Do Accounting Job Titles Matter?

About 30 years ago I started to get more involved in HR work, which is typical when you are a small company finance leader. (A small to mid-sized company often does not have an HR employee so the HR compliance and management tasks fall to the accounting leader, Controller or CFO.) 

A person doing a job search on a laptop.

I discovered many parts of the HR world matched my interests, so I wanted to be a finance leader who had some real HR knowledge. I pursued an SPHR (Senior Professional in Human Resources) designation, which required studying materials and taking an exam. As time passed, I realized recruiting was the part of HR I really liked because I am a lifetime connector. Fast forward to today and I have spent most of the past 20 years as a recruiter.
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One topic that is a continual area of consternation within the recruiting world is job titles. Job seekers and hiring companies alike struggle with accounting and finance job titles. I’ll tell you why and what you can do about it when looking for or posting an accounting job:

What’s in a Name?
A standard HR process is making sure job titles make sense for the job a person is holding at a company. The purpose of a job title is to provide a concise and descriptive label that represents a person's role, responsibilities, and level of authority in a company. Job titles provide a common language that facilitates understanding and efficient communication about job roles. Job titles can signify an individual's career progression within an organization. As employees gain experience and expertise, they may be promoted to higher-level positions with more senior job titles, indicating increased responsibilities.

Job titles definitely play a crucial role in attracting qualified candidates during the recruitment process. Clear and appealing titles can capture candidates' interest and help them quickly assess whether the position aligns with their skills and career goals. Additionally, job titles can contribute to employee satisfaction and retention by providing recognition and a sense of professional accomplishment.

Job titles often follow industry standards as well, which enable organizations to benchmark roles and responsibilities against those of other companies. This allows for easier comparison of positions, compensation packages, and career progression across different organizations and sectors. Job titles themselves and overall job title hierarchy are very important in managing compensation.

The Challenges of Job Titles in Accounting
In my 35+ year career in accounting and HR, for small to mid-sized companies I have observed there really is no standard being used for job titles in the accounting department. For example, a person can hold the number one accounting position reporting to an owner and may have the title of Accounting Manager, Controller, Director of Finance, as well as the more common titles people think of – CFO or VP Finance. Thus, one can easily see how confusing it can be for a job seeker to view a job posting or a hiring manager looking at a resume or thinking of how to recruit for the open position.

Advice for Job Seekers
I often hear a candidate say, “I am not going back in title, I only want the next step up”. And because of the general public perception of the hierarchy of job titles, this makes sense. But to be in a Controller or Director role that reports to the VP Finance or a CFO and refuse to consider a job title of Controller that reports to the CEO/owner of a company is fool hardy from a career development standpoint. Similarly, a CFO that reports to a non-owner CEO, and refuses to consider a Controller or Director or VP role that reports to an owner of the company is missing out on the opportunity to learn and understand what it means to work directly for the owner of a business, not the owner’s hired gun (the non-owner CEO). Or you may be a Controller reporting to a General Manager, and there is an Accounting Manager role reporting to an experienced CFO, and you have never reported to a CFO before. Again, to refuse considering a job for the job title, is being short sighted.

My advice is to look beyond the job title, and really dig into the duties and responsibilities. Learn about the hiring manager’s background and role in the company. Learn about who do they know, professionally and personally. The experience you will gain in the new position may be far more important than the job title you have. This means when you see a job posting or are contacted by an external recruiter, don’t make a quick judgment from the posted job title, or the title used by the recruiter in their message. You need to dig beyond your initial thought of the job only from the job title. Do your research and you may find that a sideways or move down in title, may actually be the step up in your career you want.

In terms of how to manage the public perception when you take this role, just expand a description of your title on your LinkedIn profile and resume. Say Controller – reporting to owner, as an example. Then expand on how it is the number one financial position in the company, describe the senior management level type responsibilities you have even though you may have a perceived “lower title”.

Advice for Hiring Managers
Volumes can be (and have been) written on how to use job titles to manage a company and its compensation structure. My thoughts are strictly on the job title in recruiting. The comments I made above for job seekers show the dilemma faced by companies when hiring an accounting employee. You are dealing with people making a quick judgement of your posted position based only on a job title, or what your hired external recruiter may be saying.

