Cantillon: Career choice adds up for accountants

Accountants are well known for their ability to save companies money. They're not too bad at making plenty of it for themselves either, a new study shows. The annual Finance Dublin survey shows Ireland's leading accountancy firms enjoyed a second year of strong growth this year with the combined fee income of the top 20 companies rising by 9.9 per cent to €1.4 billion.

This compares with a 9.3 per cent rise on 2014 and restores the aggregate fee income of Ireland’s top accountancy firms to pre-crisis levels. In 2008, the top 20 accountancy firms’ income totalled just under €1.3 billion.

That’s not to say that accountancy firms have had it easy. In 2012 and 2013, the leading companies saw combined growth rates of just 3.3 per cent and 1.7 per cent respectively. In 2011 meanwhile, fee income reached just over a paltry €1 billion, barely enough to pay for everyone’s golf club membership fees.

The latest survey shows PwC remains the biggest earners in the accountancy world, followed by KPMG, Deloitte, EY and Grant Thornton.

It's not just partners who are coining it in. A Chartered Accountants of Ireland salary survey published earlier this year showed that while it may not be the most glamorous career, it's a lucrative one. It showed packages for chartered accountants rose 13 per cent over the past year and now exceed €100,000 for those working in the Leinster region.

The average package paid to professionals in the sector rose from €89,042 in 2014 to €100,780 this year on the back of significant demand for chartered accountants at all levels. Starting base salaries for a newly qualified chartered accountant working in industry and financial services meanwhile was a respectable €53,442.

Figures like these would seem to suggest that while many young people may want to become the next Mark Zuckerberg, they might be better off adding up the benefits to be gained from choosing a less exciting profession.