Accountant salary guide Australia 2026.

Published 14 July 2026 · Sydney · Prime People · Updated 16 October 2026

Which salary figures should you use?

The main table shows Sydney salary bands by role. The national section uses advertised-salary averages, which describe a different market and should not be read as equivalent medians. Check the location, experience level and whether superannuation is included before comparing an offer.

Hiring rather than job hunting? Plan an accounting hire or brief a fixed-fee recruitment search.

This guide is for accountants weighing up their next move, and for the firms that hire them. Every figure below comes from a published, current source, cited inline, so you can trace where it came from and check it yourself. Where the market is moving in ways the tables do not capture, we say so plainly and mark it as our own read rather than a statistic.

A note on how to use the numbers. Salary guides describe ranges, not offers. The band a person lands in depends on the size and type of the employer, the depth of their technical experience, whether they hold a CA or CPA, and how tight the market is for their particular skill set. Treat the figures as a map, not a valuation. Unless stated otherwise, all figures are gross annual base salary and exclude superannuation, bonuses and benefits.

Sydney salary ranges by role

The table below draws on Robert Half's 2026 Australia Finance and Accounting Salary Guide, using its published Sydney figures for each role. Robert Half reports three points: the 25th percentile (new to the role or lighter experience), the median, and the 75th percentile (extensive experience and advanced skills).

Source: Robert Half 2026 Australia Salary Guide, Sydney figures per role. Base salary only, excluding superannuation, bonuses and benefits. Accessed July 2026; every row, including the five added in October, checked against Robert Half's Sydney figures on 16 October 2026.

Two roles in this table now have their own pages, covering the career as well as the pay: tax accountant salary and career and bookkeeper salary and career.

For what Sydney firms are advertising right now, our page of accounting jobs in Sydney lists every live role, with the salary wherever the firm has published one.

Graduate and entry-level

Graduate pay is the hardest number to pin down because it varies most with firm size. SEEK's graduate data puts most first-year accounting salaries between $55,000 and $67,000, with a first-year figure near $60,000 common and fair (Source: SEEK Grad). Larger firms and specialist teams push toward the upper end; small and regional practices sit lower. By the assistant-accountant stage, the Sydney table above takes over.

At the other end, the question is usually not what a level pays but how you reach it. How to become an accounting director covers the step above senior manager, what firms actually assess, and why we have not put a single figure on that rung.

Graduate pay has enough going on to deserve its own page, so we have written one: graduate accountant salary in Australia covers what moves the number between firms, how fast it rises once the qualification is done, and the four things worth more than the salary gap between two graduate offers.

National and specialist roles

Not every role has a clean Sydney percentile band, so the figures below are national, advertised-salary averages drawn from SEEK job ads. Advertised averages behave differently to a structured guide: they blend every experience level and sometimes include or exclude superannuation depending on the employer, so read them as a broad centre of gravity rather than a target.

Sources: SEEK, Accountant salary (accounting industry average); SEEK, SMSF accountant jobs; SEEK Grad; SEEK, Chief Financial Officer salary (Sydney average). Figures are advertised-salary averages from SEEK ads over the prior three months and may include or exclude superannuation. Accessed July 2026, except the CFO figure, rechecked on 16 October 2026 (it was $287,500 in July).

SMSF accountants and administrators

SMSF is one of the clearest examples of specialisation lifting pay. The $87,500 national average (Source: SEEK) sits close to the general accounting average, but experienced SMSF specialists and team leaders are routinely advertised in the $100,000 to $130,000 range. The reason is supply: relatively few accountants genuinely understand superannuation compliance, contribution caps and audit-ready workpapers, and firms pay a premium for the ones who do. If you want the full picture on why this discipline commands what it does, see our note on how to become an accountant and the specialisations that pay.

Tax accountants

In Sydney, Robert Half puts a tax accountant at $119,900 (25th), $125,350 (median) and $141,700 (75th) (Source: Robert Half 2026). Registration as a tax agent, exposure to complex structures, and public-practice depth all move a candidate up the band.

Financial accountant, management accountant and payroll pay

These are the roles where we see the most confusion about what a fair number looks like, partly because the titles overlap and partly because the national figures and the Sydney figures sit some way apart. Each section gives Robert Half's Sydney band first, then SEEK's national advertised range for the same title. SEEK's ranges were refreshed on 1 October 2026 and checked on 16 October 2026.

