Accountant jobs: skills, pay and how to get hired

Updated 5 Nov 2026. Figures from the jobs in our search, not the whole market.

In short

Accountants keep the books of a company correct and complete, close them every month, and prepare the year-end accounts for the auditor and the tax office.
Ads ask for bookkeeping and financial reporting first, then the accounting system the company runs and strong Excel.
Each country has its own short section: where the jobs are, remote and hybrid work, the qualifications, and pay.
Figures are updated every day from the jobs in our search (as of 5 Nov 2026), not from the whole market.

Contents

What an accountant does
The skills the ads ask for
Where the jobs are, country by country
Your CV for an accountant job
How we read our data

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What an accountant does

An accountant records what a company buys, sells, pays and owns, and makes sure the records are right. Every month they close the books: they post the last invoices, book what is owed but not yet invoiced, reconcile every account against its proof, and hand clean figures to managers. At the year-end they prepare the annual accounts and support the auditors and the tax return.

Titles vary: Accountant, Staff Accountant, General Ledger Accountant, Financial Accountant, Accounts Payable or Receivable Accountant, and in German ads Buchhalter, Finanzbuchhalter and Bilanzbuchhalter. We count them as one role. The ladder runs from junior accountant to senior, chief accountant or accounting manager, head of accounting and the CFO track; see the career paths.

The rules differ by country. A German company keeps its books under HGB, the German commercial code; a US company under US GAAP; listed groups in many countries under IFRS, the international standards. An accountant knows the rules of their own country well and the differences to the others in outline.

The skills the ads ask for

We read a sample of the ads every day and count the skills they name. On a computer, hover a skill in the text to see its share; on a phone, the table has the same figures.

Skill	Share of ads	What is expected
Bookkeeping	94%	Post invoices, payments and journal entries correctly, and keep the ledgers reconciled every month.
Financial Reporting	9%	Prepare the monthly and year-end accounts under the rules that apply: local law, IFRS or US GAAP.
DATEV	21%	The standard accounting software of German tax advisers and many small and mid-sized German companies.
Excel	33%	Reconciliations, lookups, pivot tables and checks on large exports from the accounting system.
SAP	18%	The ERP system of many large companies; know how invoices and payments flow through it.
Tax	5%	VAT returns, the tax side of the year-end, and clean records for the tax adviser or tax team.
SAP FI/CO	3%	SAP's finance (FI) and controlling (CO) modules: postings, the general ledger, payments and the close.
Payroll	4%	Book salaries and social charges and reconcile them; in small companies, run the payroll yourself.
Microsoft 365	70%	Outlook, Teams and the rest of Microsoft 365 for the daily work with colleagues and auditors.
Independent work	21%	Run your own part of the close to the deadline without someone checking each step.
English	20%	The working language of group reporting, international auditors and many ERP systems.
German	25%	Needed for most accounting jobs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland: law, tax and the tax adviser.

Shares of the accountant ads we read in the last 7 days, as of 5 Nov 2026. Our ads, not the whole market.

Three groups stand out. First, the craft: bookkeeping (posting every invoice and payment to the right account), financial reporting for the monthly and annual accounts, and tax, above all VAT. Second, the systems: SAP and its finance modules SAP FI/CO in large companies, DATEV in Germany, and NetSuite or similar cloud systems in younger companies. Third, Excel for reconciliations and checks.

Many ads also name payroll, working on your own (independent work), and the languages of the job: German for most German, Austrian and Swiss ads, and English in international groups.

Where the jobs are, country by country

Each country below has its own figures: which cities have the most jobs in our list, whether the number is going up or down, how often ads offer remote or hybrid work, the qualifications that country knows, and pay ranges from published research, in the local currency.

Germany

11% of the ads offer hybrid work, and 5% are fully remote.

Pay (Base salary)

Entry level: €32,000 to €42,000 a year
Mid-level: €40,000 to €55,000 a year
Senior: €50,000 to €75,000 a year

Total pay: the German sources give base salary; Payscale, from few profiles, gives bonuses of about €2,000 to €10,000 a year.

In every source, roles that prepare the year-end accounts are paid more than bookkeeping roles; Stuttgart and Hamburg pay the most of the large cities (StepStone).

Sources: StepStone: Buchhalter (2026), StepStone: Bilanzbuchhalter (2026), Indeed: Buchhalter (Oct 2026), Indeed: Bilanzbuchhalter (Oct 2026), Payscale (Aug 2026).

Pay researched on 27 Oct 2026.

