21⟩ What was average accounts receivable days outstanding/days sales outstanding?
If relevant, discuss any corrective action taken to reduce this figure.
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“Hospitality Accounting related Frequently Asked Questions in various Hospitality Accounting job Interviews by interviewer. The set of questions here ensures that you offer a perfect answer posed to you. So get preparation for your new job hunting”
59 Hospitality Accounting Questions And Answers
22⟩ Which software applications have your used for accounts receivable?
List the applications you have used and expand on the value of the solutions they offered to your particular company. Look at aspects such as tracking transactions, assessing late payments, creating past due notices and printing out relevant reports.
23⟩ Examples of the accounting reports you have prepared?
Demonstrate your experience in maintaining accounting principles, practices and procedures to ensure accurate and timely financial statements and reporting. Discuss your ability to meet tight deadlines and undertake a multitude of accounting activities. Show your understanding of generally accepted and statutory accounting principles.
24⟩ What accounting applications are your familiar with?
Discuss the applications you have worked with. Focus on how you implemented the application, the steps taken during the conversion and integration of the accounting system and the training of staff to use the application.
25⟩ Define any accounting process that you have developed or revised?
Highlight how you have monitored and analyzed work processes to develop more efficient procedures and use of resources while still maintaining accurate and quality work outputs.
26⟩ Which are the most important goals of accounts receivable?
These goals will depend on the needs of the organization. Show how you are aware of organizational needs and then identify the appropriate goals to meet them. Demonstrate a thorough understanding of what the goals express and how they support department and company objectives. Common aspects include positively impacting on company cash cycle, increasing cash flow, reducing DSO, reducing bad debt and write offs.
27⟩ What you consider to be the biggest challenge facing the accounting profession today?
A sample answer to accounting interview questions like this is:
In response to the changing market accountancy professionals have to provide more management and consulting services, in addition to financial management. They have to assume a greater advisory role and develop more complex and flexible accounting systems.
Then continue to explain how you can meet this challenge.
28⟩ Define relationship between cost accounting financial accounting and managerial accounting?
Financial accounting relates to the information presented based on past events and records.
Cost and managerial accounting is the presentation of financial information to the management to be used in decision making while in managerial accounting projections are made based on past trends.
Financial accounting relates to the information presented based on past events and records.
Cost and managerial accounting is the presentation of financial information to the management to be used in decision making while in managerial accounting projections are made based on past trends.
29⟩ Where financial accounting fails the cost accounting for is rescue but still there are some limitations deficiencies in the system?
Accounting has been a part of today's life in today's environment and it has to be given more progress because it is very important.
30⟩ Were there any questions you would like to ask?
Before your interview think through everything you have done in the last five years and try to find at least one example which fits each of these situations.
Don't worry if your examples are not earth-shattering, as long as they give some evidence for possessing the quality in question.
You can answer these questions by first describing the SITUATION and/or TASK you had to achieve, then the ACTION you took in the situation and finally the RESULT or outcome. Some interviews consist almost entirely of these types of questions, in which case the order of the interview is set in advance with a standard list of questions. Even more so than usual answer questions honestly - honesty is essential in the job!
31⟩ Define the effects of international accounting standards on accounting practices of developing nations?
Adoption of international accounting standards is extremely costly. Developing counties usually use accounting standards that are most beneficial to them (based on who they trade with to ease accounting for transactions) or just another country's GAAP that works for the developing country. Ex. Mexico very closely resembles U.S. GAAP because of NAFTA and the quality of U.S. GAAP.
Should IFRS be implemented in developed counties, developing counties might be forced to adopt them as well in order to maintain trade relations. This could be extremely costly for smaller developing counties.
32⟩ Can you please explain the difference between cost accounting and management accounting?
Cost accounting is concerned with cost accumulation for inventory valuation to meet the requirements of external reporting and internal profit measurement.
