Accountants and auditors: pay, outlook and skills
Examine, analyze, and interpret accounting records to prepare financial statements, give advice, or audit and evaluate statements prepared by others. Install or advise on systems of recording costs or other financial and budgetary data.
Pay distribution and location comparison
These are published pay distribution points for everyone working in this occupation, not pay levels for junior, mid, or senior roles. Location figures are pay as published; no cost-of-living adjustment is applied.
United States, all industries
| Pay point | United States | Selected area |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $56,020 | - |
| 25th percentile | $67,020 | - |
| Median | $83,680 | - |
| 75th percentile | $109,810 | - |
| 90th percentile | $144,090 | - |
| People employed | 1,449,500 | - |
Source: OEWS May 2025, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (imported 9/17/2026) official file Reference period: OEWS May 2025.
Long-term outlook
Official ten-year projection for 2025 to 2035. Projected annual openings are an average per year over the decade, including openings from workers leaving the occupation. They are not a count of jobs open today.
Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-2035, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (imported 9/17/2026) official file Employment is published in thousands of jobs and converted here to people.
OptimizeResume analysis using U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. This is not a BLS statistic or a prediction that an individual will be hired.
Score trend
Historical scores may be restated when BLS revises underlying data. The chart uses the latest restated values.
Confidence
- At least 90% of required inputs and occupation-industry mapping are covered.
How this score is built
Monthly industry demand is mapped to this occupation using official occupation-industry relationships, then combined with occupation fundamentals and long-term projections.
Read Methodology v1.0Skills, software, and day-to-day work
Skill values are O*NET importance ratings on a 1-5 scale for the occupation itself. They describe what the work requires, not how much employers are hiring right now.
Most important skills
- Reading Comprehension3.9 / 5
- Active Listening3.5 / 5
- Complex Problem Solving3.5 / 5
- Critical Thinking3.5 / 5
- Judgment and Decision Making3.5 / 5
- Writing3.5 / 5
- Mathematics3.4 / 5
- Speaking3.4 / 5
- Active Learning3.3 / 5
- Monitoring3.3 / 5
- Social Perceptiveness3.3 / 5
- Persuasion3.1 / 5
O*NET importance rating, 1 (not important) to 5 (extremely important).
Software and technology
- Enterprise resource planning ERP softwareSAP software (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology), Oracle PeopleSoft (hot technology), Workday software (hot technology), Accountants Templates JAZZ-It!, AcornSystems Corporate Performance Management, Cartesis ES Magnitude
- Accounting softwareIntuit QuickBooks (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology), SAP Concur (hot technology), Accounts payable software, Accounts receivable software, Accurate NXG, AcorynSystems Activity Based Costing/Management ABC/M
- Office suite softwareMicrosoft Office software (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology), Corel WordPerfect Office Suite, Microsoft Works
- Electronic mail softwareMicrosoft Outlook (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology), IBM Notes, Microsoft Exchange
- Spreadsheet softwareMicrosoft Excel (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology), Google Sheets (hot technology)
- Presentation softwareMicrosoft PowerPoint (in demand for this occupation) (hot technology), Google Slides
- Tax preparation softwareIntuit TurboTax (hot technology), 1099 ProsSoftware, Abacus Tax, Advanced Micro Systems 1099-Etc, American Riviera Magtax, ATX Total Tax Office
- Compliance softwareAccounting compliance software, ACCUCert, Bi3 Audit Intelligence, Corporate Responsibility System Technologies Limited Compliance Positioning System, Intrax ProcedureNet, Lumigent Entegra
- Financial analysis softwareAccounting fraud detection software, ACL Business Assurance Analytics, Audit management software, Audit planning and control environment software, AuditWare CaseWare Examiner, AuditWare financial reporting and auditing software
- Data base user interface and query softwareMicrosoft Access (hot technology), Microsoft SQL Server (hot technology), Oracle Database (hot technology), Structured query language SQL (hot technology), Yardi software (hot technology), Best Software CPAPayroll
- Analytical or scientific softwareIBM SPSS Statistics (hot technology), SAS (hot technology), ACL Audit Exchange, Arbutus Analyzer, Guidance Software EnCase Enterprise, WizSoft WizRule
- Document management softwareAdobe Acrobat (hot technology), Microsoft SharePoint (hot technology), Document management system software, Iron Mountain Accutrac records management software, OmniRIM Records Management Suite, Sage CPADocument Manager
O*NET marks individual examples only. “Hot technology” means the tool is frequently named across job postings generally; “in demand for this occupation” means O*NET recorded it as required by employers for this occupation. Unmarked examples are still commonly used.
Typical tasks
- Prepare, examine, or analyze accounting records, financial statements, or other financial reports to assess accuracy, completeness, and conformance to reporting and procedural standards.
- Process invoices for payment.
- Review accounts for discrepancies and reconcile differences.
- Compute taxes owed and prepare tax returns, ensuring compliance with payment, reporting, or other tax requirements.
- Prepare adjusting journal entries.
- Inspect account books and accounting systems for efficiency, effectiveness, and use of accepted accounting procedures to record transactions.
- Prepare detailed reports on audit findings.
- Prepare, analyze, or verify annual reports, financial statements, and other records, using accepted accounting and statistical procedures to assess financial condition and facilitate financial planning.
- Collect and analyze data to detect deficient controls, duplicated effort, extravagance, fraud, or non-compliance with laws, regulations, and management policies.
- Review data about material assets, net worth, liabilities, capital stock, surplus, income, or expenditures.
Also advertised as: Accountant, Accounting Officer, Audit Partner, Auditor, Cost Accountant, CPA (Certified Public Accountant), Financial Auditor, Financial Reporting Accountant.
Check your resume against a real job posting
This page describes the occupation in general. A free scan compares your own resume with the specific job description you are applying to, requirement by requirement, and shows where your real experience is already strong and where it is simply not documented yet. Only experience you actually have should ever be added.
Scan my resume freeSource: O*NET Database version 31.0 by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. Used under CC BY 4.0. OptimizeResume has modified the data for display only: selected the most important rated skills, grouped software examples by category while keeping each example’s official flags, and shortened the task list.
Guides for applying to this work
Sources and how to read this page
Source: OEWS May 2025, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (imported 9/17/2026) official file
Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-2035, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (imported 9/17/2026) official file
O*NET 31.0 Database version 31.0 by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0 and modified for display on this page. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
How each number should be read
- Pay percentiles describe the spread of pay across everyone in the occupation, not experience levels.
- Employment counts are jobs, not people hired during the year.
- Projected annual openings are a decade average from the official projection, not current vacancies.
- O*NET skill ratings describe the work, not employer hiring demand.
- Values BLS did not publish, suppressed, or top-coded are shown as such and never treated as zero.