What is a Staff Accountant?

In the first installment of the Finance Department series, we overviewed most of the positions you would find in a small business Finance Department, then, we took a deeper look at the Bookkeeper role. Now, let’s chat about an early to mid-level Accounting position, the Staff Accountant or Accountant. If you haven’t read What are all these Finance Positions anyway, you can do that here.

What is a Staff Accountant and what do they do? 

The Staff Accountant will generally do more than a Bookkeeper due to a general better understanding of debits and credits. Staff Accountants can do everything a Bookkeeper can do but also do some of the simpler balance sheet reconciliations such as bank accounts, fixed assets and prepaid expenses. In addition, most of the time this position would also have a finance position above it, like a Senior Accountant or Controller. In larger Finance Departments you likely will have more than one Staff Accountant. This position would need oversight of a higher level position, as mentioned above, and would have the option for growth within the department.

When do you need a Staff Accountant?

This question would be best answered by the person that’s in your Finance Department. Like mentioned above, this would not be the evolution of the Bookkeeper role. If you, as the business owner, have a high volume transaction environment (perhaps a B2C organization), this role is a great idea. The Staff Accountant allows for your finance leadership to take some of the detailed activities off of their plate so they can have a more strategic/oversight view.

If you are looking for what’s next after a Bookkeeper, this would be something to consider, but with the understanding that they will need oversight in some cases more than a Bookkeeper. The Staff Accountant role is generally a stepping stone role on the path to finance leadership. It can be hard to decide what your particular company needs, so feel free to reach out to us for a free consultation, and we can chat about what would help your business and your particular situation the most.

Stayed tuned for the next in the series, the Senior Accountant.