Interview questions for accounting are questions an employer, hiring manager, or interviewer might ask to recruit someone for a job as an entry-level or chartered accountant or any other position in the accounting industry.
Interviews in the accounting industry are becoming more challenging because of the high level of competition. An employer will ask questions about potential employees’ skills and knowledge to assess their abilities.
What questions does the interviewee ask during an interview to stress the candidate?
These are the twenty-seven questions and answers for accounting interviews that employers can ask to help them find accounting jobs.
We’ve provided not just the accountant interview questions and answers for freshers, but we’ve covered all major groups of interviewees in this guide.
If you’re a fresher, you’re part of the most nervous group of interviewee chartered accountants. We’ve made the situation light for you by providing Accounting Interview Questions and Answers for freshers.
All businesses must follow certain standards when maintaining their books of account. It ensures that financial statements are meaningful, comparable, and compliant with all applicable statutes.
One should use these rules to ensure that it produces different financial statements on the same lines. The financial statements are easy to compare across sectors and companies if the users know the assumptions.
Any company’s accounting department should be able to present a fair and accurate view to shareholders and management. The accounting department is the lighthouse for the company.
Documentation is essential in accounting. Having the right documentation to maintain an audit trail and justify any changes is important. It will be a great way to impress the interviewer by having a complete list of the most important/vital documents in the industry you are applying for an accounting job.
A fixed asset register (or document/register) is a list or document that lists all fixed assets within an organization. It contains historical data and information about assets that an organization has sold or written.
The FAR should include the following information:
It is particularly useful for assets with multiple units, such as laptops.
In an interview, employers will always ask why you chose a career. Suppose you don’t like your job or don’t have any motivation to do so. In that case, employers will be curious about your ability to work hard, stay motivated, and persevere through difficult days/weeks. Be prepared to explain why you chose to account as a career and perhaps a few things you like about it.
I believe stock-in-hand could be the key to increasing the company’s working capital. We control the stock, the most important working capital component. Although we can pressure our debtors into paying us immediately, we don’t have any direct control over them as they are legal entities.
They are ultimately the ones who provide us with business. It is possible to delay the payment of suppliers, but this can cause problems in business relationships and reduce the industry’s goodwill. Delaying payments can cause suppliers to stop supplying goods in the future.
All this being said, I believe inventory management can help improve the company’s working capital. Stock turnover should be high, and excess stocking should not be allowed.
Working capital is what a business needs to get its day-to-day finances. The cash and bank balance make up the portion of an organization’s total working capital. The working capital of an organization is more than just cash and bank balances. The current assets and liabilities are also part of working capital.
Let me give you a worthy example. Let’s say that ₹ 5,00,000 is due from a debtor by 1-Apr-17, and ₹4,00,000 is payable to a creditor the same day. Your organization doesn’t have enough cash or bank accounts to pay the debtor.
Getting the funds back from the creditor and then paying them to the debtor is possible. Can manage the company’s daily fund requirements by maintaining adequate working capital. It does not mean that you must empty the cash or ba must empty the cash or bank balances.
Working capital is calculated as Current Assets minus Current Liabilities. This formula seems simple but involves debt management, inventory management, and planning payments according to the network capital inflow.
During the interview, it will be helpful to know basic Excel. You must be familiar with the following formulae: sum, sum-product, and count. Take a look at these.
These are the parameters I’d like to verify:,
1. (A) The correlation between revenue and profit of an organization – A company with a higher revenue does not necessarily do well
For example, Company A has a revenue of ₹ 1,00,000 but has suffered heavy losses. While Company B’s revenue is ₹40,000, it is still earning a profit of approximately 7%. Company B is more profitable and efficient.
This company’s management is on the right track. The more profit the company makes, the greater its dividend to its shareholders also has a better ability to repay the interest and debt.
1. (B) Debit/equity ratio – must achieve a balance between equity and debt. High-interest rates are only possible if the debt is all that exists. Only equity is when the company isn’t leveraging the market opportunities for lower interest rates.
Tip: If necessary, you can also mention liquidity. Calculating the working capital for each company is a good way to do this. The working capital mustn’t exceed the required minimum, leading to the company’s inability to access funds.
Interviewers will not ask this question to find out about your past. Interviewers already have your resume, including information about your educational and work experiences. Should not repeat these things.
I graduated with 85%, or I completed my Masters in Accounting at XYZ College. It is not what an interviewer wants to hear. It’s a great opportunity to share your achievements and work experience.
It is key to getting an accounting interview. Begin with your greatest achievement. Next, tell me why it is that you love what you do. Finally, tell me how your job makes you the best.
