Live according to your income.
Aulus Persius Flaccus
One of the first things that people research when they have decided upon a career is the annual income that can be expected. So, if you're considering a career as an accountant in the business and finance sector in the UK, it's completely natural to ask yourself, how much money does an accountant make? There are many factors such as location, years of experience, and the amount of training received that dictate how much an accountant is paid.
However, if you’re looking for the short answer to the question: “What is the average accountant salary in the UK”?, then the graph below will tell you that the average accountant salary in the UK is £36,564, with the range of salaries from £24,464 to £78,536.
| Experience Level | Rough Salary |
|---|---|
| Beginner | £24,464 |
| Mid-Level | £36,564 |
| Experienced | £78,536 |
While this might look simple enough at face value, this article will aim to go one step further and break down the possible salaries and factors affecting accountant salaries, including location, level of experience and industry.
Breakdown of Average Accountant Salaries in the UK
Accountant salaries will vary considerably in the UK depending on a variety of different factors, including experience, location, qualifications and the industry (public vs. private). As of April 2023, here are the latest figures:
- Accountant starting salaries: Newly qualified accountants can expect to start with salaries ranging from £25,000 to £35,000 per year. In London and other high-cost areas, starting salaries may be slightly higher to reflect the cost of living.
- Level of Experience: With a few years of experience, accountant salaries can be expected to increase to between £35,000 and £50,000. Those working in specialised fields or with additional certifications (like Chartered Accountants) can earn more.
- Senior Accountant Salaries: Accountants who progress to senior roles, such as Finance Managers or Directors, or those who work in high-demand sectors like investment banking, can earn salaries ranging from £50,000 to well over £100,000. The upper end of this range typically applies to those with significant experience and those working in London or for large multinational corporations.
- Contract Rates: Some accountants work on a contract basis, and their daily rates can vary widely depending on their skills and the demand for their expertise. Base rates can range from £200 to £500 per day for experienced accountants.
The Role of an Accountant
Accountants are people whose job is to keep, inspect, and analyse financial accounts. For example, the entry-level accountants maintain the books; that’s pretty much where the public vision of accounting begins and ends. Private accountants welcome clients who are individual taxpayers or who have their own businesses. On the other hand, some accountants work in public for government entities.
Nonetheless, accountants have a lot of work to do behind the scenes, and they can be categorised as the unsung heroes of the business and finance world. Accountants complete most of their tasks using computer software, making much of their tasks more manageable.
Accountants track credits and debits of their clients in ledgers, and they are experts at providing fiscal forecasts, projections, risk analysis, and reconciliation to the persons they are working for. All the functions mentioned require highly trained, competent people steeped in the economic climate of the times.
The best accountants put their strong analytical skills to determine how their firm can best weather any global or local financial storm. Also, the work-life of an accountant would not be complete without the calculation of duties, tariffs, and taxes.
Since there are so many layers to the field of accounting, business, and finance, it's worth pointing out that there are different types of accountants that boast various salaries; we'll talk about that in the next few subheadings.
Accounting Wages UK: How Much Do Accountants Get?
When talking about accounting and finance jobs salary in the UK, we’ve got to start with some context, such as stating that the average UK salary, which is £27,756 a year and £39,886 in London. So, you might be wondering what about an accountant salary? How does that measure up?
Well, it's hard to say, since the term accountant is so vague and could include so many job titles. The answer to the question of “How much does an accountant get paid?” must always be taken with a pinch of salt. Nonetheless, according to available data, accountants in the UK earn anywhere between £28,630 to £400,000 a year, depending on qualifications, industry, company size and, sadly, gender.
Even the average accounting graduate salary is respectable, coming in close to the UK average at just over £27,000.
Note that the lower end of this figure is accounted for by the starting salary of an accountant in many cases, and you wouldn’t expect to see qualified and experienced accountants taking home this little. The annual income also depends on the kind of accounting job you wish to do: public accounting, financial accounting, general accounting, corporate accounting and so on.
The accounting sector seems to be above the national average at 18.4% regarding the disparity in salaries between men and women. The variation is about 19.2% in practice accountancy, or roughly £10,000 a year. In the industry sector, the gap increases to 24.4%, resulting in more than £16,000.
Despite women taking home a lot less than their male counterparts, surveys have found that female accountants were more likely to hold a professional accounting qualification. So, make sure to know how much the position you're interviewing for should be paid and do not sell yourself short.
