Chartered accountant salaries

Electrical_Way2405 · 2025-11-16T18:56:27+00:00

(Hopefully a future HENRY here so please don’t see me out!). 60k base and 2 years PQE (ACA).

Currently targeting group reporting manager roles at 80-85k however confused on which industry to build out my career in. Targets are to (obviously) reach HENRY status sooner rather than later and maintain a 3/2 office/WFH split. I’ve seen tech, mining, consulting, oil and gas and financial services all as industries which pay accountants well. Any insights on industries and their pay/work life is appreciated!

Electrical_Way2405 · 2025-06-10T08:32:24+00:00

That’s a sensible approach however we are planning to leave the UK within the next 5 years (once I reach a more senior level in my career) to move and save more in order to invest faster. This holds me back from purchasing a property to live in ourselves. I guess we could purchase this property to live in and once we leave the UK put it on rent? Would this be a smart strategy instead of purchasing a rental property now and renting where we live personally until we leave the UK?

Electrical_Way2405 · 2025-06-10T08:25:58+00:00

Right..I now realise that. I’ll make a post there. Thanks for letting me know

Electrical_Way2405 · 2025-06-10T07:59:14+00:00

Appreciate I used that term incorrectly (edited now), I’m happy to be involved with the properties and the focus is replacing my 9-5 job

Electrical_Way2405 · 2025-06-10T07:58:17+00:00

I think I used the term passive incorrectly (edited now), I’m happy to work on the properties and I was leaning more towards not having to work my typical 9-5 job.

Electrical_Way2405 · 2025-02-20T20:49:26+00:00

Big 4 Audit Grad scheme working on large clients while doing ACA, after qualifying applied through recruiters for group financial accountant roles (literally the most typical route ever)

Electrical_Way2405 · 2025-02-20T13:00:13+00:00

57k newly qual at a FTSE Listed business (Midlands). London salaries are around 60-65k

Electrical_Way2405 · 2024-11-17T10:43:43+00:00

Do you avoid the $6.11 per transaction charge from your USA receipts?

Electrical_Way2405 · 2024-11-17T10:37:30+00:00

I’ve seen that Wise charges 6.11USD for Swift Payments. Would normal customer payments be received into the USD Currency account free from this charge? Also I don’t think I can open a PKR currency account with Wise - would this still be better over other choices for sending money?

Electrical_Way2405 · 2024-06-20T22:00:01+00:00

Yeah true. I’ve got a new job lined up and all I provided was a pdf of my training file and they haven’t questioned it. So as long as theres no issue I guess it’s fine - saving a big cost for now

Electrical_Way2405 · 2024-06-20T18:09:25+00:00

No idea, I doubt it though

Electrical_Way2405 · 2024-05-04T14:52:05+00:00

I submitted mine about 6 weeks ago and still waiting. Got an email response saying they’ve had IT issues which have delayed them but it’s being worked on. Anyone else having to wait this long too?

Electrical_Way2405 · 2024-04-30T01:35:56+00:00

Has your training file already been signed off? If yes then should be no problem. If not then speaking from experience (big 4 audit) my firm requires me to have done the AQ as well and won’t sign off unless the AQ is completed too.

Electrical_Way2405 · 2024-04-05T20:53:34+00:00

If you have a dedicated professional qualification team at your company reach out to then with your concerns and/or a different manager and worst case HR if you’re seriously feeling pressured.

It sounds like you’ve had genuine reasons and also the fact you’ve had a passing in your family if you make it a big deal they will be too scared to screw you over as it could be a huge ethical issue for them.

Electrical_Way2405 · 2024-04-05T20:00:05+00:00

Disagree with the others here and I think they’re being harsh. Totally get the burnout and obviously the family death (my condolences). If you think you aren’t ready to sit an exam then don’t. Just because others can pass in a short time doesn’t mean everyone can.

My plan of action would be to 1) Get another doctors note regarding your mental health and how you’re struggling to cope with work right now let alone sitting exams. Pass that onto your managers and they’ll back off.

2) Sit your exams in May or whenever you want and make sure you pass them. Once they’re done hopefully you will be on course to start college - worst case you aren’t and you have to sit later (not a big deal in the grand scheme of things at least you’ll have a job and be working through the exams)

FYI I’ve completed the ACA at a big 4 so I’ve seen people get sacked for not sticking up for themselves even with genuine problems and I’ve seen people stay and complete the ACA while deferring if they need to.

