Accounting Specialist Job Description, Skills, and Salary
Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of an accounting specialist. Feel free to use our accounting specialist job description template to produce your own. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as an accounting specialist.
Who is an Accounting Specialist?
Most people have the notion that an accounting specialist is the same as an accountant but this is not so because an accounting specialist is far more than an accountant. In the field of human endeavor, an accounting specialist is someone who is an expert in a particular field and not an intermediary or amateur. An accounting specialist, therefore, is someone who is a professional or an expert in accounting functions.
An Accounting Specialist is a professional who is responsible for keeping a record of the company’s transactions both incoming and outgoing. Accounting specialists can also be referred to as accounts receivable clerks, accounts payable clerks, or normal accounting clerk. Accounting specialists make use of receipts to authenticate and process records of financial information, communicate with lenders, clients, s, and suppliers, and assist with daily, monthly, and yearly accounting activities and projects. Accounting involves only transactions that can be expressed in monetary times. Some people call accounting can be seen as the language of business and its purpose is to help users of accounting to make better decisions. An accounting specialist assists in the preparation of a business budget by collating and compiling information on its financial records. An accounting specialist monitors the financial management of different departments gives notification of shortages or inefficiencies. The specialist report back to the management on matters such as; budget discrepancies and requests for a supplementary budget allocation for special projects.
Accounting specialists also perform roles like analyzing information, maintaining complete and accurate records, assisting with routine accounting duties, and responding to client complaints. An accounting specialist should be a very good researcher and possess strong communication and computer skills.
To be highly successful as an accounting specialist, you should be able to provide an efficient, reliable role to the accounting departments and other departments in an organization. An accounting specialist must be someone trustworthy, thorough, and very sensitive to time and management skills. The size of the company depends on the work schedule of the accounting clerk. Accounting specialists may have various duties or responsibilities to perform each day. The main responsibility of an accounting clerk is to manage the day-to-day financial accounts of the company and ensure that all transactions are being recorded correctly. Most accounting specialists work on a full-time basis in an office or regular hours; Much of their work is independent but they also team up with other employees such as managers and clerks from other departments.
Accounting Specialist Job Description
Below are the accounting specialist job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write an accounting specialist job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
The duties and responsibilities of an accounting specialist include the following:
- Conduct and process all the transactions for vouchers and maintain invoices for ledgers and reconcile all financial statements
- Perform an audit on all the purchases orders and invoices and also manage requisition vouchers
- Supervise and process all bills and invoices for payment and prepared accounts every month
- Assess all credit card disputes and prepare all appropriate bills and statements for clients
- Manage all data, administer appropriate coding and update information on the processing system
- Assist accountant and investigate all issues for account receivables and payables
- Manage all overdue accounts and identify all risk accounts and ensure timely collection of the same
- Manage cash and check deposits for banks daily
- Agree with vendors and prepare documents for all credit and back orders
- Develop and manage financial statements and ensure confidentiality of all information
- Evaluate all accounting requirements and distribute all mails to account appropriately
- Taking an active part in ongoing education opportunities to learn about industry trends and developments, current financial legislation, and company policies and procedures
- Aiding the accounting departments in the daily, monthly, and yearly activities including generating financial reports, developing budgets, preparing taxes and assisting with audits, and resolving discrepancies
- Handling payroll
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Financial Accounting or Finance
- Basic computer skills with knowledge on how to manage bookkeeping software
- Strong mathematical and research skills
- Time management, communication, and problem-solving skills
- Ability to comprehend accounting principles and current financial legislation
- Working experience as an Accounting Specialist or a similar role
- Organized and detail-oriented
- Ability to accurately and efficiently analyze data
- Understanding of GAAP accounting Principle
Essential Skills
- Communication: this is one of the core skills of an accounting specialist. This involves a deliberate and constant interaction with other departments. The specialist must be able to communicate effectively with his department and also report vividly to other employees and senior colleagues. Good communication with his teammates is one of the requisite factors to carry out a project successfully.
- Numerical and Analytical Skills
An accounting specialist must be someone very good with numbers because most of his responsibilities will involve numbers. He/she is expected to have good skills and be able to make a good as a good assessment of the data gathered. Accounting and financial analysis work hand in hand.
- Team Player
A good accounting specialist must be someone who can collaborate with a team. This is because an accounting specialist will not work independently sometimes or perhaps most times. An accounting specialist must possess exceptional interpersonal skills to be able to relate freely with other employees
- Organization
The job of an accounting specialist involves the collation of data from various departments and being a specialist increases the work schedule. The specialist collates data and keeps separate accurate receipts and prepares statements of account, ad reconciles differences in financial statements from time to time. To perform all these responsibilities without making mistakes; an accounting specialist must be a very organized individual.
- Knowledge and Experience
An accounting specialist as the name implies must an expert in accounting and not an amateur. He must be highly knowledgeable in accounting principles. He or she must acquire advanced knowledge in accounting and also go on training to acquire the requisite skills.
