Financial Manager Career Assessment

2What is a Financial Manager?

A financial manager produces the numbers an organization runs on and then explains what they mean. You close the books each month and make sure the statements are right. You build the forecast and the budget and you defend them. You manage cash so payroll clears and the bills get paid. You handle the relationship with the bank and with the auditors. In a bank or credit union you may also manage lending or investments. In a hospital or a manufacturer you are watching margins and costs. The title covers controllers, treasurers, finance directors, and credit managers, and what they all share is this: when the numbers are wrong, it is your problem.

The Reality: Of the seven jobs in this series, this is the one where you cannot really promote in on grit alone. Almost every financial manager was an accountant or a financial analyst first, and almost every one of them holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting or finance. Five or more years of doing the numbers is the normal entry. The honest second part is accuracy. This job is not hard the way lifting is hard; it is hard because being 98% right is still being wrong, and because the mistake shows up in an audit six months later with your name on it. If you do not genuinely enjoy getting something exactly right, this will grind you down no matter what it pays.

Your Responsibilities:

• Close the books and produce financial statements that are correct
• Build budgets and forecasts, then explain the difference when reality disagrees
• Manage cash so the organization can pay what it owes when it owes it
• Work with auditors and fix whatever they find
• Advise leadership on whether the organization can afford a decision
• Supervise accountants, analysts, and the accounts payable and receivable staff
• Keep the organization inside the financial rules that apply to it
• Manage banking relationships, debt, and sometimes investments

You are the one who has to be right about the money.

3A Day in the Life

7:30 AM — Coffee and the cash position. Check what cleared overnight and what is coming.

8:30 AM — Month-end close. Chase two accounts that do not reconcile and find the error.

10:00 AM — Meet the department heads whose budgets are over. Ask why, kindly but clearly.

11:30 AM — Build the rolling forecast with the numbers you just closed.

12:30 PM — Lunch with the bank about renewing a line of credit.

2:00 PM — Auditor sends questions. Pull the documents and answer them precisely.

3:30 PM — Coach a staff accountant through a reconciliation instead of doing it for them.

4:45 PM — Write the one-page summary leadership will actually read.

Deadline-driven, precise, and quiet in a way the other manager jobs are not.

4Training in North Dakota

A bachelor’s in accounting or finance, then five or more years of doing the numbers. This is the one job in this series with a real education requirement in practice. Employers want a four-year degree in accounting or finance and several years of hands-on experience. The good news is that North Dakota has strong, affordable programs in exactly this, including online ones, and that accounting is one of the easiest fields in which to get hired straight out of school.

Training Pathways:

• Accounting or finance degree, then up (4 years plus 5 to 8 years): Bachelor’s in accounting or finance, then staff accountant or financial analyst, then senior accountant, then controller or finance manager. This is how most financial managers got here and there is no real shortcut around the experience.
• Two-year college first, then transfer (4 years total): Do your first two years at a North Dakota two-year college for far less money, then transfer into a four-year accounting or finance degree. BSC and NDSCS both run transfer pathways built for this. You finish with the same degree for less.
• Already working in accounting? Finish the degree online while you work (2 to 4 years): Several ND schools offer accounting and finance degrees online. If you are already a bookkeeper or an AP or AR clerk, this is the road with the shortest distance between where you are and this job.

Where to Train in North Dakota:

• University of North Dakota (Grand Forks) — Accountancy, Finance, Banking & Financial Economics, and Managerial Finance & Accounting B.B.A. programs, plus a Master of Accountancy and an MBA, through the Nistler College of Business & Public Administration (business.und.edu/academics)
• North Dakota State University (Fargo) — Accounting B.S., Finance B.S., and Business Analytics B.S. (ndsu.edu/business/academic-programs/undergraduate)
• Minot State University (Minot) — Accounting B.S., Finance B.S., an Accounting AAS, and a minor in Fraud Examination, plus a Master of Science in Management (minotstateu.edu/business)
• University of Mary (Bismarck) — Business Administration B.S., a Financial Services and Banking program, an MBA, and a tuition-free Accounting Academy pathway for finance-focused students (umary.edu/academics/schools/gary-tharaldson-school-business)
• Bismarck State College (Bismarck) — Accounting AAS, a Liberal Arts Accounting transfer pathway, Financial Technologies, and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Finance (catalog.bismarckstate.edu/catalog/degrees)
• ND State College of Science (Wahpeton and Fargo) — Business Management AAS, Administration and Finance option, and a Finance certificate (catalog.ndscs.edu/business-management)
• Valley City State University (Valley City) and Dickinson State University (Dickinson) — business administration degrees with finance and accounting coursework, both available online (catalog.vcsu.edu and dickinsonstate.edu/academics/fields-of-study/sobe)
• United Tribes Technical College (Bismarck) — Business Administration (uttc.edu/academics)

