What does a Senior Accountant do?
A senior accountant owns the month-end close and the accuracy of the books rather than individual entries — reviewing junior work, signing off reconciliations, and standing behind the numbers during audit. In India the level carries statutory weight too: GST returns, TDS positions and Ind AS treatment all sit with this seat before anything reaches the controller.
A senior accountant usually has around 4–9 yrs of experience and earns typically ₹5L–₹14L/yr in India. The day-to-day blends Month-end close, Bank & ledger reconciliation, GST & TDS compliance and more — this page gives you a ready-to-use senior accountant job description template you can copy, plus the exact skills and salary employers expect.
Senior Accountant job description template
Copy the 8 responsibilities, 6 requirements and 9 skills below into your job post, then edit the parts that are specific to your company — pay band, location and reporting line.
Select the text above to copy it manually if the button is unavailable.
What are a Senior Accountant's key responsibilities?
A senior accountant is typically responsible for the 8 duties below, which cover the day-to-day work most employers expect the role to own outright. Paste them into your job post as they are, or cut the ones another team already handles — a responsibility list that claims work the hire will not actually do is the fastest way to lose a candidate at offer stage:
- Own the month-end and year-end close calendar and deliver it on schedule
- Review journal entries, accruals and provisions prepared by junior accountants
- Sign off balance sheet reconciliations and investigate ageing or unexplained items
- Prepare and file GST and TDS returns and resolve mismatches with vendors
- Act as first point of contact for statutory and internal auditors during fieldwork
- Apply Ind AS treatment to non-routine transactions and document the reasoning
- Strengthen internal controls where a process failure has already cost the company
- Train the accounts team on ERP workflows and correct classification
What qualifications does a Senior Accountant need?
Employers hiring a senior accountant in India usually ask for the 6 qualifications below, typically alongside 4–9 yrs of experience. Keep only the ones you will genuinely screen on: every extra must-have narrows the pool, and in the Indian market a long mandatory list filters out strong candidates whose background simply reads differently on paper:
- Four or more years in accounting with ownership of a full close cycle
- B.Com or M.Com with CA Inter, CMA or equivalent professional progress
- Working command of Indian GST, TDS and TCS compliance in practice
- Hands-on ERP experience such as SAP, Oracle, Tally Prime or NetSuite
- Advanced Excel for reconciliation, variance and schedule preparation
- Ability to explain a variance to a non-finance manager without jargon
What skills should a Senior Accountant have?
These are the 9 skills employers name most often on live senior accountant listings in India. Treat the first few as the ones worth screening for directly and the rest as signals a candidate can pick up on the job — asking for all of them at once is what turns a reasonable role into an unfillable one:
Listing the three or four skills you genuinely screen on — rather than all 9 — is what keeps a senior accountant posting from filtering out candidates who could do the job.
What does a Senior Accountant earn in India?
Typical salary (India)
typically ₹5L–₹14L/yr
Experience range
4–9 yrs
These are typical ranges and vary by city, company and skills. For live, role-specific pay data, see the OnJob salary guide.
Senior Accountant job description — FAQs
What is the difference between an accountant and a senior accountant?
Review responsibility is the dividing line. Junior staff post entries and prepare schedules; the senior grade reviews that work, owns the close calendar, signs off reconciliations, and answers the auditor when a balance cannot be explained. The seat also carries statutory judgement calls that a preparer is not expected to make.
Is a CA qualification required for this role in India?
Full chartered accountancy is not required for this seat, though CA Inter or CMA progress is common and helps in interviews. Employers weigh demonstrated close ownership, GST and TDS handling, ERP fluency and audit experience heavily. The qualification becomes decisive later, at finance manager, controller and above.
What does a senior accountant earn in India?
Accounting professionals at this grade typically earn ₹4.5L–₹8L in small and mid-sized firms and ₹8L–₹14L in large corporates, multinationals and shared-service centres. Compliance-heavy roles handling GST litigation support or group consolidation sit at the upper end, and metro cities pay noticeably above smaller markets for identical scope.
What is the career path beyond this level in Indian finance teams?
Progression usually runs to assistant manager or manager of finance, then financial controller, with side moves into internal audit, taxation, financial planning and analysis, or process leadership at a shared-service centre. Completing CA, CMA or an MBA in finance accelerates the jump, particularly where the next seat requires statutory sign-off.