Key Skills you need to become an accountant

Technical Skills

While there is a wide range of careers in accounting, such as forensic accountant, financial analyst, personal finance advisor, and actuary, at minimum, employers will be looking for these basic technical accounting skills.

• Knowledge of Accounting Practices
• Proficiency in Accounting Software
• Ability to Prepare Financial Statements
• Knowledge of General Business Practices
• Ability to Analyse Data
• Critical Thinking Skills
• Accounting Organizational Skills
• Time Management Skills
• Written and Verbal Communication Skills

Professional Skills

It is required to use a variety of professional, or soft, skills to meet the needs of both the organization and clients. Here are some important non-negotiable professional skills for success in accounting.

• Strong written and oral communication.
• Organization and attention to detail.
• Analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Time management.
• Systems analysis.
• Mathematical and deductive reasoning.
• Critical thinking.
• Active learning.
• Clerical knowledge
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite

Couple of more qualities

• Professional scepticism-In auditing, you are expected to be alert to any potential fraudulent activity. Question everything.
• Continuous learning- Stay relevant by keeping up with current accounting news and guidance.
• Expert Excel skills- Make your life easier by mastering macros for repetitive tasks.
• Learn through teaching.-The best way to solidify an accounting skill set is to teach a more inexperienced person.
• Ability to network- The more people you know in the field, the better.
• Double entry system
• Three Golden rules of accounting
• Journal Entries
• Ledger
• Trial Balance
• Financial Statements (Profit & Loss A/c, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statements).
• Get your Fundamentals right. Develop skills to analyse data and come up with unique findings.
• Enhance your tech skills on the computer specifically with accounting and spreadsheet software’s.
• Do everything on a timely basis.
• Predict financial scenarios well in advance.
• Acquaint yourself with procedures of every department of your organisation to quickly identify frauds and mistakes.
• Specifically read on costing codes for accounting, taxation laws, working capital management, capital budgeting decisions and performance management for upgrading your career.
• Other roles and responsibility of an accountant:-
• Compute taxes owed, prepare tax returns, ensure prompt payment
• Organize and maintain financial records
• Determines payroll requirements; maintains payroll data; prepares and processes monthly payrolls
• Explain billing invoices and accounting policies to staff, vendors, and clients
• Interacts with internal and external auditors in completing audits
• Ensure that statements and records comply with laws and regulations (i.e. AS, Ind-as, IFRS)
• Above are the very basic concepts which are must. Apart from that accountant must be well emerged with the accounting software’s which are used by the organisations.
• Generally small size firms use Tally, mid-size firms use SAP and corporates use ERP. So it depends upon you what size of organisation you want to work for.
• To become an accountant, you must have a Bachelor degree in Accounting or Finance and practical exposure with a CA firm or with any organisation but in accounting profile will be an add-on.

There are plenty of options available in the market today to choose to become an accountant, but it is difficult to find one you need to make your wishes come true, so contact us to get the ideas of all accounting courses and the career opportunities after the completion of course.