When you hire an accountant, determining fair accountant compensation depends on hours worked, background experience and regional salaries. There is a wide range in accounting jobs, including accounting analysts, accounting auditors, accounting specialists and others. Each of which holds to a different pay scale. Determining a fair salary for accountants is painless when you're using salary tools for accountants.

Simply follow accountant industry salary guidelines offered by consultants, programs and charts to determine a proper salary for accountants. To do this in an optimal manner you might want to consider:

1. Keeping current with changes in accountant salaries;

2. Adjusting the pay scale to meet accounting salaries appropriate to your area;

3. And using accountants pay tools that suit your unique business requirements.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Keep up with changes in the industry through accountant salary tracking tools

When working with certified public accountant salary tools (CPA salary tools), use ones that receive regular updates in regards to changes in the industry and the economy. You don't want to underpay a good accountant and risk losing their expertise, nor do you want your business taken advantage of.

I recommend: Concur Technologies provides information to business owners to determine changes in pay. It holds regular webinars for employers, so they learn to optimize business money management and pay and expense rates. Koker Goodwin & Associates offers the Compease software system, which helps determine salaries for accounting. It also provides consulting, support and webinars to keep employers current with changes in compensation management.

Find a consultant specializing in solutions for finding an appropriate accountant salary

A consultant with a focus on compensation most likely knows the ins and outs of accounting salary guidelines.

I recommend: Indeed offers employees direction on compensation solutions for management salaries and other financial decisions. It collects data and determines rates and timeliness for accountant compensation. Corporate Compensation Partners dedicates itself to assisting employers in determining compensation for management consulting. It tutors employers in the implementation software and tools, so employers work effectively and yield optimal results.

Find accountant salary information online with tools and charts

Since salaries for accountants vary by region and experience, use an online tool to determine the going rate in your area. These tools are simple to fill out and give you immediate feedback.

I recommend: The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants offers numerous resources for accountants in the US. It also offers individualized tools, so employers can easily determine pay rates for their area. PayScale offers a chart showing the median salary for accountants based on their years of experience. It offers charts for ranges from under a year of experience to over 20 years with choices of one to four years, five to nine years and more.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Learn to use tools to determine the salary of an accountant by getting one-on-one training from product suppliers. Determine what your options are for product upgrades, so you keep current in the industry.

Accounting salaries – like any salary – need to stay competitive in order to keep the employees you value and enable you to recruit new staff. But what is a fair salary for accountants? If you’ve been lucky enough to have had the same accountant on your staff for years and years, you may have an especially difficult time determining accountant's pay. If you are just adding an accountant position to your firm, you may not even know where to begin.

Many factors come into play when determining competitive accountant compensation. Use the following tips to help you come up with basic accounting salary guidelines:

1. Use online accountant salary tools to determine the average business accountant salary based on several variables.

2. Search job boards for examples of accountants pay based on job description, locations and experience level.

3. Factor in employee benefits when establishing accounting salaries.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Determine a fair accountant salary based on job description

If you don't have a job description for your accountant positions, come up with one. Things to include are job duties, skills set and expectations. Then, use online salary tools to help you figure out what the typical accountant compensation is for a person that matches that job description. Be sure to keep the number of years of experience and job location in mind.

I recommend: Accounting Jobs Today has a Salary Wizard powered by Salary.com to help you determine a fair salary for accountants based on job description. PayScale lets you search for accountant salary information and provides a graph showing median accountant salaries based on years of experience. Find a detailed breakdown of accounting salaries at the U.S. Department of Labor. Find starting accountant salary ranges in the annual report from Accountemps.

Compare accounting salaries on national job boards

You can research all day long and find hypotheticals, but sometimes the best information out there are real-life examples. Check out your local newspaper's classified section or search online job boards to find accountant salary information from real job postings. Keep a log for a few weeks to see if you a pattern or average emerges. If you are in the market for hiring a new accountant, these same job boards are a great place to start your search.

I recommend: Find accounting industry salary information on niche boards, such as iHireAccounting or AccountingCrossing. Industrywide job boards are another good place to gather information. Check out Monster.com and Yahoo! HotJobs.

Keep employee benefits in mind when establishing accountants pay

An accountant salary is not that only thing that will attract and keep employees. Such benefits as medical and dental insurance, vacation pay, life insurance, flexible hours, casual dress and more are also key factors. Keep all benefits in mind when coming up with the salary of an accountant.

