About the Senior Accountant role
A Senior Accountant owns the most complex parts of the accounting cycle and acts as the quality gate for the numbers a company reports. Where a staff accountant records transactions, a senior accountant reviews that work, drives the month-end close, prepares consolidated financial statements, and resolves the reconciliation issues nobody else can untangle. The role is often the first point of contact for external auditors and the person management calls when a number looks wrong.
The shape of the role depends on your finance team. In a company with a small team, a Senior Accountant may be the most senior finance hire, handling everything from close to tax coordination while a bookkeeper covers data entry. In a larger organization, the role usually sits between staff accountants and an Accounting Manager or Financial Controller, with clear ownership of specific ledger areas, technical accounting memos, and the review of junior work.
In your posting, spell out what makes the role senior at your company: which close tasks they will own end to end, whether they will mentor or review junior accountants, how involved they will be in audits, and which systems they will work in. Candidates at this level self-select based on scope, so vague postings attract applicants who are not ready and put off the ones who are.
Senior Accountant job description template
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Job brief
We are hiring a Senior Accountant to own the harder half of our accounting cycle and to be the last check on the numbers we report. You will drive the month-end close, prepare the statements, resolve the reconciliations that stall, review the work of the team, and be our main contact when the auditors arrive.
This is a fit if you know your framework well enough to reason about a transaction nobody has seen before, and if you can tell a colleague their entry is wrong in a way that leaves them better at the job.
Responsibilities
- Lead the month-end, quarter-end, and year-end close, and own the close calendar and checklist
- Prepare and review complex journal entries, accruals, and account reconciliations
- Produce accurate financial statements and supporting schedules for management and auditors
- Review the work of staff accountants and coach them on accounting treatment and documentation
- Research technical accounting questions and document conclusions under GAAP or IFRS
- Serve as the main contact for external auditors and manage the audit request list
- Maintain and improve internal controls over financial reporting
- Analyze balance sheet and P&L fluctuations and explain variances to management
- Support tax filings by preparing schedules and coordinating with tax advisors
- Identify and drive automation of manual close tasks in the ERP or accounting system
Requirements and skills
- Several years of progressively broader accounting work, including owning a monthly close
- Knows GAAP or IFRS well enough to apply it to a transaction with no precedent
- Hands-on in an ERP or accounting platform such as NetSuite, SAP, or QuickBooks
- Advanced in Excel, including reconciliations that run to thousands of lines
- Has prepared for an external audit and answered its questions
- Reviews other people's work and gives feedback they can act on
- Accurate under deadline pressure, with a working method somebody else could follow
- An accounting or finance degree; public accounting experience counts for a lot
Nice to have
- CPA, ACCA, or CMA certification, completed or in progress
- Experience with multi-entity or multi-currency consolidation
- Background in a Big Four or mid-tier audit firm
- Experience implementing or migrating an ERP or close-management tool
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