3. 3
Welcome to the 2016 Salary survey
Our clients and candidates tell us two things when it comes to salary surveys: Firstly,
they are often inaccurate, and secondly, they are cumbersome documents with too
much irrelevant information and unnecessary analysis. What they want is a quick
reference guide of accurate salaries. This is what we have sought to supply.
The ranges given are intended to be a guide only. Local factors, such as industry
density, demographics and the local economic environment are all important factors.
We are also proud to offer a free bespoke salary benchmark service (without
obligation). This will take into considerations the specifics of a vacancy, the size
of the organisation and team, the local economy, and a competitor analysis. This
is undertaken independently by our in-house research department and specialist
consultants.
The figures for this year’s salary survey were derived through a range of research and
quantitative based techniques. These include:
• A review of the placements made by RK in the past 6 months
• Current salaries and rates of those candidates registering for our services
• Local published vacancies
• Market knowledge of our consultants
In total, salaries of over 5000 people were included.
4. About us
RK Group is a leading specialist financial recruitment consultancy operating in
the Midlands, Yorkshire & North West geographies from a regional branch network
(Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Preston). A dedicated recruitment group
operating exclusively in the specialism of finance including Accountancy, Tax, Audit,
Risk and Treasury across the clerical, part qualified and qualified marketplace.
Established in 1996, the average length of service within the business is over 5 years.
With a genuine commitment to long term development, we have built close links with
many businesses, clients, candidates and professional bodies in local regions. The
business was born out of a search and selection recruitment team and as such we
have adopted and continue to use a retained search methodology whilst offering a
contingency-based pricing strategy (i.e. payment on success).
RK Group is part of AIM-listed Kellan Group PLC, so you can be assured of our financial
stability, corporate infrastructure and be confident in our reputation.
In summary as a business we provide Accountancy and Finance staff across the North
of England and have developed an extensive client and candidate network over almost
20 years.
Our core specialism is Accountancy and Finance recruitment on a temporary and
permanent basis.
RK Finance Professionals:
www.rkfinance.co.uk
Key sectors: Part qualified and qualified accountancy and finance
Temporary, permanent, interim and contract recruitment.
Specialist in Accountancy and Finance mid to senior level appointments.
Typical Roles include: Management & Financial Accountants, Commercial and
Operational Accountants, Analysts, Finance Managers, Financial Controllers, Finance
Directors. Senior Transactional Managers.
RK Accountancy:
www.RKAccountancy.co.uk
Key sectors: Clerical accountancy and finance
Temporary, permanent and contract recruitment.
Specialist in the recruitment of clerical and managerial accountancy and finance staff.
Typical Roles include: Credit Controllers, Purchase & Sales Ledger Clerks, Payroll
professionals, Accounts Trainees, Assistant Accountants, Transactional T/L
and Managers.
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5. Our Awards and Accreditations
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Being part of a PLC means more than financial strength, it is about being able to
leverage our individual and joint accreditations, awards and quality processes:
6. 6
It is getting harder to swiftly identify and secure a
strong SME Financial Controller.
Through recent years a number of smaller
businesses unfortunately ceased trading leading
to a spike in their accountants looking for new
positions. However, alongside, a range of smaller
businesses faced cash-flow issues and therefore
took action to recruit from this bank of talented
accountants to steer them through the rougher
trading waters and keep a tighter handle on cash
management.
As we enter stronger economic conditions start-
ups and privately held growth businesses are
increasingly seeking the need of an Accountant
to support the business leaders in facilitating
sustained growth by providing a firm infrastructure
of financial control and management reporting.
MDs recruiting this role almost always seek an
individual who has done this role before (i.e. been
the head of finance for a smaller business). It is
therefore a finite pool and it is only a matter of time
before the merry-go-round stops and directors
will need to take candidates who are number 2 in
finance or stepping from a practice environment
and who have small gaps versus the comprehensive
job specification.
