What is the role of an Assistant Accountant?
The role of an Assistant Accountant is supporting the qualified Accountants within the business. Assistant Accountants are involved in a variety of different duties daily from accounting tasks such as bank reconciliations and financial reporting to transactional finance tasks such as assisting with payroll and managing the sales and purchase ledger.
Assistant Accountants support the whole finance department, they will usually sit in a team of accountants and may report into the Management Accountant or Financial Accountant or the Finance Manager. Assistant Accountants work closely with Accountants in order to ensure all financial records are correct and up to date in order to allow finance functions to operate correctly.
Other similar roles include: Accounts Assistant, Assistant Management Accountant And Assistant Financial Accountant. All of these roles are very similar however will place more emphasis on specific duties to benefit the relevant team.
How do I become an Assistant Accountant?
Within an Assistant Accountant role you will be required to provide a lot of support, therefore having good time management and organisation skills are important to thriving within this role. Additionally Assistant Accountant roles are great opportunities to learn how to become a successful Accountant; Assistant Accountants should be flexible, ambitious and willing to learn in order to fully develop their understanding and pursue their career in accountancy.
There are several different paths you can take to becoming an Assistant Accountant, you can get into this role through:
University – studying a relevant degree, including mathematics, economics or an accountancy or finance related degree;
College – studying AAT at college; and
Apprenticeship – pursuing an apprenticeship in purchase ledger/finance.
For most Assistant Accountant roles, studying or having a desire to study ACA, ACCA or CIMA is essential.
There are several opportunities for progression for an Assistant Accountant, especially when they become fully qualified. Assistant Accountants can progress into roles such as: Management Accountant, Financial Accountant or Finance Analyst.
Typical Job Specification for an Assistant Accountant:
Management of the sales and purchase ledger;
Assisting with monthly payroll;
Assisting with budgeting and cash flow forecast;
Assisting with the preparation of the monthly management accounts;
VAT Returns;
Bank Reconciliations;
Balance Sheet Reconciliations;
Managing accruals and prepayments;
Producing profit and loss accounts; and
Liaise with any other departments to resolve any queries that may arise.