Financial accountant salary

A financial accountant looks after the statutory side of the numbers: month-end close, the general ledger, balance sheet reconciliations and the year-end accounts. Robert Half's 2026 Sydney figures are $103,550 at the 25th percentile, $114,450 at the median and $125,350 at the 75th percentile. A senior financial accountant in Sydney sits at $125,350, $141,700 and $158,050 (Robert Half 2026). Nationally, SEEK's advertised range for financial accountant jobs is $100,000 to $120,000 a year, or $60 to $80 an hour for contract work (SEEK).

Management accountant and finance business partner salary

Management accountants deal with what is coming rather than what has happened: budgets, forecasts, variance analysis and the monthly pack that explains the numbers to the people running the business. Robert Half puts a management accountant in Sydney at $109,000 (25th), $119,900 (median) and $130,800 (75th), and a senior management accountant at $130,800, $147,150 and $158,050 (Robert Half 2026). SEEK's national advertised range is $105,000 to $125,000 (SEEK).

Finance business partner is the usual next step for a management accountant who works well with people outside finance. Robert Half has a Sydney finance business partner at $141,700, $152,600 and $163,500, and a senior finance business partner at $163,500, $174,400 and $190,750 (Robert Half 2026). SEEK's national range for the title is $125,000 to $145,000 (SEEK). If you are deciding between the two kinds of accounting, our comparison of financial and management accounting covers the work as well as the pay.

Payroll officer salary and pay rates

Robert Half's Sydney figures for a payroll officer are $87,200 (25th), $92,650 (median) and $98,100 (75th). A payroll manager in Sydney sits at $125,350, $141,700 and $185,300 (Robert Half 2026). Across Australia, SEEK's advertised range for payroll officer jobs is $85,000 to $95,000 a year. Its hourly figure, the one to use for casual and contract payroll work, is $40 to $55 an hour (SEEK). Payroll sits close to bookkeeping, and our bookkeeper salary and career guide covers that path.

Chartered accountant (CA) salary

People often ask what a chartered accountant earns. None of the sources we use publishes a separate figure for CA-qualified accountants, so we have not put one here. Robert Half sets its bands by job rather than by qualification. Its definitions say someone at the median “may also have relevant certifications” and someone at the 75th percentile “may also have specialized certifications”, and it lists CA and CPA among the certifications employers are asking for this year.

So read a CA's pay off the band for the job they do. A CA working as a senior accountant in Sydney is in the $119,900 to $147,150 band in the table above; a CA running a finance team is in the finance manager or financial controller band below. For the qualification itself, see CA vs CPA and how to become a chartered accountant or CPA.

Finance leadership

At the top of the structure the range widens sharply, because remuneration starts to reflect the size of the business, the scope of the mandate and the equity or bonus attached to it rather than a market rate for a task.

Finance manager salary

Robert Half puts a finance manager in Sydney at $136,250 (25th), $158,050 (median) and $174,400 (75th) (Robert Half 2026). SEEK's national advertised range for finance manager jobs is $130,000 to $150,000, and its advertised average for Sydney is $150,000 (SEEK). The title covers a lot of ground. In a small business the finance manager may be the most senior finance person and do everything from payroll to board reporting. In a large one it can be a team lead a few levels below the CFO. Compare the scope before you compare the number.

Financial controller salary

Robert Half's Sydney band for a financial controller is $179,850 (25th), $212,550 (median) and $228,900 (75th), and it notes that controllers are seeing notable pay increases as employers compete for experienced people (Robert Half 2026). SEEK's national advertised range is $155,000 to $175,000, with a Sydney average of $180,000 (SEEK). The gap between the two is a good reason not to mix sources. Robert Half's figures come from its own placements, localised to Sydney, while SEEK's are salaries employers put in job ads.

CFO salary

Robert Half splits the role by the size of the business. In Sydney, a CFO of an SME sits at $218,000 (25th), $239,800 (median) and $261,600 (75th), and a CFO of a large or multinational business at $277,950, $332,450 and $408,750 (Robert Half 2026). SEEK's advertised average for CFO jobs in Sydney is $275,000, and its national advertised range is $215,000 to $235,000 (SEEK). At this level base is only part of the story. Short and long-term incentives can add materially, and packages in larger or listed businesses run well above the averages.