Management accounting relates to the provision of appropriate information for decision-making, planning, control and performance evaluation.
33⟩ Can you please explain the difference between Cost Accounting and Financial Accounting?
Financial accounting encompasses all account presented on the face of the financial statement, its presentation, recognition, measurement and disclosures. Where as cost accounting is only focused on the cost of inventory.
34⟩ Can you please explain the difference between financial accounting and management accounting?
Very briefly, the difference has to do with the needs of the user.
Management accounting for is the internal users of an entity and Financial Accounting is for the external users.
Internal users (management) may be interested in the cost of making an item using process A versus process B. Whereas External users are mostly interested in the overall results of those management decisions.
35⟩ Can you please explain the difference between accrual accounting and cash accounting?
The Cash Basis of accounting reports only transactions that have been completed in the current reporting period - or - what has "hit" the checking account (assuming all funds are deposited and disbursed only from that account) - The Accrual Basis of accounting reports all transactions that the entity has entered into and includes the asset, liability, income and expense related them.
In addition, the Cash Basis of accounting is considered OCBOA (Other Comprehensive Basis of Accounting ~ Other than GAAP) and the Accrual Basis (when implemented properly and fully) is considered GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles).
EDIT - The Accrual Basis is more desirable from a user's standpoint as it includes transactions that may exist were completed after the report dates that were initiated prior to the report date. It is generally more complete and more reliable than the cash basis - however, that does assume that the person preparing the statements has expertise of, not simply a cursory working knowledge of, GAAP and the accrual basis. For example, a set of financial statements printed out of QuickBooks are not necessarily GAAP compliant (or correct) although they may appear to be at first glance or to a layperson.
36⟩ Tell me is there a difference between accounting for conversion of bonds and accounting for the conversion of preferred stock?
Bonds have discounts and premiums and accrued interest. Preferred Stock does not.
37⟩ Tell me is push down accounting accepted under generally accepted accounting standards?
Yes, in some cases. For example:
The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (the "FFIEC") approved a reporting requirement, effective October 1, 1989, to use push down accounting in certain acquisitions of national banks, state member banks and insured state nonmember banks. This reporting requirement is an addition to the Glossary to the Instructions to the Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income ("Call Report").
38⟩ What when a company s accounting year-ends on a day that is other than the end of the calendar year what is called in accounting?
Fiscal year.
39⟩ Which are the items that are to be debited in accounting and what are the items that are to be credited in accounting?
This depends on the nature of the account and the thing you wish to achieve. For example, to increase cash you would debit the cash account, but if you wanted to decrease it, you would credit it. There are all sorts of accounts and they have different normal balances.
The thing to remember is that every journal entry must have equal debits and credits. So for example to increase a contra asset account like Allowance for Doubtful debts you would credit Bad Debt Expense to increase it and credit Allowance to increase that!
40⟩ Tell me is an "account receivable" and "goodwill" real accounts in accounting?
Real accounts, i.e. Balance Sheet accounts are ongoing perpetual records and represent "real" items; cash, receivables, inventories, accounts payable, invested capital, etc., etc. Accounts receivable and goodwill therefore are both real accounts as they have value in and of themselves.
Nominal accounts represent items of income and expense. Nominal accounts have no balances at the beginning of an accounting period and change as various debits and credits are applied because of activity of income and expense throughout the accounting period. At the end of the accounting cycle, the nominal accounts are returned to zero by debiting them by an amount equal to their credit balance if such exists, or crediting an account if it has a debit balance.
The offsetting entry of each of these is to a Profit or Loss Account. If after all accounts are zero, the P&L account has a debit balance then operations were profitable (income exceeded expenses), and conversely with a credit balance a loss was incurred. The P&L is then "closed" by either debited or crediting to bring it to zero, whichever is appropriate, with the offsetting entry going to "Retained Earnings", a real account, and bringing the Balance Sheet into balance and leaving all nominal accounts at zero.