Titles: a German ad says Buchhalter or Finanzbuchhalter for an accountant who keeps the books, and Bilanzbuchhalter for one who also prepares the year-end accounts. Lohnbuchhalter is the payroll accountant.

Rules and tools: the books follow HGB, the German commercial code, and GoBD, the German rules for keeping digital records. Many small companies hand the books to a tax adviser (Steuerberater) who works in DATEV; larger ones use SAP FI/CO.

Qualifications: the Steuerfachangestellte is a three-year vocational training in a tax adviser's office, with its exam at the chamber of tax advisers. The Geprüfter Bilanzbuchhalter (IHK) is a further exam of the chamber of commerce for accountants with some years of practice; it covers the year-end under HGB, tax and the basics of IFRS. On a CV, write each under education with its year.

Language: most ads ask for fluent German; group companies also want English for reporting to a parent abroad.

Job figures as of 5 Nov 2026.

United States

21% of the ads offer hybrid work, and 30% are fully remote.

94% of the ads that say are full-time.

Pay (Base salary)

Entry level: $55,000 to $70,000 a year
Mid-level: $65,000 to $90,000 a year
Senior: $80,000 to $115,000 a year

Total pay: Built In's respondents report about $7,500 a year in extra cash on top of base; Payscale gives senior accountants bonuses of about $1,000 to $10,000 a year.

Accounting managers earn about $98,000 to $129,000 (Robert Half). New York pays the most, then Nashville and Denver (Indeed).

Sources: Robert Half 2027 Salary Guide (a projection), Indeed (Oct 2026), Payscale: staff accountant (Oct 2026), Payscale: senior accountant (Oct 2026), Built In (2026).

Pay researched on 27 Oct 2026.

Rules: US companies report under US GAAP; listed companies also follow the SOX rules in the US on internal controls, which shape much of an accountant's daily work.

Qualifications: the CPA is the licence of the profession, granted by each state board after the Uniform CPA Exam, education and experience; the rules differ by state. Many accountants work towards it in their first years. On a CV, write "CPA" after your name once licensed, and "CPA candidate" with the sections passed before that.

Job figures as of 5 Nov 2026.

United Kingdom

Pay (Base salary)

Entry level: £25,000 to £33,000 a year
Mid-level: £32,000 to £45,000 a year
Senior: £40,000 to £58,000 a year

Total pay: Payscale gives bonuses of up to about £9,000 a year; Indeed gives base salary only.

London pays the most (Indeed). Finance managers, the next step, earn about £35,000 to £74,000 (Indeed).

Sources: Indeed (Oct 2026), Indeed: assistant accountant (Oct 2026), Indeed: senior accountant (Oct 2026), Payscale (Jul 2026), Payscale: management accountant (Sep 2026).

Pay researched on 27 Oct 2026.

Rules: most private companies in the UK report under FRS 102, the UK accounting standard, and file their accounts at Companies House in the UK; listed groups use IFRS. VAT in the UK has its own rules since the UK left the EU.

Qualifications: ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is studied alongside a job in any kind of company; ACA, from ICAEW, is usually trained for in an accountancy firm with a training contract. Many ads say "part-qualified": on a CV, write the papers passed, such as "ACCA, in progress" with the level reached.

Switzerland

Pay (Base salary)

Entry level: CHF 60,000 to CHF 75,000 a year
Mid-level: CHF 70,000 to CHF 98,000 a year
Senior: CHF 90,000 to CHF 125,000 a year

Total pay: Payscale gives bonuses of about CHF 2,000 to CHF 35,000 a year; Lohncheck's ranges are for full-time work paid in 13 monthly salaries.

Basel-Landschaft and Geneva pay the most (Lohncheck); heads of accounting earn about CHF 93,000 to CHF 128,000 (Lohncheck).

Sources: Lohncheck: Buchhalter (Q1 2026), Lohncheck: Leiter Buchhaltung (Q1 2026), Indeed (Oct 2026), Payscale (Nov 2025).

Pay researched on 27 Oct 2026.

Rules: Swiss companies keep their books under the Swiss Code of Obligations; many larger ones report under Swiss GAAP FER, the Swiss standard, or IFRS. Swiss VAT is its own system, outside the EU's.

Qualifications: the federal diploma "Fachmann/Fachfrau im Finanz- und Rechnungswesen mit eidgenössischem Fachausweis" is the common step for accountants in Switzerland, followed by the "Experte in Rechnungslegung und Controlling" diploma for senior roles. Ads ask for German or French, and English in international groups.

India

Most accountant jobs in our list are in bangalore and Hyderabad.

0% of the ads offer hybrid work, and 34% are fully remote.