Before You Start: A high school diploma or GED, and real comfort with math — not advanced math, but constant, exact arithmetic and algebra. A four-year degree in accounting or finance for most employers. Strong spreadsheet skills. Patience for detail. If you want the CPA, plan on 150 college credit hours, which is more than a standard bachelor’s degree.

Tip: Start with financial aid, scholarships, and any help an employer offers — that is where the money starts. After that, ask a career counselor or Job Service North Dakota whether WIOA or other programs can help with what is left over, like training, tools, work boots, or exam fees. What can be paid for depends on the program and on your own situation, so ask before you sign up rather than after. Registered apprenticeships let you earn a paycheck while you learn — see jobsnd.com/job-seeker/apprenticeships for ND programs.

5Certification & Licensing

No license for the title itself, but the CPA, CFA, and CTP each open a specific door. You can be a financial manager with no certification at all. But the three credentials below are the ones that move you into the higher-paid versions of the job, and each points at a different kind of employer. Pick the one that matches where you want to work, not the one that sounds most impressive.

The Three Credentials Worth Knowing:

• CPA (Certified Public Accountant), licensed in ND by the North Dakota State Board of Accountancy — the board requires at least 150 semester hours of college including a bachelor’s or higher, with an accounting concentration of 24 semester credits in accounting plus 24 credits in other business courses (ndsba.nd.gov)
• CPA exam and experience — four sections: three core parts (Auditing, Financial Accounting and Reporting, and Regulation) plus one discipline part you choose. A grade of 75 is required in each, and exam credit lasts 30 months from the score release date. You also need at least 2,000 hours of experience gained within four or fewer calendar years, and the AICPA Professional Ethics course before licensure (ndsba.nd.gov/requirements-become-cpa)
• CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst), CFA Institute — for the investment side. Three levels, three exams, about 300 hours of study each, and CFA Institute says three to four years to finish all three, plus at least 4,000 hours of relevant work experience over no fewer than 36 months. Published cost is about $3,520 to $4,570 for all three levels, starting from about $1,140 per exam, for the 2026 exams (cfainstitute.org/programs/cfa)
• CTP (Certified Treasury Professional), AFP — for corporate cash and treasury work. Requires a minimum of two years of full-time work in corporate cash or treasury management or corporate finance; an advanced business graduate degree counts as one year of that experience. AFP does not publish the exam fee on its eligibility page — it says the price depends on membership status and application deadline — so ask AFP for the current member and non-member rates before you plan around it (ctpcert.financialprofessionals.org)
• None of the above — plenty of ND controllers and finance directors hold no certification. In a smaller organization, a bachelor’s degree plus a clean track record is enough

The Exams: CPA: four sections, 75 required in each, credit good for 30 months. CFA: three levels, one exam each, roughly 300 study hours per level. CTP: one exam, with applications valid for six consecutive testing windows.

Cost: CFA Institute publishes about $3,520 to $4,570 for the full CFA Program, from about $1,140 per exam. CPA costs are the exam fees plus the 150 credit hours of college, which is the far bigger number. AFP does not publish the CTP fee where it states eligibility, so ask AFP directly. Many ND employers pay for one of these if it fits the job — ask before you register.

Keeping It Current: A ND CPA license renews through the state board and requires continuing education. The CFA charter requires CFA Institute membership to stay in good standing. The CTP requires recertification on AFP’s published cycle. Ask each body for the current rules rather than relying on secondhand summaries.

