How much does an accountant earn?

Accountancy is a fantastic career choice for anyone, especially if you’re looking for above average salaries and great job satisfaction.

Accountants in the UK earn anywhere between £28,630 to £400,000* a year, depending on qualifications, industry, specialism, and company size. But here are a few to give you an idea.

Accounting technician

Whilst studying you could expect to earn around £22,000. Once qualified you could expect to earn £30,000 or more, depending on your experience, industry and responsibilities.

Auditor

To start off with you could expect to earn around £41,000 a year, depending on the organisation you’re in, but you could end up earning over £53,000 with experience.

Chartered accountant

At the beginning, salaries are relatively low but quickly rise after about two to four years. At that point, you could expect around £56,000. And then after five years of experience, a Senior Accountant’s average salary is around £90,000.

Financial adviser

At entry-level, a financial adviser could expect between £22,000 and £30,000 a year. And then once qualified up to £45,000. Once promoted to Senior Financial Adviser, the salary could go up to £60,000. Should you become a Wealth Manager, for a private bank or major retailer, you could earn over £100,000.

Financial controller

The average salary for a financial controller in the UK is just around £65,000 a year. However this could go up to nearly £90,000 per year depending on location, industry and experience.

Forensic accountant

This varied and interesting role could see you reach over £61,000 per year with experience, but you could start at around £50,000 and work your way up.

Investment analyst

Most investment analysts are based in London, where they usually earn between £28,000 and £40,000 a year to start with. During the 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’ experience, you would 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. At Senior level, salaries can reach over £110,000 and typical bonuses are up to 200% of your salary.

Finance trader

At the beginning of your career, you could be earning between £26,000 and £32,000, not including commissions. Experienced traders can earn between £45,000 and £150,000 a year depending on the employer or the type of market you trade on.

If you reach the level of Associate Trader working in a top-tier bank, you could expect around £140,000 and if you specialise in a lucrative niche market, you could make around £230,000 a year.

Finance director

This high-powered role has an average annual salary of £98,000, but you could easily earn up to, or over, £150,000 per year, depending on the organisation and location. It’s a tough job, but the compensation is worth it.

Chief financial officer

As one of the highest ranking people in a company hierarchy, a chief financial officer can expect a large salary. The average for UK CFOs is around £115,000 to £128,000 in London.

But there are some companies that pay their CFOs a lot more than. For example, when Patrick Pichette was CFO of Google, his salary was over $43,000,000 – that’s roughly £35 million. So really there’s no limit to what you can earn at the very top.

Interested in accountancy?

If you’d like a good, solid, reputable job with an accountant’s salary, check out more information about our AAT and ACCA courses and see where they could take you.

*Sources: reed.co.uk/average-salary