How can accountants make a lot of money

With seniority comes higher earnings and perks. At this point, most public accountants have already chosen their career paths.

For example, some choose to specialize in tax matters while others in audit. Managers and directors typically have over seven years of experience. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The variations in salaries are due to the cost of living in different cities. Accountants with an in-depth knowledge of the U. Below is a table of the top 10 countries and territories with the highest salaries for accountants and CPAs:.

Accountants are key figures in any organization and their demanding roles command a higher salary than many other professions. For instance, the size of the organization matters, as bigger companies tend to pay more. Licensing exam: The test, which is the same everywhere, is made up of four parts: auditing and attestation; business environment and concepts; financial accounting; and reporting and regulation.

To pass, you must get at least a 75 on a point scale. But the beauty of becoming an accountant is that it opens the doors to many jobs in a broad array of fields, from government to investment funds to oil and gas.

And for those who continue on and earn their CPA, the career opportunities - as well as the chance to make more money - broaden further. While hiring by accounting firms is up, financial services firms and health care organizations are also on the hunt for people with accounting backgrounds. CPAs are highly valued by firms in many fields, according to executive search firm Robert Half.

If you want to make top dollar as an accountant or, better yet, a CPA, you should consider some of these cities, where accountants earn the most. Washington, D. If you change your workflow for each client, it slows you down, creates chaos with how different tasks are performed, and increases the overhead for adding each new client.

Have a common well-defined process that you follow for every client of a given service type. For instance, all payroll clients follow the same process. Give an outline of this process in writing to your client immediately after they have engaged your service.

For instance, after the initial engagement meeting, you may prefer to first get their paperwork and meet only after you have reviewed it. The client might think they need to meet you with the paperwork to explain what they have going on. Having a written process saves time for both you and your client. It is much better than wasting time on a meeting that you did not need. And less awkward than having to call the client in again because the earlier meeting was too soon for you to have asked the right questions and might leave the client thinking 'what, you have not even started on my work yet!

The written process also shows that your firm is mature and sophisticated. Having a written process suggests that you serve many clients, deliver a consistent quality of service, and are less likely to make errors or omissions. It also demonstrates to them that they are not being treated any different because they think they are a smaller business than your other clients.

The written process also lets you and your staff proceed with greater speed and fewer errors. One thing you will note when managing your staff and vendors is that they will not tend to negotiate short-cuts on the work when it is specified in writing.

When stated verbally, many occasions arise where they think this task or that is not applicable for a particular client or seemed appropriate to skip for another client.

Such deviations increase your management overhead and reduce efficiency. As you continue to streamline your workflow and optimize your process, your and your team's efficiency will increase. In the consulting industry, such efficient processes are referred to as runbooks, and having the right runbooks is what differentiates the highly profitable firms from the rest.

It is common for a solo accountant or a small firm to accept every client that happens to request your service. After all, each new client brings in additional revenue and may even bring in word of mouth referrals. But serving too many different types of clients is not efficient.

Specialization: The most efficient client mix depends on your skills, your team, and the market situation. The trick is in determining the correct level of specialization. If you specialize too narrowly, there may not be a sufficient market for you to serve. Too broad, and you cannot be efficient. The optimum level of specialization is often impractical to determine. A more realistic strategy is to continue to shift your client mix towards services that you can deliver most efficiently.

Your client mix should allow you to follow a very small number of common processes. In the short term every client refused will seem like a revenue loss and hence it is important to specialize at the pace you feel comfortable.

First recognize the specialized space internally and review your client mix to verify these are the clients you are able to serve most efficiently. Another key finding of the report is that while South Dakota is in the top ten best states for accountants making the most money, North Dakota is the third-worse. The District of Columbia ranks in last place on Business. Your email address will not be published. All rights reserved. Share on Facebook.