Financial Accountant

An Accountant is a professional who maintains all records of commercial and financial transactions of an organisation or an individual. Commercial transactions involve exchange of goods and services such as sale or purchase of stationary, food items, machinery, furniture, land, buildings, insurance services, transportation services, healthcare services, etc. Accountants keep records of how much quantity or units are being sold or purchased.

Accountants keep track of and maintain records of the exchange of money that take place when goods and services are bought or sold. They maintain records of sales proceeds which are earned and also keep records of expenses. They keep records of assets (such as land, buildings, furniture, fixed deposits, shares, etc.) as well as that of liabilities (such as billed expenses for which the payment hasn’t been made yet, loans, etc.). Accountants also keep records of taxes and interests to be paid.

Accountants prepare invoices for payments to be received; prepare and give receipts against payments; prepare vouchers and other remittances for payments made. They ensure that all taxes and interests are paid in time.

Accountants maintain records in various types of books of accounts such as ledger, cash book, etc. Based on these records of financial transactions, they prepare various types of financial statements such as profit & loss statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, etc. They also take part in cost estimation and budget as well as financial analysis to find out the financial situations in an organisation.

Accountants mostly use computers and various accounting software for carrying out their tasks.

Key Role and Responsibilities

As an Accountant, you will be involved in following key roles and responsibilities:

• As an Accountant, you would be involved in developing, maintaining, and analysing budgets, preparing periodic report. For example cash memos are prepared to record the sales and purchases, invoices/receipts are prepared to record the credit transactions of the sales and purchases made, whereas pay in slips, vouchers, cheques, debit and credit notes are prepared for payment purposes.
• As an Accountant you would be preparing, examining, or analysing accounting records, financial statements such as balance sheet, income statements, and cash flow statements. You would also examine financial reports to assess accuracy, completeness, and conformance to reporting and procedural standards.
• As an Accountant you would be reviewing accounts for discrepancies and reconcile differences. For example you would be reviewing books of accounts like journals- Purchase Day Book, Sales Day Book, Return Inward Book, Return Outward Book, General Journal; and ledgers- cash books, general ledger, debtor ledger, creditor ledger etc.
• As an Accountant you would also be analysing business operations, trends, costs, revenues, financial commitments, and obligations to project future revenues and expenses or to provide advice.
• As an Accountant you would be adjusting entries of the statements at the end of the period such as deferrals, accruals, tax adjustments and omitted transaction adjustments.
• As an Accountant you would be developing, implementing, modifying, and documenting- recordkeeping and accounting systems, making use of current computer technology.
• As an Accountant you would be advising management about issues such as resource utilization, tax strategies, and the assumptions underlying budget forecasts.
• As an Accountant you would advise clients in areas such as compensation, employee health care benefits, the design of accounting or data processing systems, or long-range tax or estate plans.

Enterprising: You should have interests for Enterprising Occupations. Enterprising occupations involve taking initiatives, initiating actions, and planning to achieve goals, often business goals. These involve gathering resources and leading people to get things done. These require decision making, risk taking and action orientation.

Conventional: You should have interests for Conventional Occupations. Conventional occupations involve repetitive and routine tasks as well as fixed processes or procedures for getting things done. These occupations involve working more with data, systems, and procedures and less with ideas or creativity.

Abilities

Deductive Reasoning- The ability to apply general rules and common logic to specific problems to produce answers that are logical and make sense. For example, understanding the reasons behind an event or a situation using general rules and common logic.

Flexibility of Closure- The ability to identify or detect a pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden among other distracting materials.

Information Ordering- The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).

Inter-Personal-The ability to build and maintain good relationships with others at workplaces and elsewhere.

Problem Sensitivity- The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.

Selective Attention- The ability to concentrate on a task over a long period of time without being distracted.

Speed of Closure- The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.

Verbal Reasoning- The ability to think and reason with words; the ability to reason out ideas expressed in words.

Written Comprehension- The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.

Written Expression- The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.

Knowledge

Accounting — Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking and the analysis and reporting of financial data.

Skills

Active Learning: Focused and continuous learning from various sources of information, observation and otherwise for application in getting work done.

Coordination: Skills in working together with other people to get things done.

Critical Thinking: Skills in analysis of complex situations, using of logic and reasoning to understand the situations and take appropriate actions or make interpretations and inferences.

Judgment and Decision Making: Skills in considering pros and cons of various decision alternatives; considering costs and benefits; taking appropriate and suitable decisions.

Managing Financial Resources: Skills in determining how money should be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.

Negotiation: Skills in bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.

Persuasion: Skills in persuading others to change their minds or behaviour.

Problem Solving: Skills in analysis and understanding of problems, evaluating various options to solve the problems and using the best option to solve the problems.

Reading Comprehension: Skills in understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.

Service Orientation: Skills in or keen interest to help and assist people.

Time Management: Skills in prioritizing work, managing time effectively.

Personality

You are always or mostly organised in your day-to-day life and activities.

You are always or mostly careful about your actions and behaviour.

You are always or mostly disciplined in your action and behaviour.

You are always calm or generally remain calm in most situations.

You always feel secure in your surroundings and in most situations.

You can always act independently or could do so in most situations.

You trust others sometimes but not always.

You act independently sometimes but do not do so in some other times.

You are always practical or in most situations.

You always or mostly prefer to stick within a routine or carry out routine and repetitive activities.