Tap to Read ➤

Comptroller Job Description

Ujwal Deshmukh
Are you looking forward to become a comptroller? Here is a general information about this profile's career which is 'high in demand' because of decent salary range and excellent career outlook.
Whether there is a recession or a boom in the global market, career opportunities in finance and accounting have always been enormous!
Finance and accounting is one of the most important departments in any type of organizational entity, as business always revolves around money! It is money for which businesses start, continue, and finally end. One such finance and accounting job, which is high in demand is that of the comptroller.
A comptroller can be defined as a person associated with the finance and accounting department, who looks after the maintenance of accounting, administrative, and financial services of the organization, for meeting legislative requirements.
To put in simple words, it can also be said that the comptroller is the chief accountant of an organization. Although this definition covers the entire scope of duties and responsibilities of a comptroller, provided here is the job description, salary range and also educational requirements of the same.

Job Description of a Comptroller

Duties of a comptroller include financial, accounting, and administrative related work. The reporting head of the comptroller is the senior administrative officer or manager.
  • Establishing and maintaining cash controls and reconciling of general ledgers and bank statements.
  • Assisting the senior authorities in preparing the annual budget and the annual audit.
  • Maintaining the purchase order system.
  • Adhering and implementing the financial procedures and policies, set by the higher management.
  • Supervising investments and cash reserves.
  • Monitoring data entry systems and procedures.
  • Preparing and systematically maintaining all supplier accounts.
  • Verifying charges and ensuring security of all credit cards.
  • Preparing income statements and also keeping tabs of transactions and their entry in the computerized accounting database.
  • Classifying and maintaining financial files and records, according to the year.
  • Working on the preparation of quarterly reports, monthly financial statements, and balance sheets.
  • Reconciling the payable accounts, receivable accounts, and preparing journal summaries.
  • Issuing receipts for all the accounting transactions.
  • Maintaining records pertaining to the financial systems.
  • Issuing, coding, and authorizing purchase orders.
  • Compiling source documents.
  • Reconciling source deposits.
  • He maintains filing systems, security systems of documents, maintains insurance coverage and responds to customer and employee queries.
  • Administrative work involves employee management duties such as, reviewing payroll reports, receiving employee work reports from other departments and calculating their salaries, contributions, and deductions (if any).
  • Process and distribute pay checks.
  • Maintain and ensure proper updating of leave system.
  • Make adjustments to the payroll as needed.
  • Ensure proper documentation of records and documents of new employees in accounting system.
  • Look after administration of benefit entitlements.
  • Verify and report on benefit payments.
Comptrollers are the key members of an organization.

Educational Requirements

This job is not easy. They are highly responsible people looking after the accounts, finance and administration tasks of the company. The position needs a well-educated and qualified personnel. A bachelor's degree in accounting is required. Some companies might need a master's degree in finance or accounting. It depends upon the organization and the work.
Apart from this, thorough knowledge of latest accounting software, financial software, management systems, payroll procedures, knowledge of verifying and interpreting financial data and records, excellent communication skills to coordinate with the employees and management personnel of other department are also essential for the position of a comptroller.

Salary Range

The job of a comptroller is one of the better paying jobs. Entry level comptrollers earn around USD 39,000 to USD 86,000. Those with moderate experience earn around USD 46,000 to USD 108,000 and the most experienced earn more than USD 110,000. Experience, knowledge, and performance strongly influence the comptroller salary range.
Remember, comptrollers are highly responsible people, as they deal with the money matters of the organization. Therefore besides formal education, honesty and alertness can also be essential pre-requisites for this job.