How Much Does An Accounts Payable Clerk Make?

An Accounts payable clerk handles the following duties in an organization: handling and processing invoices, paying the vendors and suppliers, reconciliation of the accounts ensuring that the accounts are paid on time, and maintaining all necessary records. It’s one of the many small but essential gears that help make the big machine that is a company’s financial processes turn. However, the question that arises is how financially rewarding the profession is. Here is a breakdown of the accounts payable clerk’s wage structure to help you understand how much the employees can earn.

Accounts Payable Clerk Salary

On average, the BLS states that the annual remuneration for an accounts payable clerk in the United States of America is $40,240 annually or $19.35 per hour. This is equivalent to $ 40333 per annum or approximately $3,353 per month.

Salaries can vary significantly based on factors like:

- Experience – the minimum wage required for the position is $33,800 per annum and the maximum wage is $52,000 per annum for a senior clerk with 5 or more years of experience.

- Location - Among the individual factors, the level of pay tends to be highest in states such as Massachusetts, Washington, California, and Alaska. Financial capital cities also provide large remunerations for their employees.

- Finance and insurance sectors pay the highest wages to AP clerks. While government and education are taking positions on the lower end of the scale.

- Size of the company – Large firms have more resources allocated to accounting functions than small firms hence they offer better remuneration to the clerks.

A normal promotion scale of an accounts payable clerk for a lifetime of working career is $30,000 to $50,000 a year for a clerk and $ 65,000 for a senior manager. The most suitable next step in your career if you were in this position would be to become an AP manager.

Job Outlook

According to the BLS, accounts payable clerks and other bookkeeping/auditing clerks are expected to experience a job growth of 5% between 2021 and 2031, which is moderately slower than the average occupation.

Despite this, increased technology and automation to the process means that each clerk is going to be more efficient and this will be offset by the increasing number of transactions resulting from the growth of companies during this decade means that there is going to be more demand for account payable personnel. That is particularly true for holders of a bachelor’s degree who can handle the analysis and reporting of more complex tasks.

This is why obtaining a degree in accounting, finance, or business administration would enable one to enhance their earning capacity and chances of employment as an AP clerk. Other factors such as attaining professional qualifications for a specific occupation like a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) also raise salaries impressively.

Entry-Level Education and Training

It is also important to note that most of the accounts payable clerk jobs currently available on the market do not necessarily call for college degrees; a high school diploma or GED is sufficient in most cases, provided the applicant possesses a sufficient level of computer literacy, as well as strong math and finance skills. Relevant work experience: Prior experience in bookkeeping, or accounting at the high school level is an added advantage when one is applying for available positions. Companies may require an associate’s or bachelor’s degree for their employees or the job position.

Internships are very familiar, they can use the time to learn the new software and working environment before they bear heavy workloads at first. Occasionally some jobs such as temporary clerk in staffing agencies also offer valuable employment before being hired directly.

It takes three to six months of training for the patients to become fully functional and capable of performing their daily activities on their own. However, learning never ends as new practices and technologies appear throughout the accounting career.

Some other Key Accounts Payable Clerk duties may include the following;

While the bread and butter of accounts payable clerks is handling invoices and payments, the job also entails various other important duties, like:

- Processing expense reports
- Keeping track of the actual code charged
- Updating accounting/ERP software
- Out of the four goals, the first one revolves around recognizing those invoices that have remained unpaid or those that have been recorded more than once.
- Preparing financial statements and reports
- Settling of undisputed amounts with suppliers
- Monitoring and reviewing the transaction for compliance with the accounting standards.
- Another important factor involves the preservation of 1099 tax records

Thus, there is constant change and problem-solving to be done, which contributes more to the accounts payable clerk position rather than simple data inputting. It also helps to avoid monotony and decision fatigue due to the level of detail needed to accomplish the job.

Job Satisfaction and Benefits

When it comes to job satisfaction, Accounts Payable Clerks are no exception, as 73% of them mentioned they have high job satisfaction in their current positions, at least according to the PayScale survey. The satisfaction level mean was 3.7 on a scale of 5, which is higher than several typical office positions.

It is also seen that Clerks feel satisfied with the jobs in the way that they get to sometimes work independently in processing payments to the times that they have to interact socially with their counterparts in AP and with the vendors. It offers stability of the Forex prices without the dull interims.

The employee benefits for accounts payable clerks are on par with most office/clerical roles and often include:

- Health insurance, dental and vision cover
- Many employers offer retirement saving plans with the potential for matching contributions
- Employer-provided paid holidays and sick time
- Tuition assistance programs
- Phys or fitness plans or membership offers
- Purchase of such services/products from the company at a cheaper price by employees

The work-family balance is also quite affordable in this line of work. AP clerks mainly operate during the normal business week but they may need to work overtime toward the close of the month or quarter, when there might be more financial statements to process. It is not the busy seasons that Group Accountants have to endure, unlike some others.

All in all, it can be said that accounts payable offers relatively good job security, and fair wages, and while it is primarily routine in terms of transactions, it also involves solving some issues now and then. This is a strictly necessary position in which purely numerical, detail-oriented individuals with a talent for reconciling figures and managing relationships with vendors will excel.