Assistant Accountant

There are two types of accountants. Those that follow their job description to the word, and nothing more, and those who go the extra mile to apply their knowledge of financial accounting, tax laws, legal loop holes, and financial reporting to find creative solutions for cutting costs, reducing expenses, lowering taxes, and finding inexpensive financing. Hands down, employers prefer the second type.

Employers want creative accountants--accountants that will go above and beyond the "traditional" role of record keeping and financial reporting, and bring added value to the company. Employers want creative accountants, accountants who use creative accounting to save money and find new opportunities for the company.

In answering this question, your goal is two fold. First, you want to demonstrate that you are a creative accountant. Second, you want to demonstrate that although you're a creative accountant, you'd never do anything illegal, dishonest or that would compromize the reputation of the company.

Following are the common errors in accounting:

☛ Errors of Omission

☛ Errors of Commission

☛ Errors of Principle

☛ Compensating Error

To locate the errors in the trial balance follow the below steps:

☛ Check the total of all the subsidiary books, cash book and trial balance.

☛ Ensure that all the opening balances have been correctly brought forward in the current year’s books of account.

☛ Ensure that all the ledger accounts have been properly balanced and the balances of all the ledger accounts have been reflected in the Trial Balance.

☛ The difference in trial balance should be halved to locate such errors.

☛ If the difference in the trial balance is divisible by 9 without any reminder, it may indicate the transposition or transplacement of the amounts.

☛ The trial balance of the current year can be compared with the trial balance of the previous year to locate certain highlighting error.

Bank reconciliation statement is a statement prepared at periodical intervals, with a view to indicated the items which cause disagreement between the balances as per the bank columns of the cash book and the bank pass book on any given date.

Follow the below steps to prepare a bank reconciliation statement:

☛ Take the balance either as per cash book or as per pass book as a starting point.

☛ Compare the items appearing in the bank column of the cash book with the item appearing in the bank pass book.

☛ Tick off the items in the pass book with the entries in the cash book. A list of unticked items either in cash book or pass book will be found.

☛ Add or deduct items from the balance which has been taken as a starting point.

☛ The resultant figure will be the balance as shown by the pass book or vice versa.

Before you even try to answer this question, you need to realize all people make mistakes--and the interviewer knows this. Telling the interviewer you never makes mistakes will be unbelievable, even dishonest. However, accounting mistakes can prove very costly for employers so you do need to convince your prospective employer that you rarely make mistakes and that you take very precaution to ensure mistakes aren't made.

In your response, tell the interviewer the steps you take to ensure mistakes are rarely made. These should/could include the following:

☛ Perform important accounting tasks on both paper and the computer, and then compare results.

☛ Double-check everything, and triple-check the most important reports and records.

☛ Never guess. If you aren't 100% sure check with someone that knows.

☛ Have another accountant peform the same task and compare results.

☛ Look into the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and International Accounting Standards (IAS) for confirmation for your results.

I have been working in all these areas and am well-versed in accurate entry of all payments received into the General Ledger accounts. I am skilled at doing recurring billings for storage purposes, processing cost adjustments for fixing billing errors and balances, processing client credit card payments while maintaining sales order database as well. As for credit is concerned, I have a proven track record of maintaining customer credit authorizations and sending out credit applications, as well as researching credit worthiness through references. For information management, I have always ensured that the customer information was updated regularly and have managed to keep payable vendor files up-to-date at any point in time.

This question is designed to (1) test your level of experience and (2) find out how you tackle and solve problems.

If you answer this question by sharing a challenging accounting task you were given in school, it's a good indicator to the interviewer that you're experience is limited to the academic--and that you may not have faced any really tough real-world accounting problems. When answering this question, try to find an example based on your professional experience, even if it's limited to an internship.

Once you've described to the interviewer the most challenging accounting task you've had to solve, it's pretty certain that the interviewer will then ask how you were able to solve it. When answering this question, make sure you choose a task that you were able to solve. Presenting a task you were unable to solve--albeit challenging--would not instill in the interviewer a sense that you are a good problem solver. When describing how you solved the task, be methodical and descriptive. Show the interviewer that you not only could solve that problem, but that you know how to solve any problem.