I am curious as to the salary range in accounting/finance, specifically for Accountants and above, in various companies, such as MNCs, PLCs, private limited companies, etc, in Malaysia. Would appreciate it if you could contribute, as I couldn't find any relevant information from other sources, even in the "Let's Talk Salary" topic here. Yes, there are "reports" compiled by Robert Walters, Kelly Services, JobStreet.com, etc but I don't think these are reflective of the real world. Furthermore, these do not give breakdown according to geographical areas, and we all know that different geographical areas would have different salary ranges. And yes, I am aware that how much an Accountant (for example) makes is contingent upon the experience that he/she has, but would appreciate it if you would indulge me nonetheless.

1. Position: Assistant Accountant/Accountant/Senior Accountant/Assistant Finance Manager/Finance Manager/Finance Analyst/etc, etc...
2. Salary range: RMxxxx - RMxxxx
3. Type of company: MNC/PLC/private limited/etc, etc...
4. Geographical location: Which state in Malaysia if possible, region (northern, central, southern) if not possible to disclose.
5. Prior years of experience before joining as title in #1: xx years

Comments are welcome but please don't be abusive if you don't "like" this thread. Thank you!

This is more or less my company's (MNC) current salary scale, for graduate positions in all areas, not only finance. But one proviso is that we don't have any finance roles in KL. All the roles that were in KL previously are now in SG. And the fact is that we've never based anyone beyond a Finance Manager 1 in KL. In SG by comparison, we have a couple of Finance Directors and a Senior FD. Our Finance VP for Asia is based in Shanghai with his gang of FDs/SFDs. So far, those of us in SG have managed to resist the pull to SH and retain some significantly sized roles in SG. KL lost out in that battle, basically kena absorbed into SG.

Fresh grad, analyst / accountant / controller - RM3.5
Analyst 1 / Accountant 1 / Controller 1 - RM4.5
Senior Analyst / Accountant / Controller - RM5.5
Senior Analyst 1 / Accountant 1 / Controller 1 - RM7
Asst Finance Manager - RM9
Finance Manager - RM11 + 2 car allowance
Finance Manager 1 - RM13 + 2.5 car allowance
Senior Finance Manager - RM17 + 3 car allowance
Senior Finance Manager 1 - RM21 + 3.5 car allowance
Finance Director - RM26 + 5 car allowance
Senior Finance Director - RM33 + 6.5 car allowance
Global Finance Director / Finance VP - RM44 + 8 car allowance

This post has been edited by seantang: May 2 2012, 12:52 AM

Thanks for the information. At least I have some idea now and I can lower/increase my expectations accordingly and not grope in the dark trying to make educated guesses which may not be educated after all.

Thanks for the information.

Now, accounting fresh grads can earn so much?

I have been exploited in the past.

Maybe not.

Watson Wyatt tells us we pay in the top quartile amongst all companies and top 10% within petrochemicals.

Fresh grad accountant without experience can get RM3.5k is considered high, even for KL standards. I'm interviewing for senior accountant position in an MNC soon - and RM5.5k to RM7k will be at the back of my mind IF I get that far (salary negotiation in 2nd or 3rd interview). Went for an interview with a private limited company before this for the position of Assistant FM and got an offer but rejected it because of too low salary - just below RM4.5k. Can you believe that?

Many ppl are going into audit line. What will be the difference if start with accountant life first? Switch frm commercial into firm or vice versa, which one is better?accounting and finance will be performing different role but some of company will put finance name but is accountant role.

Speaking of salary, how much is the gap between experienced auditor and accountant?also, the starting salary for accountant?

Let's get our terminology aligned first. When I say "accountant", I mean "chartered accountant". In Malaysia, you need a recognised professional qualification (ACCA, CIMA, ICAEW, CPA Australia, MICPA, etc) OR a recognised degree from a tertiary education provider, and 3 years of certified experience in an accounting/finance environment before you could apply to the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) to become a "chartered accountant". I'm sure there are similar requirements in other countries to call yourself an "accountant" in the true sense of the word. I bring this up because there seems to be a misconception among people who think that once you finish your Degree in Accounting or professional papers, you're an accountant. This isn't true.

So there is no "starting with accountant life". You either start being in audit, tax, etc or you start being an accounts executive and work your way up to accountant.

This is exactly the point of this thread.

[Edited for clarity.]

This post has been edited by Annoynimous: May 3 2012, 10:26 AM

I wonder whether being an account executive or being an auditor/tax assistant will make a difference to the future or not..it's like both routes also okay, there is nothing like this will be better. Am i right?

Haha, I wish to know more about the salary too..really blur about the job market..

It depends on which you like the most since you are okay with both jobs.

There is a difference in that if you start off as an accounts executive, you won't get yearly increments and accumulated experience as much as auditors/tax assistants. So my advice to you is, start off as an auditor/tax assistant and after a few years, once you have enough experience, switch to commercial. You'll see a jump in your salary and you have accumulated the necessary experience too. But do note the stress level may be much more for an auditor/tax assistant.

why so many hierarchy?
In my coy, report directly to 1 FM. Company size is quite big, USD150 million

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Added on May 13, 2012, 7:08 amI got higher salary when enter the commercial and high position too. Now I am a supervisory level with limited knowledge..kenna bullied my subordinates..if you dont start as account executive, I think your technical knowledge quite cui..as supervisor im quite stressful and wanna downgrade

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Added on May 13, 2012, 7:53 amin the end you are still a cost centre

This post has been edited by Materazzi: May 13 2012, 07:53 AM

USD150 million as in what? Revenue per annum? Profit per annum? Assets?

