Amtec Hiring Guides

How to Hire Accounting Managers in Gilbert

Amtec Hiring Guides

How to Hire Accounting Managers in Gilbert

Current Environment

As companies grow and revenues increase, so too will the number of accountants needed to keep up with the financial management of the organization. As the number of accountants increases, the need for a manager to oversee them as employees and oversee their work is needed. their work. The staff will need leadership to ensure they’re all working toward the same goal, mission, and vision. Successful accounting manager recruitment is a keystone to a prosperous team.

Accounting managers don’t just supervise accountants; they create systems and processes for analyzing and reporting financial information, ensure organizations follow legal and regulatory requirements and recommend improvements for business procedures. Depending on the type of business, accounting managers may also prepare annual budgets, track financial data, and make recommendations on financial decisions.

History

The history of the field of finance and the recording and management of financial activities dates back to the dawn of civilization. While fiance has roots in scientific fields, such as statistics, economics, and mathematics, it also includes non-scientific elements that liken it to art.

As the complexity of financial instruments, transactions, stock markets, reporting requirements, and regulation has increased, the need for specialized roles in finance and accounting has grown.

How will Recruiting accounting managers Help Your Company?

How will Hiring accounting managers Help Your Company?

As your company grows and your financial matrices become more complex, it will be helpful to hire an accounting manager in order to place a bit of a buffer between the CFO, the controller, and the staff accountants. This will allow for a smoother flow of communication and will ensure that all accountants are getting the same information and are all on the same page.

An accounting manager will help in a number of other ways besides supervision and communication. They will also provide another set of eyes on financial statements and provide needed quality control as they review documents and pay attention to even the smallest details.

They will also be responsible for taking large data sets from staff accountants and condensing them into smaller, more manageable soundbites and presentations when it comes to budget and accounting reporting hierarchies.

accounting manager Details

Responsibilities

Accounting managers act as leaders within their organization, ensuring their accounting staff meets goals. In addition to communicating with their team, accounting managers interact with executives in their organization to discuss priorities and report on their responsibilities.

They update financial documents, design plans for their department, and work with direct reports and supervisors; all of these responsibilities require strong organizational skills.

Accounting managers also do the following things:

  • Collaborate with other department managers to support overall organizational goals and objectives
  • Advise staff on the handling of non-routine transactions
  • Respond to inquiries from financial executives and other firm-wide leaders regarding financial results and special requests
  • Handle personnel conflicts and performance issues among accounting staff
  • Discuss budget issues with managers in other departments
  • Work with other departments to communicate accounting policies and procedures and enforce them
  • Present financial results to upper management

Looking for another position? View other positions we place in Gilbert, Arizona.

Education

Some accounting positions require a Bachelor’s degree, however that is not true across the board. While candidates can complete a degree in Business Administration, Public Administration, Finance, or Accounting, a wide variety of degrees may qualify someone for the role, depending on their previous experience.

Top Schools – US News & World Report rankings.

Top Schools

  • University of Texas at Austin

  • BYU-Provo

  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Salary Range

accounting managers in the U.S.

$68k
Low
$147k
Average
$208k
High
108100k

Total accounting managers Employed in the U.S.

46.5%

Men

53.5%

Women

accounting manager Salary Comparison

National

Experience plays a significant role in the overall compensation potential for accounting managers. Obviously, the more experience you have, the more you can and likely will be paid. That said, those candidates who are highly qualified can expect to be included in high-level decision-making processes and, therefore, can expect to be well compensated for their work.

For more detailed compensation information for accounting managers in [city-name], download our free compensation/salary report below.

Arizona

The average annual salary for accounting managers in Arizona was 123k in 2019. The hourly wage averaged $59.24.

For more detailed compensation information for accounting managers in Gilbert, download our free compensation/salary report below.

Working in Gilbert

Do accounting managers enjoy working and living in Gilbert? The city gets good reviews.

Gilbert is located in the southeastern portion of the Phoenix metro area. It’s an upscale burb, sandwiched between Mesa and Chandler, two very similar towns that are all part of the Valley of the Sun, the sprawling Phoenix metropolitan area.

The city is often ranked as one of the well-to-do parts of the valley and is known for its family-friendly and safe community. The town tends to be a bit more affordable than its neighboring cities, and regularly gets mentioned in “Best City” lists.

Here are a few more high points about the town.

Pros

    • Gilbert regularly comes out ahead on side-by-side comparisons with other cities. The Phoenix Business Journal recently wrote an entire article about why Gilbert shows up on all the best places lists.
    • Wallethub recently ranked Gilbert the 23rd Happiest City in America. The study examined more than 180 cities based on 30 key indicators of happiness, ranging from depression rate to income-growth rate to average leisure time spent per day.
    • The city center is known for its amazing mix of destination restaurants, from breweries to Barbeque you can find it all, and the city’s agricultural roots show through in its food.
    • Housing costs, although high, are slightly lower in Gilbert than in nearby cities. One Quora commenter put it this way: You might find a higher paying job in Chandler, but you will have a lower mortgage payment in Gilbert.
    • Recruitment agency and staffing company services are also available from Amtec for Gilbert.

