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Assistant accountant

Assistant accountant

Level 3 - Technical Occupation

Carrying out routine financial activities and support for businesses and organisations of all types and sizes.

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Summary

This occupation is found in all sectors and industries, including the private and the public sector. This ranges from small organisations through to large global corporations and government bodies.

The broad purpose of the occupation is to support internal and external customers in the administration of their financial and accounting activities. They may work as an assistant accountant in a practice or alternatively within the finance function of an organisation. An assistant accountant helps in the operation of day-to-day financial activities. These may include data entry to month end management accounts and year-end financial statements. In addition, the assistant accountant may find themselves involved in regulatory financial requirements. These may include the completion of VAT returns or assisting in the preparation of tax computations.

In their daily work, an employee in this occupation interacts with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders to deliver accurate and timely accounts services. This will include their line manager and team members, together with the workers and the clients of the organisation they are managing accounts for. They may liaise with software departments, or houses, where the accounts system is hosted externally.

An assistant accountant will be responsible for managing their own caseload and time whilst reporting to a more senior accountant.

Typical job titles include:

Accounting technician
Accounts clerk
Assistant accountant
Assistant cashier
Bookkeeper
Finance assistant
Purchase ledger clerk
Sales ledger clerk

Keywords:

Account Management
Accounting
Finance
Money
Taxes

Knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs)

K1: Principles of financial accounting, adjustment and reporting including calculation and input of accruals and prepayments, maintenance of the fixed asset register, accounting for asset purchase and disposal, depreciation, and financing.
K2: Principles of management accounting for example, the principles of provision of costings, awareness of monthly and rolling forecasting and including the principles of financial planning, the calculation of income and expenditure budgets, budget holder sign off, and the investigation and reporting of variances to budgets.
K3: Principles of creating and maintaining financial records including accounts payable, accounts receivable, cash management and principles of payroll.
K4: Fundamentals of potential vulnerabilities within systems of financial control such as internal fraud and money laundering.
K5: Fundamentals of indirect taxation including approaches to completing indirect tax returns and supporting documentation and records.
K6: Fundamentals of digital financial and accounting packages and applications including the maintenance of key databases, spreadsheets, data analytics and the appropriate use of data to provide information.
K7: Principles of cyber-security and working safely online within a finance and accounting context.
K8: Principles of data security and legislative requirements regarding data handling in a financial and accounting context.
K9: Approaches to diversity, inclusion and cultural awareness and their impact on finance and accountancy.
K10: The role of accountancy or finance within the organisational business strategy.
K11: The wider financial and accounting professional landscape including the requirement to stay abreast of changes in technology and practice and awareness of the role of regulators and professional bodies.
K12: The principles of professional ethics and codes of conduct in a finance and accounting environment.

S1: Assist with the investigation and response to financial information queries.
S2: Record and analyse financial data using the organisation’s standard tools and processes.
S3: Apply double entry bookkeeping and accounting standards to process financial documents, generate financial statements and report financial information to users of accounts.
S4: Assist with production of accurate financial information for the preparation of accounts.
S5: Reconcile financial data, such as, preparation of reconciliations or review of reconciliations.
S6: Investigate, resolve or escalate transactional queries and errors within their remit as appropriate.
S7: Develop and maintain effective working relationships with stakeholders.
S8: Communicate financial information in a way that non-finance stakeholders can interpret and understand.
S9: Utilise digital skills to present key financial information using finance and accounting software and applications.
S10: Use software packages to assist with basic accounting tasks in line with cyber and data security requirements, using data securely and safely, including backing up data.
S11: Communicate using varying approaches and different media methods with an appreciation of the risks and benefits to the business of social media and other digital applications.

B1: Collaborative and inclusive - builds strong collaborative working relationships recognising the importance of diversity and inclusion.
B2: Ethical and Professional - applies a transparent, objective and sustainable manner to meet the ethical requirements of the profession.
B3: Organised with an attention to detail – organises work efficiently and effectively to meet required targets, escalating queries or problems as appropriate. Demonstrates a professional approach to working to deadlines.
B4: Embracing change - accepts changing priorities and working requirements readily and has the flexibility to maintain high standards in a changing environment.
B5: Engaging with wider stakeholders and keeping up to date with changes in the finance industry which impact their organisation or role.
B6: Wellbeing and resilience – demonstrates a commitment to personal wellbeing and an awareness of support and resources available. Contributing to cultivating an open, honest, and empathetic work environment.
B7: Professional judgement – applying a critical eye to transactions and trends for reasonableness, demonstrating a ‘right first time approach’.
B8: Carry out the duties of their role by reference to sustainability good practice whether specific to their occupation or externally recognised. For example, by prioritising practices in their work that contribute to minimising or reversing climate change by reducing the use of non-renewable resources.

Duties

Duty D1

Assist with monthly and year end reporting of financial and accounts information. This will include the timely collation of data from a range of sources, such as different functions within one organisation, or a range of external clients if operating in a practice. This includes both foreseeable finance and accounting data requirements and unexpected requirements.

Duty D2

Maintain financial and accounting records including the timely collation of data from a range of sources. For example, different functions within one organisation, or a range of external clients if operating in practice. This includes both foreseeable requirements and unexpected requests, often to tight timescales.

Duty D3

Safeguard against suspicious activities for example anti-money laundering.

Duty D4

Assist with the compilation of accounting and financial records, for example, to inform direct and indirect tax returns under supervision, audit documentation or control account reconciliations.

Duty D5

Deliver financial and accounting information and data to stakeholders to ensure that key messages are communicated.

Duty D6

Assist in the maintenance and use of digital systems by using software applications and packages to support the delivery of accurate and timely financial and accounting information.

Duty D7

Use digital systems safely to ensure that the cyber security of the organisation is not compromised, and data handling legislative requirements are met.

Duty D8

Undertake Continuous Professional Development by keeping up to date with relevant statutory obligations and procedural best practice.

Duty D9

Collaborate with people both internally and/or externally at appropriate levels with a view to deliver a service that meets customer’s needs with a commitment to professional and ethical standards, for example, professional code of conduct and duty of confidentiality as appropriate.

Occupational Progression

This occupational progression map shows technical occupations that have transferable knowledge and skills.

In this map, the focused occupation is highlighted in yellow. The arrows indicate where transferable knowledge and skills exist between two occupations. This map shows some of the strongest progression links between the focused occupation and other occupations.

It is anticipated that individuals would be required to undertake further learning or training to progress to and from occupations. To find out more about an occupation featured in the progression map, including the learning options available, click the occupation.

Progression decisions have been reached by comparing the knowledge and skills statements between occupational standards, combined with individualised learner movement data.

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