How an Electronics Manufacturer Hired a Senior AP/AR Specialist in Latin America for $2,000/Month

One Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable (AP/AR) professional had run full-cycle accounts for a small electronics manufacturer on the West Coast for 28 years. She knew every vendor relationship, every quirk in the company’s paper-based filing system, and every detail about the business that had never been written down.

When she retired, decades of accumulated knowledge left with her.

The business runs on a manufacturing ERP that goes well beyond QuickBooks: cost accounting, job costing, and inventory reconciliation across a product line that sometimes gets assembled in-house from purchased components and sometimes gets bought finished from contract manufacturers. They tried backfilling the role with a US-based professional, but the new hire never found her footing in it.

So the company came to Hire With Near to hire finance and accounting talent from Latin America: specifically, a senior accounts payable and accounts receivable specialist who could handle the ERP the last hire couldn’t, and start rebuilding the institutional knowledge the company had just lost.

Why a Failed Hire Sent an Electronics Manufacturer to Latin America

The ERP was the sticking point. It isn’t the kind of system most general accounting candidates have hands-on experience with. That hiring miss pushed the company to widen its search beyond the US entirely. 

The company had made exactly one hire outside the country before, for a sales role, and had never handed a finance or operations function to someone outside the US. It had also worked with talent in another offshore region on unrelated work and run into real communication friction there, so this time, English proficiency was something to verify directly and rigorously.

Latin America addressed both concerns at once:

• The region has a deep bench of accounting professionals with genuine manufacturing-ERP experience, since NetSuite, Sage Intacct, and similar systems show up far more often on Latin American accounting resumes than on typical US ones. 
• English proficiency is something Hire With Near screens and verifies directly during the hiring process, rather than something we take for granted. 

The role’s working hours were flexible as long as they overlapped with West Coast business hours, which most of Latin America does comfortably.

That combination, along with the reach a nearshore staffing agency brings to a search most companies aren’t set up to run on their own, made Latin America the clear next step.

Related reading: Why More US Businesses Are Hiring in Latin America

What Does a Manufacturing-Ready Senior AP/AR Hire From Latin America Look Like?

Hire With Near sourced and screened candidates specifically for manufacturing-accounting experience and hands-on ERP exposure beyond QuickBooks. The finalist pool was built around that requirement first, and general accounting skill second. The whole process took 23 days. 

The person hired is based in Honduras, with more than a decade of accounting experience spanning both US GAAP and IFRS. She holds an MBA in finance on top of an undergraduate background in public accounting.

Before this placement, she worked as a general accountant and financial analyst at a manufacturing company, where she led a full ERP implementation that earned internal recognition and built job-costing tools to track profitability across product lines. She’s advanced or expert-level in QuickBooks, NetSuite, Sage Intacct, and Power BI: exactly the ERP breadth the role’s previous attempt was missing.

That profile mattered more than years of experience alone. The company didn’t need someone who could just process invoices. It needed someone who had already built and modernized accounting systems inside a manufacturing environment, and could do it again.

How the Hire Took Over 28 Years of Institutional Knowledge at 68% Below US Cost

The hire took over full-cycle accounts payable and accounts receivable, bank reconciliation, payroll journal entries, and sales tax compliance support: the same responsibilities the retiring employee had carried alone for nearly three decades. 

She works inside the company’s manufacturing ERP without the ramp-up problems the previous hire ran into, and there’s room to expand into broader bookkeeping and financial statement work as she settles in.

At $2,000 a month, or $24,000 a year, her salary is 68% below the $74,503 US national average for the same title, according to our salary benchmarks. 

This savings rate lines up with what companies typically see when hiring in Latin America, typically saving 30–70% compared to a US equivalent salary, translating to $35,000 to $64,000 per hire on average. 

For a manufacturer trying to modernize its back office after one hiring miss, the real outcome wasn’t the savings. It was finally hiring someone who could do the job the ERP required.

Salary Benchmarks: Accounting Roles in Latin America

Hire With Near’s salary benchmarks for finance and accounting roles in Latin America, ranging from junior to senior levels, show the following:

Note: The hire’s role combined AP and AR responsibilities; the benchmarks above reflect each function separately.

For the most up-to-date figures, see Hire With Near’s US vs Latin America Salary Guide.

Actual compensation depends on experience, scope, and country. We’ll share a specific range at the start of a search.

Why Does Latin America Work for Manufacturing Accounting and Finance Hiring?

Manufacturing accounting has technical requirements that don’t show up in most general bookkeeping searches: cost accounting, job costing, inventory reconciliation, and ERP systems built for production environments rather than simple retail or service businesses. 

For companies working with a manufacturing recruiting agency that understands Latin America’s talent pool, a few things make the region a strong match for this kind of hiring.

ERP experience beyond QuickBooks is common, not rare

Countries across Latin America host export and manufacturing operations for US and international companies, so accountants there are far more likely to have hands-on time with NetSuite, Sage Intacct, SAP, and similar systems than a typical QuickBooks-only bookkeeper in the US. That experience is exactly what a manufacturing ERP transition requires.

US GAAP and IFRS training run side by side

Many Latin American accounting programs teach US GAAP and IFRS in parallel, since the region does substantial business with US companies and multinational firms that report under both standards. 

That means a hire may not need a translation period to work inside US-style books.

Rebuilding lost institutional knowledge takes a systems builder

Losing an employee who’s been in a role for decades means losing whatever wasn’t written down. The strongest candidates for backfilling that kind of role aren’t just experienced. They’ve led ERP rollouts, built job-costing tools, or otherwise formalized processes that used to live in one person’s head, and can do the same thing again somewhere new.

Related reading: 7 Best Countries to Hire Remote Finance Talent in 2026 

{{prevetted-banner}}

How to Hire a Senior AP/AR Specialist Through Hire With Near

To hire an accounts payable specialist or an accounts receivable specialist in Latin America through Hire With Near, the process is simple and moves quickly. Most companies hire a candidate within 7–21 days.

We start with a kickoff call to understand the role, the systems the hire needs to know, and what a successful first 90 days looks like. From there, we write or refine the job description, set realistic compensation expectations for the market, and start sourcing.

Every candidate we send you has already been through our screening process, including an English proficiency assessment and verification of the ERP and accounting experience listed on their resume. 

You interview the finalists we shortlist, make the call, and we handle offer logistics. You can run payroll through us or pay the hire directly, whichever fits how you want to manage the relationship.

If your search calls for a technical assessment or case study, we can help design and administer it, though most clients run their own once they have a shortlist.

There’s no retainer and no fee until you hire.

If you need to hire a senior accounts payable and accounts receivable specialist and want to know exactly what that role costs in the country you want to hire from, book a free discovery call today. We’ll give you specific salary ranges, answer your questions, and help you understand the hiring process.

You can also check our How to Hire Finance and Accounting Talent in Latin America guide if you’re also considering hiring for other positions in the area, or How to Hire Remotely in Latin America, for broader guidance.