Profession accountant

Accountants review and analyse financial statements, budgets, financial reports, and business plans in order to check for irregularities resulting from error or fraud, and provide their clients with financial advice in matters such as financial forecasting and risk analysis. They may audit financial data, resolve insolvency cases, prepare tax returns and provide other tax-related advice in reference to current legislation.

Personality Type

• Conventional / Enterprising

Knowledge

• Financial department processes

  The different processes, duties, jargon, role in an organisation, and other specificities of the financial department within an organisation. Understanding of financial statements, investments, disclosing policies, etc.

• Fraud detection

  The techniques used to identify fraudulous activities.

• Financial statements

  The set of financial records disclosing the financial position of a company at the end of a set period or of the accounting year. The financial statements consisting of five parts which are the statement of financial position, the statement of comprehensive income, the statement of changes in equity (SOCE), the statement of cash flows and notes.

• Commercial law

  The legal regulations that govern a specific commercial activity.

• Depreciation

  The accounting method of dividing the value of an asset over its useful life for the allocation of cost per fiscal year and in parallel to decrease the value of the asset from the accounts of the company.

• Bookkeeping regulations

  The methods and regulations involved in the process of accurate bookkeeping.

• Accounting department processes

  The different processes, duties, jargon, role in an organisation, and other specificities of the accounting department within an organisation such as bookkeeping, invoices, recording, and taxing.

• Tax legislation

  Tax legislation applicable to a specific area of specialisation, such as import tax, government tax, etc.

• Accounting techniques

  The techniques of recording and summarising business and financial transactions and analysing, verifying, and reporting the results.

• Accounting entries

  The financial transactions recorded in accounting systems or books of a company together with the metadata linked to the entry such as the date, the amount, the accounts affected, and a description of the transaction.

• Statistics

  The study of statistical theory, methods and practices such as collection, organisation, analysis, interpretation and presentation of data. It deals with all aspects of data including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments in order to forecast and plan work-related activities.

Skills

• Identify accounting errors

  Trace accounts, revise the accuracy of the records, and determine the faults in order to solve them.

• Prepare financial statements

  Collect, entry, and prepare the set of financial records disclosing the financial position of a company at the end of a certain period or accounting year. The financial statements consisting of five parts which are the statement of financial position, the statement of comprehensive income, the statement of changes in equity (SOCE), the statement of cash flows and notes.

• Analyse financial performance of a company

  Based on accounts, records, financial statements and external information of the market, analyse the performance of the company in financial matters in order to identify improvement actions that could increase profit.

• Draft accounting procedures

  Lay down standard methods and guidelines to regulate bookkeeping and accounting operations, including determining the bookkeeping system used to record financial transactions.

• Follow the statutory obligations

  Understand, abide by, and apply the statutory obligations of the company in the daily performance of the job.

• Calculate tax

  Calculate the taxes which have to be paid by an individual or organisation, or paid back by a governmental institution, compliant with specific legislation.

• Explain accounting records

  Provide additional explanation and disclosure to staff, vendors, auditors, and to any other instance about the way accounts were recorded and treated in the financial records.

• Perform balance sheet operations

  Make up a balance sheet displaying an overview of the organisation's current financial situation. Take into account income and expenses, fixed assets such as buildings and land, intangible assets such as trademarks and patents.

• Check accounting records

  Revise the accounting records of the quarter and year and ensure that the accounting information reflects with accuracy the financial transactions of the company.

• Manage accounts

  Manage the accounts and financial activities of an organisation, supervising that all the documents are correctly maintained, that all the information and calculations are correct, and that proper decisions are being made.

• Attach accounting certificates to accounting transactions

  Collate and link documents such as invoices, contracts, and payment certificates in order to back up the transactions made in the accounting of the company.

• Prepare trial accounting balances

  Ensure that all transactions are recorded in the books of the company and totalise all the debits and the credits of the accounts to find out balance in the accounts.

• Prepare tax returns forms

  Totalise all the deductible tax collected during the quarter or fiscal year in order to fill tax return forms and claim it back to the governmental authorities for declaring taxation liability. Keep the documents and records supporting the transaction.

• Ensure compliance with accounting conventions

  Exercise accounting management and abidance by generally accepted accounting conventions such as recording transactions at the current price, quantifying goods, separating personal accounts of managers from those of the company, making effective the transfer of legal ownership of assets in its realisation time, and ensuring the principle of materiality.

• Interpret financial statements

  Read, understand, and interpret the key lines and indicators in financial statements. Extract the most important information from financial statements depending on the needs and integrate this information in the development of the department's plans.

Optional knowledge and skills

Source: Sisyphus ODB