INSTRUCTOR: When I think of entry-level accounting jobs, these three main roles here come to mind. And although there are a bunch of other entry level jobs in the field of accounting-- such as audit, taxation, et cetera-- usually these three jobs that we'll talk about here today are the ones that are often compared to each other for someone who is looking to break into the world of accounting. So in this video I want to talk about 6 main differences that separate these three jobs from each other as well as let you in on a couple of strategic points such as how to land the job that requires experience even though you have none. This is especially helpful if you or someone close to u is planning to have a career in accounting.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I'd like to begin with an inspirational quote and actually this one helped inspire me throughout my career. Henry Ford once said, "Whether you think you can or you think you cannot, you are right." And this means if you're determined to get there you'll eventually succeed. But if your mindset is to be defeated, it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Difference number one, main responsibility. As you might be aware, the financial statements of the company are mainly fed or built via the transactions that come from accounts payable, accounts receivable, and period-end adjustments. And, therefore, you can say that the main responsibility of the billing analysts is to create accurate invoices and collect the cash timely. While for the accounts payable clerk, it is to ensure that we gather all relevant vendor invoices, code them in a system accurately, and pay them in a timely fashion. Now, the staff accountant will make all of the necessary period-end adjustments these adjustments can be summarized by saying that they make sure that we follow accrual accounting rather than cash accounting. I will leave a link up here for a video that I made on the differences between cash and accrual accounting.

Difference number two is going to be related to your day-to-day activity on the job. The billing analyst, like we said, they're going to be focused on creating invoices, therefore, they're going to spend the majority of their time gathering the necessary information to create these invoices. This information can be, for example, if we're selling a physical product, it would be the purchase order from the customer combined with the shipping notice for the inventory. The billing analyst will also monitor the accounts receivable aging to make sure that we're collecting the cash on time. And naturally they will follow up with customers who are late on payment by sending them a statement of balance due. The accounts payable clerk, as we said, is going to be focused on collecting vendor invoices and I made a video on a day of the life of the accounts payable clerk. I'll leave a link to it up here. You can watch it after watching this video.

But in summary, they mainly focus on a mail inbox where they receive either physical or emailed invoices. And they take these invoices and then either match it up with a purchase order or follow the company's guidelines in making sure that these invoices are approved for payment. They will also answer queries from vendors as they are often bombarded by questions from vendors regarding receiving payment.

On the other hand, the staff accountant will spend about 10 to 15 days of each month closing the previous period. And like we said before, they will be mainly focused on making sure the company is following accrual accounting, which is the accounting method that is approved by US GAAP. They will then spend the next 10 to 15 days either responding to auditor's questions analyzing financial statements or work on improving the current processes. As you can imagine, the staff accountant will interact with both the billing analysts and the accounts payable clerk. For example, the accountant will work with the billing analyst on revenue recognition and an understanding of where the revenue belongs to the current or future periods. But also beside all of these differences, one of the similarities between these three roles is that you'll be drinking a ridiculous amount of coffee just to cope with the amount of work you have to do in these three roles.

Difference number three relates to the education requirement. And it's important to note here that there is a must and a preferred category for education. For the billing analyst and for the accounts payable clerk it is a must to have at least a high school diploma or a two-year business-related degree. Obviously, the lower the level of education that you have, the more you have to compensate with a couple of years of experience. But then it is preferred that you have a four-year business-related degree. Both the two-year and the four-year degree can either be an economics, business administration, accounting, or finance.

For the staff accountant, on the other hand, you must have a two-year business-related degree. It is always going to be preferred that you have a four year degree in accounting. And the four-year degree is going to be the bare minimum requirement for obtaining the CPA certification, which we'll see here later on in the video is the way to progress in this career track.

Difference number four is going to be work experience. Now, all of these three roles can be entry-level positions without any work experience at all. Now, let us say that you find one of these roles in a company that you like, and you look at the job description, and you find that the company requires either one or two years of experience.

Now, in this case, here is a strategic advice that I can give you as a hiring manager for many, many years. And that is even if you have zero experience and the job requires some experience, you can still apply for it if you meet at least about 80% of the requirements for the job. This means that having no experience shouldn't stop you from applying for jobs that require experience.

Difference number five is certification. And what I mean here is what certification is going to further and progress your career the most. Now, with both the billing analyst and the accounts payable clerk, to my knowledge and feel free to correct me in the comments section below, there aren't really well-known certifications, aside from the CMA or the Certified Management Account and certification, while with the staff accountant, the golden certification is going to always be the CPA license, which stands for cannot pass again-- of course, I'm kidding it stands for Certified Public Accountant.

Now, the second best is going to be CMA, or the Certified Management Accountant. I will leave a link up here for a video I made on the differences between the CPA and the CMA. And in that video I cover everything from requirements to the maximum impact on your career.

Difference number six is career trajectory because, at the end of the day, we're doing all of this so we can progress our career, make more money, increase our status, et cetera, et cetera. And, obviously, it goes without saying here that the level of progress that you'll make in your career will be heavily reliant on whether or not you're willing to get additional education and certification.

Now, with that said, for the accounts payable clerk if you are not willing to get additional academics, you'll probably max out at the level of accounts payable manager. But if you go out and get a four-year business degree and couple that with a CMA license, you could easily progress into a procurement director. And if you swap that license for a CPA license, you could be well on your way to becoming a corporate controller.

A similar pattern here with the billing analysts, where if you get no extra academics, you will probably max out at a billing manager level. While if you pursue a four-year degree and a CPA or CMA license, it will put you in a position to become either a director of revenue or a corporate controller down the line.

Now, with a staff accountant, if you're not willing to get any additional licensing, such as CPA or CMA, you will likely max out at the accounting manager or the assistant controller level. But if you obtain one of these two licenses, you will likely be on a trajectory to become a controller, a director of revenue, or even a chief accounting officer one day. So obviously the advice here is that you should max out your potential by going out and obtaining a four-year business-related degree and if you have the stamina and the time to go out and get licensed as a CPA or CMA.

Also, if you're looking to supercharge your accounting or financial analyst career, you should check out my 2-hour online course on KPI and financial metric design and implementation. In this course I'll be analyzing two different businesses, one is a yogurt manufacturer and the other is an online marketplace. And we'll begin by understanding the nature and the objectives of the business and then we'll be examining the financial statements and we will begin to design KPIs that will help us measure performance. After you complete the course and take a few simple quizzes, you'll be able to download a certificate of graduation in PDF, which you can then attach to your LinkedIn profile.

This has been everything for today. I hope you found the video helpful. If you liked it, smash it like button. And if you know someone who's about to embark on a journey in an accounting career, go ahead and share this video with them and I'll see you in the next one.