I’ve been on the job market for 3+ years (mostly working contract roles), and I keep noticing the same trend: a huge number of postings — usually for “Senior Accountant” or even “Staff”— are expecting one person to basically run the entire accounting function.What happened to actual separation of duties?

It used to be more structured — AP teams, AR teams, someone focused on reconciliations, others handling fixed assets/prepaids, payroll, etc. Now it feels like companies want one person to:

own the close (end-to-end)

handle AP + AR

do all reconciliations

manage fixed assets, accruals, prepaids

assist with or fully run payroll

improve processes

even manage system integrations/implementations

…and somehow still clock in with a smile.

All for an average pay of $70–90K per year, which feels wildly out of sync with expectations. Not to mention Finance, IT, Engineering making WAY for seemingly less work.

Is this the new normal in accounting, or are these just red flags disguised as “growth opportunities”?