collaboration with corporate finance to analyze bad debt reserve and recommend monthly accruals.
- Support year-end accounting closing activities and interact with company CPA on a regular basis.
- Process accounts payable vouchers, check requests and preparing checks, EFT and ACH payments.
- Leverage strong knowledge of GAAP, contractual agreements, and internal policies to conduct contract audits.
- Draft written policies and procedures for job processes, as they pertain to SOX regulations and BSA/AML.
- Balance ACH and EFT wire transfers from government issue funds and prepare templates to refund the student.
- Support all areas in the accounting department to be in compliance with GAAP as well as with FDIC.
- Ensure compliance with monthly, quarterly, and annual audit requests (internal and external, including SOX).
- Streamline complicated fund accounting chart of accounts and payroll distributions.
- Participate in internal & external audits pertaining to Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.
- Revise reconciliations a prior employee have completed incorrectly so policyholder records are accurate.
- Perform weekly check reconciliations to identify all outstanding payments produce on- and off-site.
- Perform daily, weekly and semimonthly payroll balancing to ensure timely and accurate commission payments to producers.
Senior accounting specialist skills and personality traits
We calculated that 11% of Senior Accounting Specialists are proficient in Reconciliations, GAAP, and Financial Reports. They’re also known for soft skills such as Computer skills, Integrity, and Detail oriented.
We break down the percentage of Senior Accounting Specialists that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Reconciliations, 11%
Review schedules, exhibits and summaries in North American account reconciliations for accuracy and completeness.
- GAAP, 6%
Review Contracts T&C's for proper SaaS revenue recognition in accordance with US GAAP and internal policies.
- Financial Reports, 5%
Reconcile financial reports for accuracy of data for preparation of annual or quarterly reports.
- Payroll, 4%
Performed daily, weekly and semimonthly payroll balancing to ensure timely and accurate commission payments to producers.
- SOX, 4%
Ensured compliance with monthly, quarterly, and annual audit requests (internal and external, including SOX).
- Senior Accounting, 4%
Provide services as a senior accounting specialist in the accounts payable department.
"reconciliations," "gaap," and "financial reports" are among the most common skills that senior accounting specialists use at work. You can find even more senior accounting specialist responsibilities below, including:
Computer skills. One of the key soft skills for a senior accounting specialist to have is computer skills. You can see how this relates to what senior accounting specialists do because "bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks need to be comfortable using computer spreadsheets and bookkeeping software." Additionally, a senior accounting specialist resume shows how senior accounting specialists use computer skills: "reconciled bank statements both manually and electronically to balance with computer printouts"
Integrity. Another essential skill to perform senior accounting specialist duties is integrity. Senior accounting specialists responsibilities require that "bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks have control of an organization’s financial documentation, which they must use properly and keep confidential." Senior accounting specialists also use integrity in their role according to a real resume snippet: "created requisitions, monitoredpurchase orders, created contracts and invoices for regions iii, xv and xvi trust funds. "
Detail oriented. This is an important skill for senior accounting specialists to perform their duties. For an example of how senior accounting specialist responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks are responsible for producing accurate financial records." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a senior accounting specialist: "analyzed, reviewed and critiqued numerous financial reports of a detailed nature. ".
Math skills. For certain senior accounting specialist responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "math skills." The day-to-day duties of a senior accounting specialist rely on this skill, as "bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks deal with numbers daily and should be comfortable with basic arithmetic." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what senior accounting specialists do: "balanced payroll adjustments and filed statistics daily. "
The three companies that hire the most senior accounting specialists are:
- Deloitte25 senior accounting specialists jobs
- Bank of America13 senior accounting specialists jobs
- The PNC Financial Services Group4 senior accounting specialists jobs
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Compare different senior accounting specialists
Senior accounting specialist vs. Accounts payable lead
Accounts payable leads are accounting professionals who are responsible for leading a team of professionals that manage the company's accounts payable, a short-term debt payment that needs to be paid to avoid default. These professionals are required to evaluate vendor invoices and prepare payments to pay vendors while preparing the daily expense reports. They must create the general ledger at the end of the month to reconcile closing balances. Accounts payable leads must also assist purchasing agents in resolving vendor or customer issues that pertained to inaccurate information on purchase orders.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between senior accounting specialists and accounts payable lead. For instance, senior accounting specialist responsibilities require skills such as "senior accounting," "strong analytical," "cash management," and "financial analysis." Whereas a accounts payable lead is skilled in "faa," "invoice processing," "vendor accounts," and "internal controls." This is part of what separates the two careers.