If you just received the very prized title of Chartered Accountant, you will almost certainly already have a few years of work experience behind you; we'll discuss that in more detail later on. To better understand things, let's look at different accountant jobs and their salary range expectations.
How Much Do Chartered Accountants Make?
For a more established and higher-paying career as an accountant, you might want to consider becoming a Chartered Accountant. It's worth stating that chartered Accountants are more focused on consultancy and auditing. As well as managing money systems and budgets, Chartered Accountants are also required to complete internal audits or work with a certified internal auditor to assess the financial health of a company.
After inspections are completed, Chartered Accountants often advise clients on tax planning, potential business transactions including mergers and acquisition or dealing with a company's bankruptcy.
Chartered Accountants often specialise in management accounting and can oversee the work of an entire accounting department. But, how much do chartered accountants earn per year? In the beginning, income remains pretty low.
A Chartered Accountant starting salary will be approximately £40,000.
Compared to an average finance and accounting salary, this is very good. Still, after two to four years, following your qualification, it will be time to renegotiate and your salary will certainly increase. Rinse and repeat, and the Chartered Accountant average salary can be expected to be around £134,000.
Although this isn’t a top paying job, it’s still impressive for an accounting/finance salary. Also, keep in mind when we talk about the starting salary for chartered individuals that calling this salary the: “starting salary of accountant” is misleading, since this isn’t the sort of accountancy work most professionals will start with. It’s worth mentioning that the Chartered Accountant London salary is the highest on average at £60,530 a year.
The Annual Salaries of Other Types of Accountants
Though we've considered the average salary of all types of accountants combined and the annual income of chartered accountants, one of the most popular types of accountants, it's important to state that many other accounting-based careers merit specific attention.
Let's look at the average salaries expected for accounting technicians, financial advisers, investment analysts, financial traders, CFOs, and forensic accountants.
Accounting Technician
Accounting Technician is often the junior level of the profession. The job mainly involves traditional bookkeeper duties, processing invoices, recording payments and receipts, making sure that ledgers are balanced and submitting tax and VAT returns and National Insurance contributions. An Accounting Technician can also handle a corporation's expenses and payroll systems.
Accounting technicians are often entry-level positions that you can access through the AAT Accounting Qualification or the ACCA Certified Accounting Technician qualification (CAT).
A more senior Accounting Technician can also take on budgeting, reporting, tax returns preparation or become an assistant controller.
Salary-wise, Accounting Technicians can expect to make between £17,000 and £22,000 while training to get their accounting certification. Once you're qualified and your degree is framed and pinned on the wall, expect to make £35,000 or more depending on your experience, industry, and responsibilities. (prospects.uk) Some accounting technicians further supplement their income by working as a CPA and being finance tutors.
Financial Adviser
Sometimes synonymous with the term accountant, financial advisers are more specialised accountants. So, if you prefer a more consultancy based career, you can also become a financial adviser. Their job is to provide clients with specialist advice on how to manage and “grow” their money.
This work is often known as management accounting, especially when it comes to larger groups and organisations with distinct goals.
As a Financial Adviser, you will have to manage a client list and set up meetings because your role includes reviewing your client's financial situation and advising them according to the risk analysis that you would have completed.
A management accountant UK salary might be between £27,000 – £40,000 a year, while at entry-level, making up to £54,000 when fully qualified.
A Financial Adviser on the other hand can expect to earn between £22,000 and £33,000 a year.
With a degree qualification, you could pocket up to £45,000, and after years of experience and a promotion to a Senior Financial Adviser position, you could make around £60,000 a year.
Advisers salaries are very dependent on the sector or company that employs them, as well as qualifications. Becoming a Financial Advisor is not the easiest task in terms of studying. The industry leader ‘Tenet Group’ provides its advisers with an average salary close on £90,000 a year, so one can only imagine how much their most senior positions rake in.
Investment Analysts
In the banking industry, Investment Analysts are crucial to help traders, wealth managers and stockbrokers to make the right decisions.
Investment Analysts work with banks, corporations, hedge funds, life insurance companies or pension funds, and wealthy individuals, consisting in providing insight into economic trends and evaluating the potential returns of various investments.
But, how much are investment analysts paid per year? Most UK investment analysts are based in London, where they usually earn between £28,000 and £40,000. However, during their first three years on the job, Investment Analysts can expect to get a yearly bonus ranging from 10 to 100% of their actual salary.