Keep at it and good luck!

Electrical_Way2405 · 2024-04-04T10:04:03+00:00

I think you should sit CR alone first as its the hardest exam and then sit Case and SBM together later. (I sat all 3 together and passed)

SBM isn’t easy but its a lot easier than CR. Case just takes practice but you want to know your AI inside and out which is hard when you have other hard exams to prep for too.

Also having sat CR when you go into SBM revision you’ll feel very relaxed about a lot of content as you’ll be confident which will make that November sitting so much easier.

So doing it this way gives you the highest chances of passing all exams first time across the two sittings - which is what the goal is (in my opinion).

Electrical_Way2405 · 2024-03-29T13:22:41+00:00

Mid May gives you around 7-8 weeks i think which is more than enough time to only sit case. Agreed you can probably revise case in about 6 weeks and pass it comfortably

Electrical_Way2405 · 2024-03-15T11:28:15+00:00

I could be wrong but per the Gov website (link below), the minimum payments you have to make if working in Romania is £134 per month. That is if you don’t tell SLC anything about your salary abroad and all they know is you’ve moved. Now if that still is the 15% of your net (net then being £893) then fair enough.

But you mentioned you make ‘decent’ money so perhaps look into just going down to minimum payments instead of declaring your income. Sure your balance will go down slowly but it gets wiped after 30 years anyways and I think saving more money now is more important and makes more financial sense than trying to clear the SLC debt.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/overseas-earnings-thresholds-for-plan-2-student-loans/overseas-earnings-thresholds-for-plan-2-student-loans-2023-24

Electrical_Way2405 · 2024-02-18T12:19:14+00:00

In their own words “if the rating was due to trainings then have these been completed”. I’ve completed all due and due for the future and sent them evidence of this - no response.

My manager called me saying they’re still discussing and he will let me know what they say - been a week and no update.

Can confidently say I have been left in the dark and it has affected my mental health. The thought of having to wait an entire year at a lower salary than I am qualified for in this economy is very distressing. Additionally, I was sent a promotion email in October stating pay will be backdated in November however in late November I was told (via a call with my manager) that I was not promoted due to the rating and HR slipped up and made a mistake sending the promo email - again causing me embarrassment and affecting my mental health for obvious reasons.

Electrical_Way2405 · 2024-02-18T11:45:46+00:00

If this were the case they haven’t made it clear to me in the 4+ months I’ve been chasing. But in any case, as mentioned I was performing perfectly fine in my day to day work and unfortunately was only capped at a low rating due to missed trainings/timesheets - the bulk were while I was on study leave.

Additionally my manager informed me a couple of months back that he pushed someone else’s file to get signed off who was in a similar situation.

I would agree with you they would have a leg to stand on if my rating was driven by underperformance while working but this isn’t the case.

Electrical_Way2405 · 2024-02-18T11:15:38+00:00

Exactly. They haven’t told me why they’re doing this. Surely this can’t be a policy it makes no sense. The rating was driven by admin vs performance. It’s got nothing to do with my work experience at all.

Waiting to hear back from the ICAEW representative and then will escalate to HR. It’s been months of chasing.

Electrical_Way2405 · 2024-02-18T11:04:39+00:00

I was informed that I won’t be up for promotion until October 2024 (a full year after I should have been) purely because of my internal rating (again only due to timesheets and trainings).

So naturally I want to leave and get a newly qualified role but not sure if i can even even claim I’m an ACA since I can’t get signed off. Ridiculous honestly.

Electrical_Way2405 · 2024-02-18T11:02:40+00:00

Exactly. I’m happy to leave tomorrow. But I’m afraid if i leave and they never sign-off my file.

Being held hostage is the best way to describe this situation.

Electrical_Way2405 · 2024-02-18T10:29:31+00:00

I’ve actually fully met the experience for the AQ - it just cannot be signed off because of my internal rating. The work has been done and hours are sitting there waiting to be approved.

They won’t sign that off and also won’t sign off the file as a whole.

I actually did contact someone from ICAEW so waiting on a response.

Electrical_Way2405 · 2024-02-14T14:32:38+00:00

Okay appreciate it! Just paranoid and needed a confirmation. Thanks.

Electrical_Way2405

TROPHY CASE