A spokesperson for the AAT recently published
interesting data outlining that two thirds of smaller
businesses produce their accounts without the
assistance of a qualified accountant (typically the
owner completing basic bookkeeping to save the
expense of an accounting service / internal Finance
Manager). It has been suggested that associated
errors and irregularities paradoxically cost UK
businesses £2.9bn / year. The result is beginning to
generate skill gaps here also – smaller businesses
that are now in the hunt for a Finance Manager / FC
are finding it more difficult to secure the candidate
they need at the budget they have allocated.
As a result of businesses stalling on this hire
through the recession it is also the case that
the new incumbent is spending their induction
unravelling previous errors, implementing basic
month end processes and controls and overhauling
the management accounts pack to unpick errors
and provide a firm, audit-able accounting platform.
This prevents them focusing on ‘added-value’
commercial accounting and reporting. They are
spending less time on the commercial suite of
Our individual and collective experiences within the accountancy and finance sector
undeniably demonstrate that skill gaps are developing and widening within the
markets we operate.
2016 Challenges and Opportunities
reports, analysing costs and revenue streams and
ultimately driving profitability in the environments
they join… potentially exacerbating the problem and
this commercial reporting experience may become
a skills shortage itself over coming months as this
plays out…
It is getting harder to identify and secure a
Technical Accountant with niche vertical-sector-
specific expertise.
Qualified Technical Accounting roles with specific
requirements (e.g. Corporate Reporting Accountant,
Group Accountant, Technical Reporting Senior
Specialist, Internal Audit Manager, Internal Auditor,
VAT Accountant, Treasury Reporting Manager) are
niche by nature. As businesses look to grow and
invest they naturally have requirement for a higher
degree of technical expertise surrounding IFRS
/ UK and International GAAP. Large businesses
are looking to diversify in current conditions
to capitalise on the economic optimism, some
finalising acquisition of businesses outside of their
core markets (and expertise) and will create gaps in
the experience of their finance function. The need
for those able to ensure robust accounting controls
exist and that compliance is bulletproof is therefore
growing.
As has been widely documented The Top 10
Accounting groups that typically feed businesses
this expertise have invested lightly through
recession and as is widely headlined they are
also finding it tough to recruit the right volume of
appropriate “partners of the future”. It has been
headlined that EY have relaxed their academic
recruitment criteria to remedy their own skill
shortages. This is translating to less professionals
capable of providing this niche technical accounting
advice / audit capability.
There are less strong part qualified accountants
with experience in parallel with their studies than
there are vacancies for this candidate profile.
Businesses are expanding, Management
Accountants are looking to push on in their careers
to FC or into commercial areas and the succession
planning that is happening is creating need for
studying accountants. In many cases businesses
have pulled investment through recession times
in their studiers and have also shielded them
from broader projects etc. through budget / time
7. 7
constraints. In addition A&F graduates of recession
times find it difficult to secure varied accounting
roles and some have found themselves in narrower
roles across AP and AR creating a skill shortage
around the broader month end knowledge / core
accounting principles and double entry awareness.
The result being a gulf between the number of ACCA
and CIMA-part qualified candidates that have gained
broad experience versus the number of businesses
now seeking this ‘up and comer’.
It is getting harder to identify and secure “all-
rounders” across transactional finance.
Through recession many finance directors / financial
controllers came under financial pressure to reduce
headcount within the finance function. A significant
number did this by removing the more experienced
(and often higher paid) clerical finance staff, in some
cases redistributing portions of the workload to less
experienced (and lower paid) staff and picking up
the slack themselves. So as an example it may be
that the Senior Payroller left the business, a payroll
administrator picked up the basic payroll tasks while
the Finance Manager then became more hands on
in that area.
The tangible result being that we are seeing
more payroll professionals who have not had the
opportunity to manage the payroll process ‘end to
end’ and similarly purchase ledger professionals
who may not have taken responsibility for the full
payment run for example.
Alongside the overarching gaps in our markets
there are smaller pools of shortage in vertical
industry sectors.