With five to eight years of experience, you could expect to earn between £65,000 and £100,000 a year as a Senior Financial Analyst with a bonus between 40 and 150% of your salary. And, at a senior level, your salary may reach over £110,000, and typical bonuses are up to 200% of your salary, which is extremely lucrative when compared to bonuses in other sectors.
Financial Trader
Another type of accountant commonly recognised in the UK is a Financial trader. Working directly with Investment Advisers, a Financial Trader is in charge of selling or buying shares, bonds, and assets for investors.
The following list highlights the responsibilities of financial traders:
- Executing trades according to client's orders
- Informing your clients of market movements and possible investment opportunities
- Gathering information about companies' valuation
Most Financial Traders work long hours to follow the market or their niche product. The work of Financial Traders is usually demanding as trading on international markets can be hectic, and the stress of managing large amounts of money can be stressful.
However, the strains of this career are largely compensated by the salary a Financial Trader can expect to earn. At the beginning of their career, Financial Traders can earn between £26,000 and £32,000, not including commissions. Experienced traders can make between £45,000 and £150,000 a year, depending on your employer or the type of market your trade on.
If you reach the level of Associate Trader working in a top-tier bank, you could earn around £140,000 and, if you specialise in a more lucrative niche market, traders making around £230,000 a year are the norm.
Despite their heavy workload, accountancy tutors in London still make time to give lessons in accounting, or many of them do tutoring after they have left another role in the profession.
Chief Financial Officers
The job of Chief Financial Officer is one of the highest-ranking positions in a business's hierarchy. As a CFO, you will be the senior assistant to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Your job is to oversee all the enterprise's finances and operations to ensure that the treasury, economic strategy and forecasting are respected and that your firm is on track to meet its yearly money targets. In addition, CFOs have to report to key shareholders, usually represented at the corporation's board, about what is going on regarding the overall financial position.
Chief Financial Officers are crucial to the success of any company in maintaining its fiscal health, identifying potential threats, ensuring compliance with all current regulations and finding ways to increase profits. Are they well compensated? Absolutely!
Still, given the seniority of such a position, it takes years of experience and dedication before reaching such a job. You won't become a CFO fresh out of accounting school! In London, the median salary goes up to £111,586, but some famous British companies pay their CFOs much more than that, and it's not unheard of for them to become millionaires in the process.
You may need an accounting online tutor to master all the concepts required for this position.
Forensic Accountants' Salary
The role forensic accountants play in cybercrime, and international economics, is quite essential. For instance, who could forget the WannaCry ransomware virus that struck Windows computer systems, locking entire civic structures like the NHS and government offices out of their systems until a ransom was paid? Not those working in forensic accounting!
Cybersecurity agencies worldwide were already on high alert for attacks, since they had happened before. However, forensic accountants are of prime importance to save millions of pounds and investigate cases of stolen money.
A forensic accountant follows the money of any shady transaction. But, of course, not every case forensic accountants solve involves international intrigue because a substantial portion of their work involves embezzlement and fraud at the local level in a company or bank.
Forensic accountants must be prepared for testimony in a court of law. To do that, these accountants must be well-versed in business and criminal law. As they are called to give testimony, they must also be able to prepare materials such as charts, graphs and other documents that are relevant to the case.
A forensic accountant may work with insurance companies, branches of government, banks, and the police.
Forensic Accountants outperform most entry level positions with an average salary range from £40,000 to £55,0001. With no surprise, for the average forensic accounting salary, London is the place to be, clearly the winner at over £62,000 annually.
These salaries might not seem to be the most impressive on the list, but as with all jobs relating to the legal sector, prestige and pedigree play a large part in the scale of one’s salary. The Chambers’ overview of Forensic Accounting firms categorises employers such as Alvarez & Marsal or Grant Thompson as the best in the business, whose directorial positions take home up to six figures with ease.
In conclusion, whatever the career path you choose to follow, auditor, accounting manager, public accountant, tax accountant or financial manager, a degree in accounting will open many doors. Accounting is also one of the safest jobs globally, both in terms of job security and physical safety.
And, if you're in it for the money, you'll always be assured an above-average salary that boasts much room for improvement when you consider promotions and bonuses throughout the year. So, start your work as an accountant; you won't regret it!
References
- Forensic Accountant Job Profile, https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/forensic-accountant
- Accountant Salary Estimations and Averages https://uk.talent.com/salary?job=accountant
- Glassdoor, Accountant salaries in United Kingdom https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salaries/accountant-salary-SRCH_KO0,10.htm
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Thanks Emma, these was just extremely Helpful.