An accountant or accounting professional, is responsible for the management and reporting of financial data of an organization. Their main duties include preparing financial statements, examining and analyzing a company's accounts and ensuring compliance with financial reporting and other standard accounting procedures.

Accountant duties and responsibilities

Prepare and examine financial records, ensuring records are accurate and that taxes are paid. Different types of accountant duties and responsibilities may include:

• Reconciling the company's bank statements and bookkeeping ledgers
• Completing analysis of the employee expenditures
• Managing income and expenditure accounts
• Generating the company's financial reports using income and expenditure data
• Keeping a check on the company's finances based on financial status
• Filing and remitting taxes and other financial obligations
• Initiating and managing financial and accounting software used by the company

Accountant skills and qualifications

To best perform their duties and responsibilities, an accountant should possess the following skills and qualifications:

• Experience with accounting software and data entry
• Excellent understanding of accounting rules and procedures, including the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)
• Advanced knowledge and experience with spreadsheets
• Ability to work independently
• Analytical skills

Accountant experience requirements

A successful candidate should have experience with accounting and financial software and stay up to date with current trends. Expert-level knowledge of working with spreadsheets is crucial. Experience with word processing software is essential for generating and writing reports for record-keeping as well as presentations. Other experience requirements that accountants should have include managing company finances and drawing up a budget based on income and expenditure accounts. Experience conducting internal and external auditing is an added advantage. Working experience with general ledger functions is required.