High Paying Accounting Jobs with GREAT Work Life Balance

0:00After working in corporate accounting and financial reporting for over a decade, I've seen which accounting jobs pay really well and still offer a great work life balance. Today, I'm going to break down five corporate accounting roles that do both, including what you can expect to earn early in your career, how compensation grows as you continue to move up, and why these roles have more sustainable hours. And trust me, some of these roles pay much more than most people realize. With that said, let's jump into the first role and my

0:32personal favorite, financial reporting. Financial reporting focuses on preparing and reviewing a company's financial statements, including quarterly 10Q's and annual 10Ks for public companies. In this role, you are responsible for financial statement support, tieyous, reconciliations, and XBRL tagging. If you work for a public company, working through technical accounting issues, writing accounting memos, and in many cases, recording corporate journal entries related to debt and equity transactions. The reason I personally find financial reporting so interesting is because you get a big picture view of the entire company. Instead of working in one narrow area of accounting like fixed assets or revenue, you are pulling together the financials from all the

1:23company's various business units and consolidating everything into one complete set of financial statements for the company. To me, this is like viewing the whole puzzle opposed to just one piece. Another big benefit of working in financial reporting is visibility. You are often working with other departments such as the treasury department, FPNA, investor relations, various business units, internal audit, and even external audit, which gives you a lot of exposure across the entire organization. From a work life balance perspective, financial

1:58reporting is extremely calendardriven. You are often working more hours on the quarters and year end, and in the off months, the workload is typically more predictable. In terms of pay, entry-level financial reporting roles, often entitled staff accountant or financial reporting analysts, earn between 70 to $90,000 per year. Managers typically earn between $120,000 to $160,000 per year base salary. Directors often earn over $200,000 per year. Then from the director position, you can advance from a senior director position, assistant controller, controller, chief accounting officer, and eventually to that chief financial officer position if you are interested. At that level, you are often earning well over $500,000 per year, not including bonuses. It really

2:52just depends on how far you want to advance your career. For me, I personally want to make it to the senior director of financial reporting level. I think that is the perfect sweet spot between a highpaying salary and a good work life balance. Next is technical accounting. Technical accounting focuses on researching complex accounting issues. Writing accounting memos and advising the business on how to apply accounting standards correctly. These roles tend to have strong work life balance because they are advisory based and involved in a lot of accounting research. They are typically not responsible for closing the books every month. Instead, you are spending your time researching accounting

3:34codification, reviewing accounting standard updates, and documenting how those updates impact the company. In many companies, technical accounting roles start at a manager level with the salary being around $120,000 per year. And directors of technical accounting often earn around $160,000 or more per year. Some companies have dedicated technical accounting teams whereas other companies combine technical accounting with another area of accounting for example financial reporting which is actually what my role is. I am the manager of financial reporting and global accounting policies at the company that I work for. Okay, let's talk about the next position and another great option which is working in consolidations. Accountants in these

4:22roles sit at the intersection between accounting and technology. They focus on system implementation, consolidating multiple general ledger systems into one system platform, often Hyperion financial management or HFM, managing the chart of accounts, various automation processes, and supporting socks controls within financial systems. If you are an accountant who enjoys working with systems and technologies, this could be a really great option for you. Entrylevel salaries for this position typically fall between 70,000 to $100,000 with managers often earning around $120,000 or more. At many companies similar to technical accounting, consolidations is typically combined with other areas of accounting. For example, common titles include financial reporting and consolidations manager or a director of

5:18corporate accounting and consolidations. Next we have internal audit. This is another role that offers a very good work life balance specifically when working for a company. I'm not talking about public accounting auditing. For example, McDonald's would hire auditors that actually work at McDonald's which audit their processes opposed to external auditors which are auditors that a company hires externally to audit their financial statements. Internal audit focuses on testing controls, reviewing processes, and helping the company manage risk. One of the benefits of internal audit from a lifestyle perspective is typically audits are planned well in advance, which makes

6:01busy periods much more predictable. Entrylevel internal auditors can make anywhere from $70,000 to $90,000 per year. Managers fall at that $120,000 range, similar to other managers in corporate accounting. directors of internal audit, oftentimes around $200,000. And if you want to be a VP of internal audit, you will be earning around $300,000 per year or more. The final position that I'm going to talk about in this video is controllers. I want to clarify when I am talking about a controller in this role, I am not talking about a corporate controller. I am talking about a business unit controller. Corporate controllers oversee accounting for the entire company and typically report to the

6:47chief financial officer. Whereas business unit controllers are responsible for the financial statements of the business that they oversee. Those financial statements are then rolled up and then consolidated at the corporate level. At well-run organizations with strong teams, business unit controller roles can offer a high compensation without the constant chaos that you often see at early stage startups. A controller with good delegation, strong systems, and the right support can maintain very high pay with reasonable work hours. Salaries for these positions

7:22often start around $140,000. and depending on experience of the individual and size of the business unit that they are responsible for can go up to $200,000 plus. These are the five accounting roles that often aren't talked about enough, especially in college where you frequently only hear about big four accounting being an auditor or working in tax. But all of these roles can offer both a strong compensation and a great work life balance. Of course, the salary ranges will vary based on location, experience, and the company that you are working for, but overall, these are the general salaries that you can expect for these positions. There's a lot of life to be

8:05lived outside of work. And although salary is very important when deciding where you want to work, work life balance is equally important in my opinion when it comes to long-term fulfillment. If you found this video helpful, please consider giving me a thumbs up and subscribing to my channel.