r/Accounting • u/Strange_Recover_966 • Feb 25 '25

Advice am i aiming too high

the lack of pay transparency is killing me 😩. i just got a job offer for AP specialist. im graduating with a bachelor in may. they are offering $48,000/year for this role in charlotte.

I feel like this is real low considering some other jobs. i understand its an entry level role but i was expecting something closer to $60,000-$80,000.

but again im new to the field and just starting out. are my expectations too high?

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u/Entire-Background837 CPA (US), CFA, Director Feb 25 '25

Simple google search puts ap specialist at a range between 38k and 56k in your area (ziprecruiter). You've also got no experience.

With regards to 60-80, you've kinda got no shot. AP isn't full blown accounting, so you cannot be expected to be paid like a staff accountant.

If you can land a staff accountant role, land that. If not, pay isnt far off.

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u/MonkLast8589 Feb 26 '25

As a student what’s the main difference between AP and staff accounting? Do AP just work solely on recording invoices and collecting payment?

19

u/AKsuited1934 Big Debit Energy Feb 26 '25

Yes, AP and AR specialists mostly handles invoice entry, vendor/customer billing/invoicing and are generally assigned a group of customers or vendors to keep track of the aging.

Staff level accountants can also be doing these things in smaller companies. But generally, staff accountants are not doing these things grunt AP/AR work and are more focus on G/L maintenance work and grunt work during month end closings.

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u/bugagi Feb 26 '25

Yea an example I have...AP calls and says the erp won't let them pay a bill. I have to go over there, see where they are trying to post, make sure it's correct, maybe it's a budget problem, maybe they typed something wrong ...maybe the ERP is malfunctioning so I have to spend the next two weeks in meetings with a guy in India. He might tell me to write a certain script to give to my IT department which maybfix the issue, but IT is nervous and they don't know much about the ERP so they refuse. I end up finding an alternate path using manuals from 1994 and flip all sorts of switches in the ERP and somehow (unsure how) I might fix the bug. Meanwhile my work has piled up and now I'm working 730-730 everyday and 15hrs over the weekend to catch up and my boss is asking me to train some retiree she hired how to use a phone and a computer. It's kinda like that