Of course, there are a few things that people consider less-than-stellar, but the complaints are few and far between.

Cons

    • Urban sprawl is a common complaint in many of the suburbs surrounding Phoenix, including Gilbert. The geographic area is enormous, so getting around takes a while.
    • Like most Arizona cities, summers are hot. But then in the winter there no snow. So…
    • You need a car. There is bus service and some light rail in Phoenix, so living without a car is not impossible, but it will be inconvenient.

Current Weather

Not your city? View other cities where we place accounting managers.

Demand for accounting managers in Gilbert

Demand for accounting managers in Gilbert

Positions in accounting will see an unusually high growth trajectory in the next 10 years. This is testimony to just how important this position is when it comes to an organization’s overall success. Positions in accounting and finance at all levels have a strong demand across many industries and types of organizations, including the public sector.

According to the BLS, the job outlook for directors of finance is projected to grow 15% from 2019-2029, much faster than the 4% average growth predicted for all jobs. However, this growth is expected to vary by industry.

Financial managers and accountants in the investment industry, cash management, and risk management are expected to stay in high demand.

The supply of candidates and demand for open positions have a direct correlation to a company's ability to hire. Download a free Supply and Demand report for accounting managers in Gilbert, Arizona below.

How to Hire the Best accounting managers

Finding and hiring the best accounting manager candidates can save you money right away and well into the future.

The costs of making a bad hire are well documented. The cost can run as much as 30% of the employee's first-year earnings according to the US Department of Labor. Bad hires can cost a whopping $240,000 in expenses related to hiring, compensation, and retention per The Undercover Recruiter. 74% of companies who admit they've hired the wrong person for a position lost an average of $14,900 for each bad hire according to CareerBuilder. These statistics support our long-held position that behavioral questions are the best way to get to know your candidates and past behavior is the best indicator of future performance.

Recruiting Best Practices

The information below comes from the best practices Amtec uses for finding the highest quality candidates.

Defining the Position

When defining the role you are creating, we recommend a position profile to fully evaluate the position you are hiring for. You must decide if the engineer can work remotely or must work in Arizona. If working in Gilbert is essential, make sure you include that in your job posting so candidates can decide how many miles they can commute.

How to Source the Best Candidates

When you are looking to source the best quality candidates for your open positions, make sure you have done the legwork to hire an "A Player". You can do this by making sure your company's perspective is aligned with the current market, you have taken into account the job responsibilities, as well as what type of characteristics you are looking for to fit your company culture. Then proceed to write a job posting to attract high-quality candidates.

Characteristics of accounting managers

Finding candidates who are great with numbers, knowledgeable of the latest accounting principles, proficient in the use of a variety of software programs and tools is important for your success. But besides these things, look for candidates who have experience, abilities, or character traits such as:

  • Strong organizational skills
  • The ability to analyze financial data, draw conclusions about past performance
  • Experience developing financial reports, for example, profit and loss statements
  • Managerial skills and experience as managing an accounting staff will be a large part of the job

How to Screen Candidates

You wrote a job posting, posted the position online, and received a lot more resumes than you’d bargained for! Next comes the enormous task of sorting through those resumes to eliminate the ones that are clearly not a good fit. Now, you have a stack of resumes for candidates who have potential. So how do you go about screening the remaining candidates?

It starts on the phone! As a recruiter, the goal of your telephone screening is to learn more about your candidates. You can confirm that they have the educational qualifications and relevant experience, but you also need to determine if they would fit into your company's culture. To make this job easier, use a system to consistently evaluate results. This way you can equally and objectively compare candidates and evaluate their "soft skills", like communication and thinking process. Download Amtec's Professional Assessment Questionnaire below to help with screening candidates.

Free Professional Assessment Questionnaire

An individually customized questionnaire that helps assess a candidate's competence with written communication skills, thinking processes, and other relevant skills.

How to Interview Candidates

At Amtec, we believe in the power of behavoral interview questions to go beyond the experience and skills listed on the candidate's resume. Although you will want to confirm in the interview that the candidate does indeed have the experience listed on their resume, your assessment needs to go much deeper than that. An interview using behavioral questions can help you determine how well the candidate will fit with your company culture.

Download Amtec's best practices on conducting super effective interviews to find the best candidates and fill your open jobs.

Behavioral Interview Guide

Get the info you need to hire the best accounting managers

Free Interview Guide