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Average Auditor Salary

Charlie S
In the world of finance and accounting, the role played by auditors is extremely important. This write-up will give you information about the job description of a typical auditor and average auditor salary in some detail.
Today's business environment is very competitive and fierce. Firms, to survive in the race, have to adopt new methods of production, marketing and distribution, to satisfy their clients or customers more than their rival firms.
In this process, they also have to inculcate high level of corporate governance. It is very unethical for promoters or high level management of companies to show false profit and loss details and mislead their stake holders and shareholders. This is where the need of an independent audit arises.
An auditor will assess whether the management has provided the right details about the profit / loss position of the company. Considering the importance of their work, the average auditor salary has grown rapidly over the years. With increasing business, the need of auditors is expected to rise fast as per the opinion of job market experts.

Job Description

An auditor's job description consists of the following tasks:
  • Auditors study the financial history of the company by examining their records, and their bookkeeping and accounting standards.
  • Verification of balance sheets through monitoring.
  • Issuing an audit report.
  • An internal auditor is a full-time employee of the company, and he does the auditing tasks for the senior management to know where they stand as far as financial performance is concerned.
  • External auditors do auditing tasks for public accounting firms as well as self-employed individuals. Such a type of audit is conducted once in a financial year.
Auditors are expected to perform their duties with high level of professionalism and transparency. In case there are discrepancies in balance sheets, the auditors need to mention about them in their audit report. However, if all financial transactions are found to be true and legitimate, then the auditors will write accordingly, in the audit report.
Becoming an auditor is not an easy job, as you need several years of study and experience to make a mark in this field. The field requires highly specialized and trained manpower, and hence you should be able to change yourself as per the changing needs of the industry.
To start off, a bachelor's degree in the fields of accounting, finance or economics can be useful to get junior level jobs. External auditors need to have a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) degree. Now, let us acquaint ourselves with the average salary of an auditor.

Salary Details

The average salary of an auditor is around $67,683 per year. The average salary for an internal auditor depends on several factors such as educational qualifications of the candidate, number of years of experience, location of job, and kind of employer. People working for top auditing firms can earn more than $81,000 after a few years of experience.
Entry-level salaries for auditors can be in the range of $53,601 to $64,901 per year. With 5 to 9 years of experience, it can rise to around $91,000 per year. The average salary of a senior auditor can be up to $110,000 per year. The average salary of an auditor is more at places such as New York, Texas and Washington, as compared to other smaller cities.
Many auditors can start their own auditing firms after gaining sufficient experience. The income of auditors who have large listed companies as their clients can be in millions. So, it is not that you cannot earn more than the average salary of an auditor. If you have the talent and skills, this can be the right profession to make a lot of money.
As mentioned earlier, the average auditor salary depends on various factors. To excel in this career, you should start your preparation from high school itself, by concentrating on math, economics and accounting. All the best and do well!