6Salary & Job Outlook

North Dakota Financial Manager Pay (May 2025):

• Starting out (bottom 10–25%): $42.12–$51.20/hour ($87,610–$106,490/year)
• Middle (median — half earn more, half earn less): $65.33/hour ($135,890/year)
• Experienced (top 25–10%): $84.83–$110.17/hour ($176,440–$229,150/year)

What that means: The middle North Dakota financial manager earns about $135,890 a year — the highest of the seven jobs in this series by a clear margin — against a national middle of about $166,570. Even the ND bottom tenth, about $87,610, is higher than the middle pay of four of the other six jobs here. The gap to the country is real and it grows with seniority: the ND 90th percentile is about $229,150 while the national 90th is about $323,270. That top-end difference is mostly Wall Street and big-city corporate headquarters, which North Dakota does not have and is not trying to have. What ND does have is banks, credit unions, co-ops, health systems, and energy companies that all need someone who can close the books and be right. Judged against North Dakota’s cost of living, $135,890 at the middle is a genuinely strong salary.

Jobs in North Dakota: About 2,050 people do this work in ND today. By 2034, that should be about 2,440 (about 19% growth). Expect about 190 job openings every year in ND from growth and people retiring or changing jobs. Across the U.S., the change is about 15% growth — much faster than average.

Outlook: Excellent, and the second-best in this series. O*NET shows North Dakota going from about 2,050 financial managers in 2024 to about 2,440 in 2034 — roughly 19% growth, the fastest growth rate of any of these seven jobs — with about 190 openings a year. Nationally the job grows about 15% with 74,600 openings a year, so ND is ahead of a country that is already growing this fast. This is the rare case where a North Dakota number beats the national one outright. The reason is the mix of employers here: a dense network of community banks and credit unions, farm co-ops, health systems, and energy companies, all of which need someone senior on the money. If you can get the degree and stomach the detail, this is the strongest bet in this series after general and operations manager, and it pays far more.

Who Hires in ND: Banks and credit unions, farm credit and agricultural lenders, insurance companies, health care systems, energy and oil field companies, manufacturers, large farm co-ops and grain elevators, accounting firms, school districts and colleges, and state and local government.

Work Setting: An office, indoors, regular weekday hours — except at month end, quarter end, year end, budget season, and audit, when the hours get long and the deadlines are immovable. Much of the work is quiet and solitary. Increasingly, some of it can be done from home.

Physical Demands: Low. Sitting and computer work. The real strain is mental and it is concentrated into predictable spikes: closing weeks, budget season, and audit. Long screen hours are the main health consideration.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, North Dakota, May 2025 (SOC 11-3031); North Dakota and U.S. long-term employment projections 2024–2034, via O*NET OnLine. Numbers are rounded.

7Where This Leads

Path 1: Bookkeeper or AP/AR Clerk — Learn how the money actually moves.

Path 2: Staff Accountant or Financial Analyst — The standard first professional step.

Path 3: Senior Accountant — Own the close and the harder reconciliations.

Path 4: Controller or Finance Manager — Run the accounting function and the reporting.

Path 5: Director of Finance or Treasurer — Own the forecast, the cash, and the banking.

Path 6: CFO — Sit at the top table and answer for all of it.

8The Real Talk

What's Great:

• The highest pay in this series — about $135,890 at the ND middle
• The fastest ND growth of these seven jobs, about 19%
• About 190 openings a year, and ND beats the national growth rate outright
• Indoor, low-physical, mostly predictable weekday work
• The skills transfer to any industry and to any state
• Even the ND bottom tenth of about $87,610 is a strong salary here

What's Hard:

• You essentially need a four-year accounting or finance degree — this is not a promote-in-on-grit job
• Being nearly right is being wrong, and the mistake surfaces in an audit months later
• Month end, year end, budget season, and audit are long-hours stretches you cannot move
• ND pay trails the country by about $30,700 at the middle and much more at the top
• You deliver bad financial news to people who do not want it
• The CPA road requires 150 college credit hours, more than a standard bachelor’s degree

Be Honest: Do you actually enjoy getting something exactly right, or do you just tolerate it? Can you tell a department head no and make it stick? Are you willing to finish a four-year degree in accounting or finance, because this is the one job here where experience alone rarely gets you in? And can you take responsibility for a number being correct when four other people produced it?

9Part 1: What Attracts You?

10Part 2: Are You Ready?

11Part 3: Your Next Move

Your Financial Manager Assessment Results