The accounting industry is a large one, with roughly three and a half million people functioning in the accounting industry as bookkeepers, accountants, and accounting and auditing clerks.

While most of these jobs are full-time, there is a lot of opportunity for part-time accounting jobs, too. For example, the small business industry often hires part-time accounting jobs' candidates if they don't need a full-time in-house bookkeeper, or if they only need help during tax time.

Getting into accounting jobs part-time

One of the best ways to get into accounting jobs part-time is to begin working in the industry while still in school. For example, bookkeeping, auditing and accounting clerks usually only need a high school education to get a job in this industry. You do need some skills to do this type of work, but it's a great way to get your "foot in the door" as a means to access a full-time career after you complete school, for example.

Skills you'll need to have

You will need to be very good with and comfortable with numbers, and will need to have a strong attention to detail, be very organized, and have the ability to sit for long periods of time simply entering data, updating account records, profit and loss statements, and so on. You may be an accounting clerk, for example, who only handles specific tasks, or you may be in charge of an entire company's books as a full charge bookkeeper.

Because the data you're handling is extremely sensitive, you'll also need to be very honest and be able to protect this information as needed. In addition, you'll need to have computer skills so that you can use the myriad of accounting software, database functions, and spreadsheets most of this work requires.

Why are part-time accounting jobs a good idea?

Especially in today's economy, many businesses are cutting back on in-house financial staff, like bookkeepers, accountants, accounting clerks, and the like. Therefore, going part-time and perhaps even going out on your own, "hanging out your own shingle," can allow you to work part time and have flexible hours, yet still stay in the workforce so that if you wish, you can acquire full-time employment once again when the economy picks back up.

Or, for example, maybe you are a parent who wishes to stay home with his or her children while they are small, so that a full-time job isn't going to be right for you; nonetheless, you can still work for businesses or for yourself part-time, bring in some money and keep up on your skill set. When the time is right, you can return to full-time work with your skills intact.

It's also a possibility if you are an accountant, for example, that you may work part-time accounting jobs during tax season, when tax preparation and other companies often hire extra help to manage tax preparations for clients or in-house. Once "tax season" is over, these temporary workers often are "let go," until the next time they are needed. This is also a good way to get accounting jobs part-time if you are an accountant, but don't want to work full-time, or can't find full-time work at the moment.

Finally, it's almost always a good idea to get part-time accounting jobs' experience even if you do intend to go into a full-time accounting career while you're still in school. Not only will this give you experience before you go into the workforce full-time and thus prepare you better, but it will also make potential employers look favorably upon you, since you already have experience before you come into the financial workforce full-time.

What can you expect to make with part-time accounting jobs?

That depends, but full-time certified public accountants, for example, can expect to make about $60,000 a year as of 2008, when averaged across all levels of experience and sectors of the industry. Therefore, if you work 50% of the time, 75% of the time, 25% of the time, you can see that your earnings will adjust accordingly.

If you don't have any requisite education but you still want to begin to work in the accounting field, you can start as a bookkeeping, accounting, or auditing clerk with just a high school education, usually. Although most of these positions do recommend that you also receive post secondary education, you can begin working in them while going to school or simply to get a "taste of the field" before you decide whether you want to do it full-time. These clerks make about $33,000 a year as of 2008 when employed full time, across all levels of experience and industry; therefore, the average breakdown if you are employed in part-time accounting jobs in this area will be scaled to the amount of time you work.

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