In any case, USD150 million is not big.

If you're talking about revenue, I know of a local subsidiary of a listed company with annual revenue of approximately RM1bil, net profit of approximately RM70mil, PPE of approximately RM500mil. One Accountant, reporting directly to one FM, who in turn reports to the GFC. I think Sean is talking MNC level here, where there are accountants who handle more than one subsidiary located across more than one geographical area.

Kind of agree with your point that you will have limited knowledge when you make the jump from external audit to commercial. I cannot comment more on this as I'm in this transitionary position as well but I personally feel that there should be teething problems initially and they can be resolved within weeks after joining the commercial company. Shouldn't be a major problem adapting if you've gained sufficient knowledge when you were in external audit (technically and in a supervisory position). In fact, technically in terms of reporting standards and accounting principles, shouldn't be a problem at all. The only major issues I see are dealing with people and familiarising yourself with the company culture, including practical aspects such as learning their software and tuning yourself to their "beat".

In the end, all finance and corporate functions are cost centres. It's about how to get the most VALUE from these cost centres.

Because this is pay scale, not team structure.

Try 50 to 100 billion. My biz unit alone in Asia is 2.5B.

If you think you are, then you are. I always justify my role in terms of... without me, does the business make less profit? Does it earn less revenue? Does it incur more expenses?

If you contribute towards one of those objectives, you are creating value. And then it's a matter of how many times more value do you create vs what you cost.

Then there's the MNCs. In American MNCs especially, finance oversight is accepted as a critical component of doing business. If there is no finance oversight (in a certain market, geography, product line, period of time)... you DO NOT do business in that area. The risks are too great. I am lucky to be a finance person who works in a company like this, where I can override the sales function and stop them from selling if I can show that they are not profitable enough, or the risks (credit/past dues, exchange rate, macroeconomic etc) are too great. And if you sit on the management team, you have a say about other factors as well like strategy (do you want to be in this market in the first place).

This post has been edited by seantang: May 13 2012, 11:24 AM

You said all the roles in KL previously are now in SG. So, are those salaries you listed from Senior Finance manager upwards actually converted from Singapore dollar? This means their pay is not that high in Singapore dolars? Quite confused.

It's all in RM. Like I already said, it's a salary scale. Even if nobody is currently at that salary level, HR will still have the salary scale.

I don't know why you guys are having so much trouble grasping the concept of a salary scale.

Sinopec? Looks a little stingy to pay a global head less than 200k usd base.

That's the Malaysian pay scale for you. The total package including bonuses compares favorably with packages of C level execs of Malaysian mid to large listed companies. And local benchmarking is what the local pay scale is all about.

Which is why virtually no Malaysian above senior manager level remains as a local Malaysian employee. All are either Singaporean or HK employees or expats.

And above the Global Director level, it's an international executive pay scale.

And by the way, Global Director is just the salary level title for someone who is a 3rd level director. He may not necessarily have a global role. We've got 4 global FDs in Asia. The FD of China, FD of ROA (Rest of Asia), Asia Treasurer and the CFO of the Asian JVs division. And they report to the Asia CFO who should be on the executive scale. They don't publish the pay scales above global director. This is in finance. Including other functions and commercial, we're probably looking at about 30 of these guys in Asia alone.

This post has been edited by seantang: May 14 2012, 01:48 AM

Roughly how many SFM, SFM1, Finance Dir and SFD in the whole group?

Historically, roughly 15% of the company's population globally is Senior Mgr or above.

This post has been edited by seantang: May 14 2012, 03:31 PM

How are the car allowance calculated? 5 car allowance means additional RM10k if 1 car allowance is RM2k?

And, roughly what age people become SFM and above?

This post has been edited by PradaLee: May 14 2012, 03:40 PM

5 car allowance means RM5K each month. The monthly allowance goes up with salary level.

Normally, mid-late 30s. Those who are fast, early 30s and for these guys, they will usually be identified as future leaders and from SM onwards, their promotions will come very, very fast.

150 million in revenues. but globally, it's about USD6 billion. Got an invitation by one of big 4 as senior associate for their advisory TAS dept.
I think I will try it.

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Added on May 14, 2012, 8:45 pmIt's great if you can do that. We are controlled by HQ in Europe. They blamed our costings rather than the lower of the selling price.
In the end, we can convince them our evidence.

This post has been edited by Materazzi: May 14 2012, 08:45 PM

How long does the TAS from the Big 4 monitor your performance in the company for? Contractual basis? Sounds like a good opportunity to get some exposure. You should try it out, IMHO.

Costing should be done the same way/method across all geographical areas, no? Or do you mean overhead costs? Lower selling price? Is it because you're selling in USD and it gets converted to RM at a lower rate (strengthening of RM against USD)?

it is just a week..this is just round 1, need to take the test and interview.
I thought TAS is just due dilligence and review sales and purchase agreement??no??
Yup wanna add more experiences.

I mean costing here the standard cost. our auditors audit us based on standard cost.
Lower selling price because of the europe crisis. no customer. so they need to lower the price to attract

bump, would like to know about this too in 2018 onwards...