Article in partnership with Day Translations.

In forums the discussions about what type of work to do remotely often revolve around earning potential.

For digital nomads and remote workers, finding the right type of job that pays well and allows to have time to travel is the ultimate goal.

According to Fortune, one of the jobs that is almost guaranteed to pay a high salary and that can potentially be done remotely is accountancy.

Promising earnings exceeding $100,000 per year, accountancy is very much in demand and many companies are actively hiring.

It is common to expect that jobs in tech attract the highest salaries; this is often the case, but if we dig deeper, one of the most solid foundations of any company is how to manage money and ensure there are no cashflow issues that can disrupt growth.

Online communities that discuss working remotely often mention taxation as a key issue that requires in-depth understanding and professional help. Taxation in itself is often complicated in any country you work in and mistakes in filing tax returns can be extremely costly.

Accountancy Jobs

Accountancy requires that the job holder can create trading accounts, balance sheets, annual tax returns for a company and at times the company’s founder if requested.

The Fortune article quotes from a FlexJobs report analysing how many job roles have been posted and divided them into different sections, from tech to accountancy, marketing, administration and so on.

Accountancy jobs are more likely to stay the same in the long term, i.e., they are not trendy titles that could go out of fashion next year or in the next decade. As long as accountants keep up to date with the latest accounting software and tax regulations (which is in itself a big commitment), their work is structured in a way that is fairly stable.

Accountancy Jobs Requirements and Salary

Searching for accountancy jobs and their salary in Ireland, as an example, using the job site Indeed brings the following results:

• using January 2024 as an example, there were more than 3,000 vacancies for accounting jobs in Ireland (Ireland’s population is approximately 5 million people)
• many accounting jobs came with a salary of 50,000 euro per year (equivalent to $54,000)
• job responsibilities include overseeing budgets, keeping track of costings and billing, preparation of accounts reports, knowledge of regulatory policies.

Some of the advertised roles were in person, some as a hybrid with a few days a week working from home, and some were remote.

One vacancy I couldn’t help but notice was for SpaceX in Dublin, which did not mention anything about the salary but it included the requirements for candidates who wanted to apply for the position:

• provide assistance for financial audits
• prepare financial statements for the group of companies (there are a number of subsidiaries in Europe)
• preparing reconciliations
• researching tax compliance regulations
• degree in accounting, tax or finance
• at least 3 years’ experience working in a multinational company
• accountancy accreditation (ACA)
• knowledge of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) including US GAAP
• experience preparing financial statements.

While this list is not exhaustive, it gives a general idea of what may be expected from candidates wishing to work for a large multinational company. This specific role advertised in Dublin was in person only with no opportunities to work remotely, however I think it was worth mentioning due to the high profile of the recruiter.

Remote accounting vacancies being advertised included bookkeeping jobs but salaries were 30,000 euro on average.

Jobs attracting salaries of approximately 90,000 euro per year (equivalent to $97,000) included hybrid remote roles requiring at least 5 years’ experience, SAP experience, team management experience and reviewing audits.

Accounting jobs in the 90,000 to 100,000 euro per year bracket offering a remote position included sector-specific vacancies, particularly in health and health insurance. In this wage bracket there were also Internal Audit Manager roles where the expectation is that the candidate has previous experience working for a Big 4 (Ernst&Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, KPMG) public accounting consulting firm. In Ireland these Big 4 companies have offices in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick.

Another site, Jobs.ie, advertised accounting roles at 80,000-100,000 euro per year in various sectors including music, agriculture, corporate banking and NGOs to name a few.