Consider the following scenarios: You may have an accounting department of one – the person is your bookkeeper but also preparing your financial statements and working with you as owner when you are meeting with your bank or CPA. You may have an accounting department of a few employees where one is a degreed accountant, and you as the owner have an MBA. You are a whiz at financial analysis, but you don’t want to spend your time building financial models (although you certainly want them available to review). You may have a person with the CFO title, and they are retiring after working for you for 30 years, but all they did was produce very accurate financial statements, worked with the tax CPA, and your company has no debt. Which title should you use when recruiting for each of these positions? It’s a complicated question to say the least!

My answer to is that you may want to use a different title in your recruiting efforts than you use internally. For internal purposes, you need to think about the perception amongst employees as well as outsiders about the role.

For example, if you have an accounting department of one, and 90% of the work really fits in the classic definition of an Accounting Manager, but you have the person take part in management meetings, go with you as CEO or owner to meet with external service providers, then the job title of Accounting Manager is likely not the one to use. You need to use a title with a stronger perception of authority, even if 90% of the work is lower level. Consider using Controller or Director of Finance. Of course, the challenge is using the title of Controller or Director of Finance in recruiting you will attract people that are more expensive and have more business management then you really need. Thus, you may want to post it with the title of Accounting Manager.

These are the most common sticky job title situations I see at companies these days:

• Often a company will want to use the title of CFO when hiring for their top accounting/finance role because they want to make it sound attractive to people. However, if the position does not have responsibility for managing banking relationships, or the owner only works with family members on developing strategic ideas and plans, the CFO you hire will get frustrated pretty quickly and look for a new role.
• The same goes for using a Controller title to “attract good people” when the role really has no responsibility in developing budgets or providing budget vs actual variance analysis. If the role is just closing accurate financial statements, staying in compliance with state and local tax filings, and getting payroll processed, it is really an Accounting Manager.
• Or you could be calling a person a Staff Accountant yet they are doing 90% of the work in closing the monthly financial statements that are being reviewed by a full time or part time CFO. In this case the role should be listed as an Accounting Manager.
• If your CFO spends 90% of their time in their office, working on state and local tax filings, reviewing the weekly check run, getting financial statements put together and sending them to you as an owner with little to no forward looking information, and rarely talks about matters beyond accounting and tax, that role is actually a Controller.

These examples are where the value of using an external recruiter can help you. It is rare to find a small to mid-sized company that has a person with the time and experience to identify qualified finance and accounting professionals and then reach out to them to get them interested in an open position. The dilemmas I have discussed require a lot of work to figure out. You need an experienced accounting recruiter who understands all the roles in an accounting department and can market the role – explain to the person about the title and the responsibilities, so you get what you as an owner want and need at the right salary level.

The ASP Team has accountants recruiting accountants. Our understanding of all the roles played in a finance and accounting department assists us in engaging the right candidate for the position you really need. We are able to explain to the candidate how the position fits within the company’s organizational structure and how it fits into the candidate’s career and personal goals. It is that knowledge that can make a good match, like an Accounting Manager taking a Controller titled role or convincing a VP Finance that the Controller position really is a step up. This is not easy work for an external recruiter, but it is what they do. It is their core area of expertise and by leveraging that expertise, as the hiring manager and/or owner of the business, it provides you with more time to focus on your core duties and give you assurance you will be hiring the right type of accountant for your open position.

When you need a recruiter that specializes in accounting, please reach out to us! We place accountants at all levels every day, so we have a breadth of experience to draw on when it comes to helping organizations decide how to title their open roles and recruit better to find someone that fits their needs. Contact us to find out more today!

About the Author
Alex de Soto – Partner, CFO Selections

​Alex de Soto anchors the CFO Selections search practice and brings over 30 years of experience in accounting, finance, human resources, and executive search to his role as leader of the search team.
​Since 2008, he has spent most of his time helping CEOs and CFOs of Pacific Northwest based companies find that unique match they seek in a CFO or Controller.

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