An accountant must coordinate with many teams, including customer support, marketing, procurement and treasury, taxation, business development, etc. I’d say that regularly available details/documents/data from these teams is a top challenge faced by any accountant. Undoubtedly, accounting is a complex business.
Without proper documentation, an accountant won’t be able to post entries to the accounting system. Management does not appreciate delays in accounting. These accounting records are used to create updated reports/MIS.
This answer should be connected to any question about the candidate’s key strengths or weaknesses. The candidate may also mention that people management is one of their key strengths. If given a chance, they can handle this type of challenge well and will ensure that data availability does not become a problem.
It is a difficult question that must answer with care tricky because most organizations accept change only when it leads them to success, and a huge responsibility to be the CFO.
Talking about changes in an organization you do not work for can appear arrogant. However, refusing to change can make you prone to being bent, which is another bad trait for a CFO. The answer is as follows:
As the CFO of the company, my first task is to get to know the business and its revenue model. I will also need to learn about the processes and how they are implemented.
It is important to understand these details before making any suggestions for changes. After spending enough time with the system, I can make suggestions based on industry best practices, shareholder expectations, and responses from competitors.
I think the accounting ERP that you use and Microsoft Excel will become my best friends. I’ll be spending as much time at work with these applications.
Now, from the basic accounting interview questions, let’s peep into the technical part.
All goods bought in the beginning and during the accounting period do not sell until the end, called closing stock. Closing stock is part of purchases, and the trial balance already includes purchases. Therefore, if you list the closing stock as a separate item, it will double up and cause an error. Ex. : Purchases for a period of 60,000.
Closing stock (remainder of purchases) = 10,000. If you put these items separately in the trial balance, the effect will double, and the trial balance will be out. The top accounting and finance interviewers often ask this question during technical rounds.
This scenario should be possible for accounting professionals, especially those who have worked as full-charge bookkeepers or managed ledgers for over two years. Candidates with more formal training in auditing or fraud analysis are likely to be able to explain the situation and provide examples.
Although the question is not specific, One can evaluate candidates for entry-level positions in financial analysis or business. One can also use this question to assess mid-career professionals interested in budget and staff oversight roles.
Leveraging tangible experience at your recent firm, outline your responsibility and roles specifically related to the month-end closing operation to describe your full range of capabilities. Concentrate on being more on being honest rather than just describing the positive things about you.
Highlight an instance where this occurred at your former firm, including the lessons learned and how you resolved it. Don’t try to act too heroic while explaining your excellence. Just be sober.
The debit (dr), and credit (cr), should all be equal in a ledger. It should also reflect the balance of books.
Demonstrate your knowledge of accounting practices, procedures, and principles to ensure high-quality financial statements and reports.
This question is common in interviews for accounting roles such as Accounts Payable or Accounts Receivable.
Credit Note: A seller sends a credit card note to his buyer when he receives the goods (returned goods) from the buyer. It is an indication that the money for the goods has been returned.
Debit note: A debit note is sent to the seller when a buyer returns goods. It informs the seller about the quantity and amount being returned and requests the return of the money.
Accounting is a job that requires a lot more cross-functional collaboration, procedures, and deadlines. It is important to demonstrate organization, time management, and healthy communication with clients and staff.
Holt states that accountants need to be clear about how they can manage their time and divide it between client checks, accounting processes, and team checks.
One can use Contra Account to lower or offset the account’s value.
It is the opposite sign for a specific type of account. An account with a debit balance, such as an Asset a/c, will have a credit balance in its counter account. For a liability account, the opposite will be true.
Drawings are when a proprietor withdraws goods or money from its business for personal use. It reduces capital investment and is a temporary account cleared at the close of each accounting period. The drawing is a Personal Account and is displayed on the liability side of a balance sheet.
Nearly all questions in finance and accounting interview questions contain at least one question about BRS. This topic is important. Bank Reconciliation Statement, or BRS, is a statement that reconciles the bank balance on the passbook or bank statement with the cash balance in the cash book.
Businesses may or may not incur contingency liabilities depending on future events. One can create this type of liability if a future event occurs.
Example: Let’s say that Apple files a lawsuit against Samsung for patent violations. Samsung realizes it may need to pay the violations and estimates how much. In its books, Samsung will record the estimated amount as a contingent liability.
Depreciation is the cut-off in the value of tangible fixed assets due to normal use, wear and tear or unfavorable market conditions.
One can do Amortization only for intangible assets and not for tangible assets. Amortization reduces the value of an intangible asset by dividing its cost over multiple accounting periods.
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