Accounting Roles and Responsibilities Flashcards
What careers are recognised as financial support staff?
- Bookkeepers
- Credit controllers
- Payroll administrators
What are the different types of Accountants?
- Financial accountants
- Management accountants
- Chartered accountants
- Auditors
- Technicians
What is a bookkeeper?
They keep financial records for businesses and are responsible for recording and maintaining a business’ financial transactions
What does a bookkeeper do?
- Processes payments
- Enters data into accounting software or databases, then files hard copies
- Prepares financial statements showing business income and expenditure
- Pays vendor invoices and tracks bank account balances
- Completes VAT returns
- Manages Expense Claims
What is a Credit Controller?
A Credit Controller ensures that companies receive the money from businesses and customers who owe them.
What does a Credit Controller do?
- Maintains accurate financial records
- Handles credit assessments - Checking customer’s credit and approving or denying it, based on industry standards
- Negotiates payment plans and sets up terms and conditions
- Sets up repayments and works with Debt Counsellors
- Ensures customers pay on time and charge them for overdue invoices
- Starts legal proceedings if clients do not pay their debts on time
- Implements changes in the company’s credit control system
What is an Auditor?
An auditor is responsible for examining and verifying the financial records and reports of an organization to ensure that they are accurate and comply with the relevant laws and regulations.
They work in the internal audit departments of companies, government agencies, or nonprofit organizations
What does an Auditor do?
- They provide an independent and objective assessment of an organization’s financial statements, internal controls, and financial reporting processes
- Conducts investigations of financial records to check the integrity and accuracy of the financial information that an organisation has reported
What is an Accounting Technician?
An accounting professional responsible for preparing and maintaining financial records of an organization. They handle day-to-day money and finance tasks for businesses.
What does an Accounting Technician do?
- Process and pay invoices
- Record receipts and payments
- Prepare and check ledger balances and other monthly accounts
- Complete and submit tax returns, VAT returns and National Insurance contributions.
What is a Payroll Administrator?
A Payroll Administrator, or Payroll Clerk, handles all duties related to payroll in an organisation or company.
What is a Payroll Administrator?
- Checking the number of hours employees have worked
- Calculating wages and salaries
- Issuing employees’ wages by cash, cheque or electronic transfer
- Collaborating with the human resources department to maintain employee data
- Calculating pay raises, shift payments and overtime compensation
- Issuing tax forms and related documentation and assisting employees to complete them
- Deducting tax and insurance payments
- Resolving issues employees have with timesheets, pay slips and other payroll matters
- Changing employee bank records when necessary to process payments accurately
What is a Financial Compliance Officer?
A financial compliance officer is responsible for ensuring that companies/organisations follow the rules when it comes to money. They work in industries like:
* Accounting * Banking
* Investment * Insurance
What do Financial Compliance Officers do?
They guide operators through regulation and help to identify and manage the risk of non-compliance.
What does the term Financial Compliance mean?
Financial compliance is the status a business achieves when it follows all of the relevant financial laws and regulations that
regulatory bodies have outlined them. Financial compliance is a continual process that evolves with the changes in financial laws.
What is a Financial Accountant?
A financial accountant is someone who summarises, analyses and reports financial transactions related to a business. They record, prepare and file the financial statements/information that are available for public use which companies must submit by law.
UK law states that companies keep detailed records of their financial affairs and regularly submit various financial documentation to regulatory bodies (e.g. Companies House).
What does a Financial Accountant do?
- Works independently as part of a wider team to ensure legal compliance
- Analyses financial trends to support the company’s financial decisions
- Keeps company managers and stakeholders informed so they make more informed business decisions
- Assists in financial planning and investment of company funds
- Gathers and monitors financial data
- Prepares statements (balance sheets and income statements)
- Forecasts costs and revenues
- Manages tax payments
- Organises internal audits
What is a Management Accountant?
This type of accounting focuses on evaluating financial data that executives use to better assess functions and processes within an
organisation. It also helps the organisation secure its future financial stability and growth by predicting and preventing internal issues.
A management accountant works within a business to prepare and present internal financial reports to senior management teams in order to give an insight into business performance.
What are the reports Management Accountants prepare used for?
They are used to better assess functions and processes within the organisation, and aid with business strategy and also in decision making within the business, to ensure growth and profitability by predicting and preventing internal issues.
What do Management Accountants do?
- Analyse data
- Prepare forecasts and budgets to help leaders make decisions
- Create reports to be used internally
- Compile information looking at the future, not the past
- Are responsive — whatever information the business needs, they’ll provide it
What is a Chartered Accountant?
Chartered accountants are professional accountants who are qualified to take on several specific activities within the spectrum of accountancy.
What does a Chartered Accountant do?
- Auditing financial statements
- Filing corporate tax returns
- Providing financial advising
What is a Management Accountant?
Management accounting is the analysis, preparation and management of a company’s internal financial reports and records to help managers make operational and business
decisions.
This type of accounting focuses on evaluating financial data that executives use to better assess functions and processes within an
organisation. It also helps the organisation secure its future financial stability and growth by predicting and preventing internal issues.
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A management accountant works within a business to prepare and present financial reports to senior management teams in order to give an insight into business performance. The reports are used to aid with business strategy and also in decision making within the business, to ensure growth and profitability.
What does a Credit Controller do?
- Maintain accurate financial records
- Handles credit assessments - Checking customer’s credit and approving or denying it, based on industry standards
- Negotiates payment plans and sets up terms and conditions
- Sets up repayments and works with Debt Counsellors
- Ensures customers pay on time and charge them for overdue invoices
- Starts legal proceedings if clients do not pay their debts on time
- Implements changes in the company’s credit control system
