An accounts payable clerk keeps a company’s bills paid and its vendor records accurate, and in Dallas the role pays a median of $55,275 in 2026. You can start with a high school diploma and some accounting coursework, and most of the day-to-day is learned on the job.
What does an accounts payable clerk do?
An AP clerk handles the money a company owes. The work is steady and detail-driven: take in invoices, check them against purchase orders, enter them into the accounting system, and make sure vendors get paid the right amount on time.
Day to day, that looks like:
- Receiving, coding, and entering vendor invoices
- Matching invoices to purchase orders and receipts, known as three-way matching
- Posting transactions into accounting software and assigning them to the correct accounts
- Reconciling vendor statements and flagging discrepancies
- Preparing payment runs and keeping the aging report current
The Bureau of Labor Statistics groups AP clerks under bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks, and the core duties line up: recording transactions, checking figures for accuracy, and reporting any differences.
What do you need to become an AP clerk in Dallas?
The typical entry point is some accounting coursework without a full degree, and many employers will hire on a high school diploma plus a willingness to learn. There’s no license to earn and no four-year degree required for most employers.
- A high school diploma or GED is the baseline.
- Some accounting coursework helps you stand out. Locally, there are colleges that offer accounting and accounting-clerk certificates you can finish without committing to a full degree.
- Comfort with numbers and accounting software matters. BLS lists moderate-term on-the-job training as standard, so employers expect to teach you their systems.
- Certification is optional. The Certified Bookkeeper credential exists if you want it, though Dallas employers rarely require it for an entry-level AP role.
Which skills get an AP clerk hired, and paid more, in Dallas?
The diploma gets you in the door, and the skills decide where you land in the pay range. The ones Dallas employers pay up for:
- ERP systems like SAP, Oracle, and NetSuite push you toward the top of the range
- AP automation tools like Bill.com, Tipalti, and AvidXchange are increasingly what employers screen for
- Advanced Excel, three-way matching, multi-entity processing, and 1099 reporting each add value beyond basic invoice entry
BLS rounds out the picture with the qualities that keep AP clerks employable: attention to detail, analytical thinking, comfort with math, and integrity, since you are handling a company’s money.
How much do accounts payable clerks make in Dallas?
AP clerks in Dallas earn a median of $55,275 in 2026, with most landing between $49,266 and $61,284, based on PrideStaff Financial’s 2026 North Texas salary data. That sits above the national median of $49,210 that BLS reports for the broader bookkeeping and accounting clerk category.
AP clerk is also the first rung of a ladder. The next step, AP specialist, runs a median of $60,336, and AP managers reach $88,850. You can check the current range for your experience with our salary calculator.
Is accounts payable a good career to get into?
The data-entry side of the job is shrinking, and the analytical side is growing. BLS projects the bookkeeping and accounting clerk category to decline about 6% through 2034 as software automates routine invoice entry. The same report shows roughly 170,000 openings a year from turnover, and it expects the role to shift toward analysis rather than disappear.
The people who treat AP as button-pushing are the ones automation replaces. The people who learn the systems, catch the errors software misses, and build toward specialist or staff accountant are the ones who climb. AP has long been one of the most common ways into accounting, and that still holds true.
How do you find an AP clerk job in Dallas?
If you’re job hunting, a few moves make the difference:
- Put your software and your accuracy at the top of your resume. If you need a starting point, use our resume builder.
- Get experience through temp or temp-to-hire work. Many temp-to-hire AP placements convert to permanent roles within about 90 days, so it is one of the faster ways in.
- Work with a recruiter who already knows which Dallas employers are hiring AP right now.
- Prepare for the interview. Be ready to walk through three-way matching, name the accounting software you know, and tell a short story about a time you caught a costly mistake.
How long does it take?
If you have the basics, you can find an entry-level AP role in a matter of weeks, and faster with a recruiter or a temp-to-hire placement that gets you working while the search continues. Moving from clerk to AP specialist usually takes one to two years of building ERP and reconciliation skills.
If you’re hiring an accounts payable clerk
AP clerk is a high-turnover role in Dallas, so a few things help. Posting at or above the median attracts a stronger pool and cuts early turnover. Temp-to-hire lets you watch someone handle the work before you commit. And a clerk who catches duplicate payments and keeps your aging clean saves you far more than the gap between the 25th and 75th percentile. If you need accounting and finance staffing help, our Dallas team can line up pre-screened AP candidates.
Where PrideStaff Dallas fits
We’ve placed AP clerks and the rest of the accounting ladder across Dallas for over 25 years, and you work with the same local team from the first call through the hire. Whether you’re starting your accounting career or building out your AP team, talk to our Dallas recruiters and we’ll point you in the right direction.