Professional Accountants need to possess certain important accounting skills to perform their duties very well. However, Accountants prepare and analyze the financial statements of the organizations for decision making. So, there are important accounting skills to consider when hiring an Accountant for your business. Whether you are a management accountant, financial accountant, tax accountant, or others, you have to possess the following important skills:
Table of Contents
Accounting Skills for Professional Accountants
Analytical Skill
This is the ability of the accountant to break down the financial information to understand the hidden parts. So, for accountants to perform their duties successfully, they need to have an eye for details. This is because accounting requires an analysis of financial statements. So, they need to compute, analyze every information in the financial reports to make sure the information is correct and accurate. The accountants must be able to bring the analysis together to derive accurate insights to helps make informed decisions by the decision-makers.
Technical skill
This skill is very important for every accountant because it is the basic requirement to perform accounting. So, the professional accountant needs to know how to make use of Microsoft Office suites like Microsoft excel, Microsoft PPT, and others. The accountants must know how to present and format documents in a professional way. Therefore, they must be able to use the Pivot table, VLOOKUP, and others.
Communication skill
This is another important accounting skill to have by Accountants because they need to communicate their reports to the users. The users don’t understand complex financial concepts, effective communication skill is very important to connect with users of the financial information. The accountant must know how to use proper graphs, charts, and tables to help the users to understand. Therefore, using proper charts, tables and graphs will help simplify vast data and enhance the users’ understanding.
Problem-solving skill
More so, accountants must be able to identify and provide solutions when facing problems. Accountants will surely encounter problems like errors, inaccuracies, and others, so they must be able to solve those problems when arise. In solving problems, they must make use of critical thinking skills to analyze all the alternative variables and risks attached.
Time management skill
This is the ability to manage both tasks and time. Every accountant needs to be able to manage tasks effectively and deliver them within the timeframe. Therefore, meeting deadlines is very important to accountants. The ability of the accountant to multi-task and effectively manage deadlines makes them unique from others. This is especially important when trying to meet the deadline to file tax returns. However, making financial information available to the users on time enhances on-time decision-making to improve the company.
Collaboration skill
The accountant must be able to collaborate with other members if working as a team. Therefore, the accountant needs to be a team player in order to attain the corporate objective of the organization.
Organization skill
This is the ability of the accountants to properly organize different tasks, apply relevant reporting guidelines and meet the delivery time. So, they must be able to properly organize the documents that are related to different tasks. You are an accountant, you must be able to organize your life properly and professionally before you can be able to organize your works and clients.
Conclusion
In conclusion, accountants must strive to have the important accounting skills that will help them to excel in their roles. Therefore, learning as well as continuous shaping of these accounting skills is very important to every accountant. Because it will help them to enhance the understanding of financial information as well as enhance better and informed decision making.
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Afeez is one of the founding partners of Marasas Consulting limited. He consults for both individuals and entities in the area of accounting, management, audit, tax, and investment. He has a wide range of experience both online and offline which allows him to provide relevant and timely professional advice and assistance to business owners with their accounting, tax, management, audit, and investment plans.
Afeez is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and a member of the Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered). He is a certified Google analyst and strategist. He earned his Bachelor degree in Management and Accounting from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, and earned an ordinary national diploma in Accountancy from The Polytechnic of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. He earned certification in “Excel Crash Course” and “Reading of Financial Statement” from Corporate Finance Institute, Canada.
Afeez is dedicated to helping clients achieve business success by helping them to establish solid and sound accounting, tax, and financial processes.
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