Office and Administrative Support · Holland code CE

Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks

Compute, classify, and record numerical data to keep financial records complete. Perform any combination of routine calculating, posting, and verifying duties to obtain primary financial data for use in maintaining accounting records. May also check the accuracy of figures, calculations, and postings pertaining to business transactions recorded by other workers.

Also called: Account Clerk, Accounting Assistant, Accounting Clerk, Accounts Payables Clerk, Accounting Associate, Accounting Specialist, Accounting Technician, Accounts Payable Clerk.

O*NET 43-3031.00

At a glance

US median annual pay: $50,670; Middle half earn $43,520 to $61,470. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Most common education: High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED); 41% of workers surveyed by O*NET report this level.
Preparation needed: Job Zone 3 of 5; Medium preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.
US employment outlook, 2024 to 2034: -6% · Decline; 1,613,400 jobs in 2024, projected 1,519,100. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, which groups this with similar roles as "Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks".

What the work involves

The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.

Operate computers programmed with accounting software to record, store, and analyze information.
Prepare and process payroll information.
Check figures, postings, and documents for correct entry, mathematical accuracy, and proper codes.
Prepare bank deposits by compiling data from cashiers, verifying and balancing receipts, and sending cash, checks, or other forms of payment to banks.
Comply with federal, state, and company policies, procedures, and regulations.
Operate 10-key calculators, typewriters, and copy machines to perform calculations and produce documents.
Receive, record, and bank cash, checks, and vouchers.
Calculate and prepare checks for utilities, taxes, and other payments.

Skills and knowledge it leans on

Skills

Mathematics3.4 / 5
Reading Comprehension3.3 / 5
Active Listening3.3 / 5
Critical Thinking3.3 / 5
Writing3.1 / 5
Speaking3.1 / 5

Knowledge areas

Customer and Personal Service4.2 / 5
Administrative3.9 / 5
Mathematics3.8 / 5
English Language3.4 / 5
Economics and Accounting3.4 / 5
Computers and Electronics3.2 / 5

Importance ratings on O*NET’s 1 to 5 scale. Higher means the occupation depends on it more.

Who tends to enjoy it

How strongly this occupation draws on each of the six Holland interest types, which is the same profile the career interests test compares you against.

Realistic10
Investigative20
Artistic0
Social8
Enterprising31
Conventional100

The same work abroad

Other countries classify jobs differently, so these are the closest matches through the international ISCO-08 standard, not exact equivalents.

European occupation titles (ESCO)

budget manager · DE Budgetverantwortlicher/Budgetverantwortliche · FR directeur du budget/directrice du budget
accountant · DE Controller/Controllerin · FR comptable
accounting analyst · DE Buchhaltungsanalyst/Buchhaltungsanalystin · FR expert-comptable/experte-comptable
accounting assistant · DE Buchhaltungsassistent/Buchhaltungsassistentin · FR assistant vérificateur de comptes/assistante vérificatrice de comptes
bookkeeper · DE Buchhalter/Buchhalterin · FR chargé de comptabilité/chargée de comptabilité
billing clerk · DE Fakturist/Fakturistin · FR secrétaire facturier/secrétaire facturière

Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)

Chartered and certified accountants (2421)233,600 employed
Financial and accounting technicians (3533)37,700 employed
Book-keepers, payroll managers and wages clerks (4122)378,700 employed

Employment is the UK Annual Population Survey for April 2025 to March 2026, all workers in the group, which can be broader than this one occupation.

Japan

Japan classifies jobs in its own way. The closest category that names the same work is “会計事務従事者”, which may be narrower or broader than this occupation.

Median monthly pay: ¥291,100; Middle half earn ¥241,600 to ¥367,100 a month.
Workers in the category: 466,030; Regular employees in firms of ten or more.

Scheduled monthly pay before tax, excluding overtime and bonuses, so it is not comparable to the annual figures above. Source: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025, via e-Stat, under the Japanese Government Standard Terms of Use. The category match was made by hand.

Pay across Europe, for the whole group

Median annual earnings of all employees in “Clerical support workers”. This is the broad ISCO group this occupation falls in, not the occupation itself, so treat it as context for the wage level, not as a salary for this job.

Median annual earnings, Clerical support workers, by country
Country	Median pay
Belgium	€40,035
Austria	€38,296
Germany	€37,844
Netherlands	€35,854
Sweden	€33,483
Ireland	€32,144
Italy	€29,311
France	€25,943
Spain	€22,026
Portugal	€12,602
Poland	€10,250

Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, businesses with ten or more employees outside public administration, in euro and not adjusted for the cost of living. Reference years differ between sources: the US, Japan and Europe figures on this page come from different survey years, so compare them as rough levels, not to the euro or yen.

Exposure to AI

This occupation sits in the higher third of the 774 occupations scored, with an exposure score of +1.04. The scores are standardized across those occupations, so 0 is the average and a score of 1 is about one standard deviation above it.

Our note on reading it: the dataset links AI applications to the abilities that occupations require, so the score reflects overlap between the two. It is a comparison between occupations, not a forecast about jobs. It does not say whether exposure means tasks are replaced or workers get more done with the tools, and it says little about one employer or one role.

Source: Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195-2217. Matched to this page by 6-digit SOC code (43-3031).

Is it a fit for you?

Interest is one input, alongside ability, pay and what is hiring near you. The career interests test takes about thirteen minutes and ranks occupations by how closely their profile matches yours.

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