Property Management and construction sectors
are recruiting finance and accounting staff more
frequently in our regions. This is a significant and
very visible swing in job flow within these sectors
versus 2013/2014 when the sectors remained in a
phase of caution / consolidation. As an example
one of the symptoms is that there is now a real skill
shortage of client accounting and service charge
accounting experience. Housing Associations
are finding difficulty in securing candidates with
experience also as post-election caution has
dissipated and funding / headcount budget can be
mapped. Large scale builds have been less prevalent
tin recent years and as they reappear the need for
the right level of project accounting in this sector
is sought after and less abundant than many large
scale builders would like.
Organisations with Financial Services sectors are
certainly finding it more challenging to fill vacancies
within their technical accounting functions and
are needing to become more flexible around the
pre-requisites on their job specifications. Many are
realising that they may need to invest more heavily
in training around the specifics of their grievance,
systems and product-related terminology rather
than wait for another candidate from a similar FS
group.
Manufacturing groups (both FMCG and Non-FMCG)
are finding it tough to secure candidates with a
costing profile / background. As boards of directors
and businesses owners grow in confidence it
translates to more risk and more investment in new
facilities, acquisition of new sites and exploration
of new products / R&D. The projects and ventures
require accounting support and in particular we are
being asked to find candidates with knowledge of
standard costing and costing model development.
Again the fact is we are beginning to see more job
specifications than there are perfect candidates
with this manufacturing background.
A trend in practices is to adopt the cloud-based
ERP technology (commonly Xero for example).
Forward-thinking partners have embraced the
online format and are developing their own internal
experts at senior and even semi-senior level. Others,
potentially more traditional practice environments,
are not investing in or adopting the new format as
readily and as such are creating skill gulfs between
those familiar with this expertise and those who are
not which again may play out through the rest of this
year and into 2016.
Ultimately the evidence of our specialist teams in
all locations absolutely demonstrates that there
are skill gaps developing within the Accountancy
and Finance field from entry level to Director level.
Strong consultants can provide a substantiated,
insightful and candid view of this and help find a
solution for your business if you are experiencing
difficulty in identifying and securing the talent you
need in your finance team.
8. 8
West Midlands
Birmingham West Midlands
Min Max Min Max
Assistant Accountant 19 25 18 23
Accounts Assistant 17 22 16 20
Purchase Ledger Manager 28 37 25 35
Purchase Ledger Supervisor 26 32 20 24
Purchase Ledger Clerk 17 20 17 20
Credit Control Manager 30 45 27 45
Credit Control Supervisor 26 32 23 28
Credit Controller 18 23 18 21
Payroll Manager 27 35 25 30
Payroll Supervisor 25 33 20 26
Payroll Officer 18 23 17 22
Sales Ledger Clerk 18 22 16 20
Administrator 15 22 15 20
Transactional
accountancy
salary rise
over 2015
6.7%
Qualified
finance salary
rise over
2015
4.2%
UK Average
salary rise
3.5%
FIGURES GIVEN AS ‘000 annual salaries
9. 9
Birmingham West Midlands
Min Max Min Max
Finance Director 65 105 60 90
Financial Controller 45 70 45 65
Finance Manager 35 60 30 45
Financial Accountant 37 45 35 45
Financial Analyst 35 50 30 45
Commercial Accountant/
Business Partner
38 45 37 55
Commercial Finance Manager 50 65 50 55
Management Accountant 35 45 30 45
Assistant Management
Accountant
25 30 23 28
Group Accountant 40 50 35 45
Project Accountant 38 50 38 50
Newly Qualified 32 36 35 40
Part Qualified 24 29 25 32
Percentage who
anticipate changing
jobs in 2016
Average salary
increase sought to
move job
Growth sectors – Housing, healthcare and construction
39% 6%-12%
for a bespoke salary benchmark, please contact your local officefor a bespoke salary benchmark, please contact your local office