Pay (Base salary)

Entry level: ₹1.8 lakh to ₹3 lakh a year
Mid-level: ₹3 lakh to ₹6.5 lakh a year
Senior: ₹5 lakh to ₹10 lakh a year

Total pay: with bonus, Payscale puts accountant pay at about ₹1.6 lakh to ₹7.6 lakh a year, and senior accountant bonuses at up to about ₹1.2 lakh.

Bengaluru pays the most, then Hyderabad and Chennai (Indeed).

Sources: Payscale (Oct 2026), Payscale: senior accountant (Sep 2026), Indeed (Sep 2026).

Pay researched on 27 Oct 2026.

Rules and tools: listed and large companies in India report under Ind AS, India's standards based on IFRS; GST, India's tax on goods and services, and TDS, tax deducted at source, fill much of the monthly work. Small firms often use Tally, common accounting software in India.

Qualifications: the CA from ICAI (the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) has three exam levels and a long practical training in a CA firm, called articleship. CMA India, from the Institute of Cost Accountants of India, focuses on cost and management accounting. On a CV, write the level reached, such as "CA Intermediate, both groups cleared".

Employers: global capability centres, the in-house finance and accounting centres of foreign companies, hire many accountants for work on US GAAP or IFRS books.

Job figures as of 5 Nov 2026.

Your CV for an accountant job

An accountant's CV is read twice: first by the hiring software, which looks for the words of the ad, then by a finance manager, who looks for proof that your numbers were right and on time. Write for both.

Use the keywords the ads use

Name the tasks the way ads name them: "month-end close", "accounts payable", "bank reconciliation", "accruals", "VAT returns", "year-end accounts". The skills table above shows which keywords the ads use most.
Name the system and the rules: SAP FI/CO, DATEV or NetSuite, and HGB (German law), IFRS or US GAAP. A finance manager filters on both.
Put a qualification where it is easy to find, under education with its year: "ACCA", "CPA" or "Geprüfter Bilanzbuchhalter (IHK)". An exam not yet passed is written as "in progress" with the level reached, never as if it were done.
Keep the skills line short and true: every system you name may become a test in the interview.

Prove each skill

A skill in a list proves nothing. A line under a job proves it: what you owned, how much of it, and one result, such as days taken off the close, open items cleared, or an audit with no findings.

Skill	Weak line	Strong line, with proof
Bookkeeping	Responsible for bookkeeping.	Posted about 900 supplier invoices a month in SAP FI for 3 companies; open items older than 60 days cut from 140 to 15.
Close	Month-end close.	Ran the general ledger close for a 120-person company; accounts ready on day 4 instead of day 8.
Reconciliations	Account reconciliations.	Reconciled 45 balance sheet accounts each month; found a double payment of 38,000 euros and recovered it.
Year-end	Prepared annual accounts.	Prepared the HGB year-end accounts and notes for 2 German companies; audit closed with no findings.
VAT	VAT returns.	Filed monthly VAT returns for Germany and Austria; set up the reverse charge codes for EU services.

Never claim what you did not do. If the close was a team's work, say which part was yours: "I ran the bank and supplier reconciliations".

How we read our data

The jobs: the accountant jobs in our job search, matched the same way the search matches them. Our list is not the whole market, so we give shares and rankings, never counts.
The skills: we read a sample of the ads every day and count the skills in them with a fixed word list. We keep only the counts, never the ad text.
Pay: from published salary research, with each source and its date, as a range from entry level to senior. It is not worked out from our ads.
Dates: every figure is worked out again each day, and shows the day it was worked out.

Frequently asked questions

What does an accountant do?: Records every transaction of a company correctly, closes the books each month, reconciles the accounts, and prepares the year-end accounts for the auditor and the tax return.
What is the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant?: A bookkeeper records the transactions; an accountant also closes the books, judges how to treat difficult items, and prepares the accounts. In German ads, Buchhalter covers both, and Bilanzbuchhalter means the year-end too.
Do I need a qualification to work as an accountant?: Not to start, in most countries. Ads for senior roles often ask for one: ACCA or ACA in the UK, the CPA in the US, the CA in India, the Bilanzbuchhalter exam in Germany.
Which accounting system should I learn?: The one the ads in your market name most: SAP in large companies, DATEV in Germany, NetSuite and similar cloud systems in younger companies. Strong Excel helps with all of them.
What should an accountant CV show first?: The part of the close you owned, the system and the accounting rules you used, and one result with a number: a faster close, fewer open items, an audit with no findings.

More on the accountant role

The cvscored teamPublished 27 Oct 2026 · Updated 27 Oct 2026

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