Governance roles such as company secretary sit alongside finance leadership, but we have chosen not to publish a single salary figure for them here because there is no clean, current published band we are confident quoting; the role varies too widely between a standalone appointment and one bundled with a CFO or general counsel remit. If you need a benchmark for a specific governance mandate, talk to us and we will give you a considered range for that brief. For interim leadership specifically, see our page on the interim CFO market.

What moves pay

Two accountants with the same job title can be $30,000 apart for good reasons. These are the levers that decide where someone lands in a band.

• CA or CPA. The qualification is close to a baseline expectation for mid-level and senior roles in public practice and commerce, and being part-qualified versus fully qualified is often the difference between the lower and upper half of a band. If you are choosing between the two designations, see CA vs CPA Australia.
• Public practice versus commercial. Practice builds technical breadth quickly; commercial roles tend to pay a step up at the same level of experience, which is why the move from practice to industry so often comes with a rise.
• Firm and business size. A larger balance sheet, a listed parent or a more complex group generally lifts pay at every level, because the stakes attached to the numbers are higher.
• Specialisation. SMSF, tax, and technical accounting (consolidations, IFRS-heavy reporting) all attract a premium because the pool of genuinely capable people is thin.
• Hybrid and flexibility. Flexibility is now part of the package, not a perk. Roles requiring five days in the office increasingly need to pay above the band to compete for the same person.

What we're seeing in the market

The published figures tell you the shape of pay. Here is what we are seeing from the recruiter's chair, framed as judgement, not statistics.

The dominant theme this year is the gap between what firms are paying and what candidates feel. Hays has called this a "salary paradox": pay is rising, but not fast enough, in many people's eyes, to match cost-of-living pressure or their expectations (Hays Salary Guide FY25/26). That tension shows up on both sides of a search. Employers feel they are already stretching; candidates feel they are standing still. The ABS backs the modest-but-real picture: average weekly ordinary-time earnings for full-time adults rose 3.8% over the year to $2,051.10 a week in November 2025 (ABS, Average Weekly Earnings, Nov 2025).

Against that backdrop, the shortage of qualified accountants is the single biggest force in the market. It is most acute in SMSF and tax, where a genuinely capable person can hold two or three offers at once. Counteroffers are common and, in our experience, rarely fix the reason someone was looking. Candidates are increasingly weighing flexibility, the quality of the work, and the calibre of the people they will report to as heavily as the base number. For firms, the practical implication is that speed and a clear story matter as much as the offer: the best people are not on the market for long.

Frequently asked questions

Methodology & sources

We only publish figures we can attribute to a named, current source. Sydney role bands come from a structured salary guide; national figures come from advertised-salary averages, which behave differently and are labelled as such. Where a role had no source we were confident quoting, such as company secretary, we left the number out rather than estimate it. Figures were first accessed in July 2026. On 16 October 2026 we rechecked every Robert Half Sydney figure (all unchanged) and the SEEK CFO average (down from $287,500 to $275,000), and added the role sections, whose SEEK ranges were read that day.

• Robert Half, 2026 Australia Finance and Accounting Salary Guide. Used for all Sydney role percentile bands.
• SEEK, Accountant salary (Australia). Accounting industry advertised average ($83,812).
• SEEK, SMSF accountant jobs. SMSF advertised average ($87,500).
• SEEK, Chief Financial Officer salary. Sydney CFO advertised average ($275,000 on 16 October 2026) and national range ($215,000 to $235,000).
• SEEK role salary pages for financial accountant, management accountant, finance business partner, payroll officer, finance manager and financial controller. National advertised ranges (refreshed by SEEK on 1 October 2026) and Sydney averages where SEEK shows one. Read 16 October 2026.
• SEEK Grad, Graduate accountant salary. First-year range ($55,000-$67,000).
• Hays, Salary Guide FY25/26 (PDF). Market commentary, the "salary paradox".
• Australian Bureau of Statistics, Average Weekly Earnings, November 2025. Broad wage-growth context ($2,051.10/week, +3.8% annual).