Accounts payable leads tend to make the most money working in the technology industry, where they earn an average salary of $60,374. In contrast, senior accounting specialists make the biggest average salary, $78,265, in the technology industry.The education levels that accounts payable leads earn slightly differ from senior accounting specialists. In particular, accounts payable leads are 1.3% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a senior accounting specialist. Additionally, they're 0.4% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Senior accounting specialist vs. Accounting internship
An accounting internship is a trainee who reports to an organization's accountant in order to learn about the accounting field, complete financial projects and files taxes, and financial reports. An intern should be a graduate of a Bachelor's or Master's in Accounting and should have an aptitude for mathematics and proficiency with computers. In order to prepare financial reports, an intern should possess knowledge with bookkeeping software. An intern must also know how to handle sensitive information with honesty and integrity.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, senior accounting specialist responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "senior accounting," "strong analytical," "cash management," and "process improvement." Meanwhile, an accounting internship has duties that require skills in areas such as "first hand," "work ethic," "internal audit," and "individual tax returns." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Accounting interns earn a lower average salary than senior accounting specialists. But accounting interns earn the highest pay in the telecommunication industry, with an average salary of $34,961. Additionally, senior accounting specialists earn the highest salaries in the technology with average pay of $78,265 annually.accounting interns earn similar levels of education than senior accounting specialists in general. They're 2.2% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.4% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for senior accounting specialists in the next 3-5 years?
Terri Walsh
Professor/Program Manager, Accounting, Seminole State College of Florida
Senior accounting specialist vs. Accounting manager
An accounting manager is responsible for supervising and monitoring the overall accounting department operations. Duties of an accounting manager include reviewing account information and account statements, processing invoices, analyzing financial data, performing account reconciliations, assisting with tax processing and audit reports, and generating financial reports for presentation with the board. An accounting manager must have excellent knowledge of the accounting principles and legislation to assist the team with the company's financial goals. Accounting managers must have the outstanding analytical, critical thinking, and decision-making skills to develop the best competitive financial strategies.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a senior accounting specialist is likely to be skilled in "payroll," "sr," "data entry," and "purchase orders," while a typical accounting manager is skilled in "cpa," "customer service," "payroll processing," and "internal controls."
Accounting managers earn the highest salary when working in the finance industry, where they receive an average salary of $99,773. Comparatively, senior accounting specialists have the highest earning potential in the technology industry, with an average salary of $78,265.accounting managers typically earn similar educational levels compared to senior accounting specialists. Specifically, they're 3.5% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Senior accounting specialist vs. Accounting representative
Account representatives are in charge of making sales. Their primary duties include designing and maintaining customer accounts, as well as being a liaison between the organization and clients. They constantly communicate with clients, respond to their concerns, and monitor transactions as well as payments. Also, they develop company invoices, regularly keeping track of client's transactions, maintaining records of the client's account, and routinely auditing them. The job requirements include strong communication and negotiation skills, relevant experience in sales, and confidence.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between senior accounting specialists and accounting representatives, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a senior accounting specialist might have more use for skills like "gaap," "sox," "strong analytical," and "cash management." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of accounting representatives require skills like "patients," "customer service," "computer system," and "journal entries. "
Accounting representatives enjoy the best pay in the automotive industry, with an average salary of $47,306. For comparison, senior accounting specialists earn the highest salary in the technology industry.The average resume of accounting representatives showed that they earn similar levels of education compared to senior accounting specialists. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 2.8% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.1%.Types of senior accounting specialist
Updated January 8, 2025