- Paying Attention to Details:
A little error on a financial statement is disastrous; so an accounting specialist must be very careful and focused when carrying out his responsibilities. He should take appropriate time in collating, recording, and preparing financial reports or accounting statements. He or she should be able to discover irregularities or errors in the account statement. If an error is not detected at the initial stage; it will be very difficult to ascertain the error at the end.
- Advanced Computer Knowledge
In modern times, accounting has gone beyond pen and paper to digital. a good accounting specialist must be computer literate because data is collated using the computer and analysis too. There is also accounting software that accounting specialists use to carry out their responsibilities; an accounting specialist must be familiar with this software.
- Accountable
An accounting specialist as the name implies must be highly accountable. No matter the kind of expertise and skillfulness he or she possesses; the error will sometimes occur. He or she should be ready to accept his or her mistakes when detected.
- Enthusiasm
He or she must be someone that works out his or her responsibilities with a lot of energy. An accounting specialist must be passionate about his job and he must be someone who loves figures and does not easily breakdown into a stressful situation
- Honesty
An accounting specialist must be a person of integrity. He or she must be transparent and trustworthy. He or she should be someone that traces the discrepancies in irregularities and come up with a substantial analysis. The irregularities in the financial statement should be corrected by the accounting specialist.
How to Become an Accounting Specialist
If you are considering a career as an accounting specialist; this is a highly lucrative career path that service is demanded around the globe. You will need to do the following to become an accounting specialist:
- Acquire a Bachelor Degree in Accounting or Finance
The first step to becoming an accounting specialist is to enroll in a four-year degree program in accounting to gain background knowledge on what accounting is all about. Accounting is a course that involves cost accounting, financial statements, audits, the balance of accounts, and ledger.
- Enroll for a Master’s Degree in Accounting
To be an accounting specialist; you may have to enroll for a master’s degree in accounting to get more knowledge and skills. Enrolling for a master’s degree will help you to become an accounting specialist in a short frame of time.
- Enroll for Internship
To qualify for an accounting specialist position; you may need to enroll in job training to learn how to use the company accounting software and also to get the requisite skills that will distinguish you from your contemporaries.
- Get Certified: to acquire more advanced skills and show your expertise to the job, consider enrolling for a professional certification such as a bookkeeper credential from the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers. You can also enroll in online training to acquire these certifications. To qualify for a more advanced position, you may consider certification such as Certified Public Accountant (CPA) credential which can be acquired by passing a four-part standard exam and completing at least 150 hours of post-secondary education and professional experience.
Where Can an Accounting Specialist Work?
- Individual and small businesses: there are many individual and small businesses that need the services of an accounting specialist to help them prepare their financial statements, draft their tax and also handle the payroll of other employees. An accounting specialist can start his or her career in these businesses; the role an accounting specialist will play will help the business generate a stream of income. Where there is a delay in clearing up an accounting specialist receives and responds to inquiries about the development in payment. He also receives payment for businesses and deposits in the company account.
- Banks: an accounting specialist can work in the bank as a bank teller or even as the manager of the bank. A bank is a place where transactions are carried out daily and an accounting specialist will make sure that there is no error in the transaction carried out. An error-free transaction will save the bank from disaster. An accounting specialist also performs audits for the bank.
- Government Agencies: Government agencies perform transactions on daily basis and the services of an accounting specialist are highly indispensable in these agencies. An accounting specialist collates information or data and keeps a record of data. Government agencies need the services of an accounting specialist to balance the financial statements of the agency; an accounting specialist also detects if there is an error in the financial statement and reports it to the government. An accounting specialist also organizes tax documents for the government.
- Academic Institutions: An academic institution such as schools especially colleges needs the services of an accounting specialist to help them sh and deposits from students on daily basis. This accounting specialist also performs audits for the academic institution.
- Large Corporations or Multinational Companies: Large corporations such as telecommunication giants and large media companies need the service of an accounting specialist. These large corporations perform large transactions and it is only an accounting specialist that can make these to be errors These large corporations have a lot of employees and an accounting specialist handles the payroll of these employees by paying them as appropriate.
- Non-Profit Organization: These organizations may be non-profit in nature but they also carry out transactions to run the organization. Most of these organizations have to declare their annual revenue and expenditure to the government because they are non-profit in nature. An accounting specialist performs audit for these organizations and also balance their financial statements.
Accounting Specialist Salary Scale
- In the United State of America, Accounting Specialist earns a median annual salary of $68,150 according to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics; the 25thpercentile salary of an accounting specialist is $53,240 while the 75% exceeds that amount. The 75th percentile salary is $90,670 which means that 25 percent earns more. 1397700 people in the United States are employed as accountants according to the statistics of 2016.
- In Nigeria, An accounting specialist earns 70,201NGN to 277,160NGN which is the maximum salary. The salary varies based on the geographical location of the accountant and it comes with other benefits and incentives. Experienced accounting specialists earn more than entry-level accounting specialists.
