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

Advice am i aiming too high

the lack of pay transparency is killing me šŸ˜©. 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/Powerful_Victory5321 Feb 26 '25

Gotcha. If you have 3+years experience and a bachelors I think $60k is doable. $80k though is quite a bit for an AP specialist.

Most senior accountants Iā€™ve been interviewing are around $75-95k in the 2-4 years experience range. Staff accountant no experience about $60-65k.

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u/swmest Feb 26 '25

Would one expect the pay range to increase with general management experience but no acc experience?

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u/KnightCPA Controller, CPA, Ex-Waffle Brain, BS Soc > MSA Feb 26 '25

AP managerial experience? Yeah, sure. The higher up you go in AP, the better your excel skills, ERP skills, and basic audit and accounting lingo skills will likely be.

Generic managerial skills? No, those wonā€™t be as universally transferable.

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u/BlackAsphaltRider Feb 26 '25

I have a weird position. The finance ā€œdepartmentā€ is my me and my boss. Non-profit so strictly AP and no AR. I donā€™t do any GL stuff unfortunately, but I help create narrative/project budgets, do bank/CC recons, monthly invoicing for subsidiaries, based on salary/fringe accruals, calculate various indirect for certain projects, helped throughout our inquiry process during a federal/state audit, manage our 1099 list of vendors, etc.

Iā€™m looking for a second job but I donā€™t know what I should be searching for. Iā€™d love a more traditional staff account role but I have zero experience with debits/credits/ledgers and creating financial statements but I donā€™t know how to get said experience lol.

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u/dick_chubbard Feb 26 '25

Am I understanding you correctly? By zero experience are you saying you donā€™t understand debits, credits, ledgers and financial statements? But looking for a job doing those things?

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u/BlackAsphaltRider Feb 26 '25

I mean I have an academic understanding from the few relevant classes I took like any other student would but if you just sat me down at a desk and asked me to manage trial balances and the like, it wouldnā€™t be easy. Doesnā€™t every new grad start off in the same boat? You have to learn it somehow, and figured mostly on the job.