I recommend: Get a free subscription to Employee Benefit News to stay on top of the latest in employee benefits. The U.S. Department of Labor summarizes what types of employee benefits the average U.S. worker has access to.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  If you're a small business that is having a hard time matching the accountants pay of larger companies, tout more responsibility and room for growth to prospective employees. Offer impressive titles as another benefit.

Knowing the basics of salary tools for accountants helps an employer determine the appropriate pay scale for a given region. Accountant salaries vary greatly depending on the type of accounting an employee excels in, the locale of the company and the experience of each particular accountant. A certified public accountant salary, or CPA accountant salary, also depends on whether the company is a non-profit organization or not.

Determine accounting salaries easily and fairly by using tools and resources designed specifically for this task. In order to determine the proper accountants pay for services rendered, it's important to learn some salary tools basics. To do this, you might want to ask some pertinent questions:

1. What is the average salary for accountants in your particular area?

2. Do you know accountant salary information guidelines to ensure adequate CPA salaries?

3. Which salary for accountant tools best suit your individualized business needs?

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Determine an accountant salary based on software data

Some companies offer computer programs that update and analyze data to make sure businesses get current information on pay rate statistics.

I recommend: Salary.com offers solutions to employers with products such as its CompAnalyst Suite compensation software. The program analyzes pay competitiveness and automates the pricing in the market. Bauschke & Associates offers employers Queue, a compensation management program that allows business owners the ability to determine compensation for employees. It offers salary tables to help employers find appropriate salaries within a region.

Check out charts with a certified public accountant salary guideline from surveys and studies

Analyze accountant salaries to determine fair prices. Every region of the country has a unique pay scale. Study the charts to ensure that you do not underpay or over pay an accountant in your employ.

I recommend: Vault.com offers charts explaining accounting salaries spanning several years. The charts factor in degrees, years of experience, projected salaries and location. Simply Hired offers charts detailing the average salaries for accounting. Its charts reflect a summary of the job listing information the site receives.

Utilize online calculators to determine accounting salaries for a given area

Some online calculators offer quick results for a particular region in regards to pay scales in the accounting field. Plug in a position and location and find the results in your area with the click of a button.

I recommend: Mployd.com offers an online salary calculator for accounting. It gives a job overview and offers a fill-in box, so researchers easily determine job rates in a particular region. CBsalary.com offers an online tool for calculating salary. It not only provides national averages but also local regional results.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Garner salary tools for accountants basics information from other businesses in the industry similar to yours and use programs that keep the information on pay scales in your region current.

Finding the right accountant salary tools to use is an important aspect of recruiting and retaining the best accountants possible. Without the proper tools and software, you could lose some of your best accountants to a firm that better understands compensation and salary options.

Look for salary tools to help you keep track of payroll, but don't forget about analytical tools that will help you keep track of accountant salary trends to determine what you should be paying your accountants. Review a few key terms associated with salaries and the software available for managing your payroll.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Salary range and median salary

Salary range is the basic pay scale from the minimum wage an employee receives to the maximum wage an employee with the same duties or position receives. The median salary is the salary amount calculated as the midpoint of that range.

I recommend: Berkeley human resources glossary defines the salary range. GradsOnline defines the median salary in its glossary of terms. The glossary also includes other salary tool terms.

Certified public accountant and certified management accountant

The certified public accountant, CPA, and certified management accountant, CMA, differ in several ways that may affect how their salaries are determined. The CPA is licensed, or certified, in the geographic area, while a CMA has gone through a more intense accreditation process by the Institute of Management Accountants and has educational and practical accounting experience.

I recommend: The certified public accountant and certified management accountant are defined at the NYSSCPA.org website.

Competitive compensation

Competitive compensation is a means of determining pay for accountants and other professionals. Salary is based on merit or productivity. While an accountant may have a base salary, that amount is adjusted based on the amount of accounts or business an individual brings in or handles.

I recommend: RSM McCladrey reviews the competitive compensation theory and explains how it works.

Attendance bonus

An attendance bonus is the compensation an employer rewards an employee with for never missing work. The compensation can be a one-time bonus, or a company can choose to award their employees each pay period, once a month or whenever they wish.

I recommend: Salary.com defines the attendance bonus.

Performance management tool

The performance management tool, PMT, is a type of software used to outline an accountant position duties, qualifications needed, skills and basic performance expected. The PMT is often used as part of a salary tool to outline job openings.

I recommend: The performance management tool is defined in an article at Rensselear.

Salary survey software

Salary survey software is software designed to keep a company up to date on the latest news and trends associated with industry-specific salary changes. Used as part of an accountant salary tool it can keep your salaries competitive with the company down the street.

I recommend: Read how salary survey software works at the Economic Research Institute.