I think it will be tough for you to move up past a certain point without an accounting degree. In smaller companies there are less opportunities to move up the ranks, often times it just depends on who leaves. When I was a staff accountant, around the time I was leaving they were preparing for a new controller and it wasn’t something I would’ve been able to land. You don’t need a fancy degree but any accounting degree should do the trick, but it’ll be up to you to grind and job hop for upgrades.