Accountant and bookkeeper job descriptions for Australian firms, with salary ranges

Before you copy one

Edit the duties to match the work you'll hand over in the first three months. Candidates read the list as a promise, so a duty you never hand over costs you trust in the first month.

Graduate accountant job description

You'll join our tax and business services team and work on small business and individual clients under a senior accountant, who reviews your work and helps you learn.

What you'll do

• Prepare individual, sole trader and partnership tax returns from client records, for review by a senior.
• Prepare draft financial statements and workpapers for small companies and trusts.
• Reconcile bank and loan accounts in Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks before year-end work starts.
• Prepare BAS workpapers for review.
• Chase missing information from clients by email and phone, and keep the job notes up to date.

What you'll need

• A bachelor degree in accounting, or one that a professional body will accept, finished or in its last year.
• Enrolled in, or willing to start, the CA Program or the CPA Program. Say what study support you offer, for example study leave and exam fees.
• Working knowledge of at least one cloud ledger. We train on the rest.
• Clear written English, because most client contact is email.

Intermediate or senior accountant job description

You'll look after your own group of business clients from start to finish, review the team's work and be the person clients call first.

What you'll do

• Run a portfolio of business clients: companies, trusts, partnerships and SMSFs, from data to signed financials and returns.
• Review the work of graduates and bookkeepers, and write review notes that teach rather than fix.
• Prepare and review activity statements and FBT returns, and keep the lodgement program on track.
• Handle ATO correspondence and portal queries for your clients.
• Meet clients to explain their results, with a partner where advice is involved.

What you'll need

• Three or more years in public practice (five or more for a senior title).
• CA or CPA qualified, or close to finishing.
• Confident with Division 7A, trust distributions and the small business concessions.
• Experience reviewing other people's work.

For an intermediate role, drop the review duty and the client meetings, and ask for two years' experience.

Bookkeeper job description

You'll keep the books for a list of our business clients, so their accountant gets clean records at month-end and at year-end.

What you'll do

• Code and reconcile bank feeds for a set list of clients each week.
• Enter and pay supplier bills, and raise and chase customer invoices.
• Run payroll, including Single Touch Payroll reporting and super payments.
• Reconcile GST and prepare the BAS for review, or lodge it if you are a registered BAS agent.
• Keep month-end checklists for each client and flag anything odd to the client manager.

What you'll need

• At least a Certificate IV in bookkeeping or accounting.
• BAS agent registration is a plus, not a must, if the role prepares BAS for our registered agents to check and lodge.
• Two or more years doing the books for several clients at once.
• Xero or MYOB certification, or willing to get it in the first month.

Qualifications for accountants and bookkeepers

Jobs and Skills Australia notes that accountants need registration with one of Australia's three peak accounting bodies (Jobs and Skills Australia). Each has its own route:

• CPA Australia: a recognised degree, four compulsory subjects and two electives, and 36 months of relevant experience, which can come before, during or after the subjects (CPA Australia).
• CA ANZ: the CA Program's study plus three years of mentored practical experience with an approved training employer (CA ANZ).
• IPA: the IPA Program's Graduate Certificate in Public Accounting and its Mentored Experience Program (IPA).

For bookkeepers, the Tax Practitioners Board's main route to BAS agent registration starts with at least a Certificate IV in bookkeeping or accounting and a Board-approved GST/BAS course. On top of that you need 1,400 hours of relevant experience in the past four years. Members of a recognised BAS or tax agent association need 1,000 hours (TPB). Registration isn't always needed in-house: an employee or contractor of a registered tax or BAS agent who doesn't provide BAS services in their own right is exempt (TPB, registration).

Which award applies

Fair Work says accountants working for an accounting firm aren't covered by an award. Accountants working elsewhere are only covered if their employer's industry award has a classification that matches their duties (Fair Work Ombudsman). The Professional Employees Award, which people often assume applies, covers engineering, science, IT, quality auditing, telecommunications and medical research. Accounting isn't on that list (clause 4). Award-free staff still get the National Employment Standards and the national minimum wage.

Bookkeepers are different. Fair Work says the Clerks Award covers clerical employees in an accounting firm (Fair Work Ombudsman), and the award's classifications describe bookkeeping work level by level. Reconciling accounts and keeping payroll data sits at Level 2. Posting journals to the ledger and keeping wage records is Level 3, and preparing financial or tax schedules is Level 4 (Clerks Award, Schedule A). Match the person's actual duties to a level, then check the current award rate on Fair Work. The salaries below sit well above award minimums, but the award also sets overtime and other conditions.

Accountant and bookkeeper salary in Australia

These figures come from three sources measured in different ways: ABS survey medians, SEEK's average of advertised salaries, and Robert Half's starting-salary percentiles, which exclude super. Use them as a range, not a price list.

Scroll sideways to see the whole table.

Two points for firms. Accounting firms advertise lower than some other employers: SEEK's average for accountant ads in mining and resources is $119,862, against $83,812 in accounting (SEEK). And 60% of bookkeepers work part time (Jobs and Skills Australia), so a full-time bookkeeper ad is competing for a smaller pool.

Here's a worked example. You're hiring a senior accountant in Sydney and want someone at Robert Half's median. That's $130,800 base, and Robert Half's figures exclude super, so the Superannuation Guarantee goes on top, then software, a desk and any recruiter fee. A senior at the 25th percentile ($119,900) is someone new to the role, by Robert Half's own description. Say your budget only reaches the SEEK accounting-industry average of $83,812. Then you're probably hiring an intermediate, so write the ad for one rather than wait months for a senior.

When you can't fill the role

A good ad can still bring no one suitable. That isn't always the ad, and we've set out the numbers in Australia's accountant shortage.

If the bookkeeper role has sat open for months, look hard at what the role does. Coding, reconciliations and payroll follow the same steps every week, which makes them the easiest work to write down and hand to an outsourced bookkeeping team. That frees your accountants for review and client work. We've explained how outsourced bookkeeping works in Australia, and what it costs. Your review, sign-off and lodgement stay with your firm either way.

Questions

Does a bookkeeper need to be a registered BAS agent?

Not if they work for your registered firm and don't provide BAS services in their own right, says the TPB. A bookkeeper who takes on clients for a fee under their own name does need to be registered.

Should I put the salary in the ad?

Yes, as a range. SEEK's salary pages are built from the ranges employers disclose, so candidates can see where your number sits against everyone else's.

Next step

If you've been trying to hire for months, book a call with me. Tell me which role is open and what the person would do each week. If the work suits a dedicated person in our South African team, working in your software with a weekly review, we can usually have them live in about four weeks. If it doesn't, I'll say so, and you'll have saved another month of ads. You can also read how we work.