WHAT QUALIFICATIONS DO I NEED TO BECOME AN ACCOUNTANT?

Aspiring accountants come from all walks of life. While some may have only just left school, others might be looking after a family, or already be partway through their career. Those with an interest in accountancy have one thing in common. At some point, they will all be asking the question, “What qualifications do I need to become an accountant?”

Do I need A Levels or a degree to be an accountant?

Although you don’t need any A Levels or a degree to become an accountant, a competency in English and Maths is essential, and a good head for numbers is all you need to get started. There are many qualifications covering the basics of accounting which do not require any previous experience or qualifications.

AAT Qualifications

AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians) qualifications are the minimum you’ll need for a blossoming career in accountancy. A great starting point for those new to the industry, AAT can take you all the way to a level 4 qualification, the equivalent of studying at university for a year.

AAT Level 2 Foundation Certificate

What is it? The AAT Level 2 Foundation Certificate is the starting point for the AAT accounting qualification. This level introduces the idea of double entry bookkeeping and the accounting equation. It also includes a computerised accounts unit, which means you can apply any manual bookkeeping skills you have learnt to the computerised system. You will also look at basic costing and the role of accountancy in a business

AAT Level 3 Advanced Diploma

What is it? The second level of the AAT accounting qualification is the AAT Level 3 Advanced Diploma. This level builds on knowledge from the Certificate, including double entry principles and costing, introducing concepts such as year-end adjustments and accruals and prepayments, as well as producing a set of final accounts.

Is Accounting Difficult?

There are stigmas surrounding just about every class or college major out there. For example, those who study art will never be able to find a good job. Or, nursing majors have no social life. For accounting, the most common stereotype in circulation is that it’s incredibly challenging. But is accounting hard? It depends on whether you gain the proper skills and apply them in an area that suits your interests and personality.

What Does an Accountant Do?

First, it’s important to have a clear image of what an accountant does. Your average, everyday accountant updates financial information for businesses, government groups, or individual clients. They carefully comb the balance sheets to make sure everything is correct and current. As an accountant, you would handle the numbers and paperwork that most clients lack the time or know-how to handle on their own.

Benefits of Becoming an Accountant

When looking at the pros and cons of going into accounting, the pros are particularly alluring. Becoming an accountant brings job security, especially if you earn your CPA license, which we will dive into more later on. Job growth in the field of accounting is continually on the rise, with accountants in demand all across the country, so you won’t be tied down to a certain location. If you are someone who doesn’t deal with change well, accounting offers a clear career path with no surprises on the horizon. Even as markets change and certain fields become obsolete, there is always a need for accountants.

What Are Accounting Classes Like?

Part of knowing if you and accounting would make a good match is hearing about what the classes are like. As we discussed, accounting is basically tracking a company’s assets to ensure what’s coming in and what’s going out are all balanced correctly. You’ll be logging transactions, making ledgers, and organizing items into different categories. There are expenses, revenue, liabilities, owner’s equity, and much more. As an accountant, you will gain a clear understanding of various numbers and how they are meant to be calculated.

Advice for Accounting College Classes

Of course, some of the rules of thumb for college in general apply here:

Attendance is key.

Participation is recommended.

You should always pay attention during lectures.

However, much of this goes double for accounting. Its vocabulary and processes are built to be logical, so it’s important to understand the “why” behind everything you encounter.

Great Books for Accounting Majors

A Brief History of Economic Genius

Every professional in every field should be acquainted with the history of the careers they choose to practice. This book by Paul Strathern is one of the most accessible and interesting in terms of describing the how the intersection of math, business principles and philosophy have shaped the field of economics over the last few centuries.

Warren Buffett Accounting

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is the undisputed master of value investing, a financial strategy that is best suited for accountants due to the type of research that it requires. Buffett’s style of investing starts with fundamental analysis before it moves on to pure accounting research. The careful evaluation of financial statements is handled by a small army of accountancy and finance professionals who work at Berkshire Hathaway, and this book by Stig Brodersen and Preston Pysh explains how companies are thoroughly analyzed before Buffett makes an investment decision

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Accounting can often seem like a complicated field of practice, but it doesn’t have to be. This book by Greg McKeown can be found on the bookshelves of many successful CPAs; it is not explicitly written with accounting in mind but seems to be a favorite among finance and accounting professionals who take the entrepreneurial route. The author is a business strategist who advocates a philosophy of getting things done by focusing on simple tasks while ignoring distracting details

The Bottom Line Is Betrayal

Great books for accounting professionals do not have to be boring, non-fiction tomes that only those interested in getting a degree or advancing their business should read. Katherine Taken Smith, Lawrence Murphy Smith and D. Larry Crumbley have created a series of novels that combine the classical elements of thrillers with actual details about the accountancy and finance professions. What makes these books so unique is their educational approach, which explains why they are often used by professors who teach international accounting classes.

The Tax and Legal Playbook

A substantial aspect of the accounting profession in the United States revolves around taxation. Mark J. Kohler realizes that taxes and accounting are intrinsic to each other, but he is also cautious in this advice to small business owners who often focus too much on taxation instead of planning for the financial future of their companies. Proficiency in tax planning and saving is a must for American accountants who wish to excel in their careers; to this effect, this book explains how accountants should approach small business taxation.

Traits Every Great Accountant Has

Professional accountants are often thought of as extremely precise, with keen eye for detail and vast amount of practical knowledge, and rightly so. If you make even a small mistake in this environment, it can have a huge impact on a client’s business.

Certainly, accounting books provide a basis for business decisions and measure the financial health of a company, so it’s natural that accountants are expected to have great organization skills and boast a high degree of precision.

Below is a list of what I believe are the 10 key personality traits for a great accountant:

Excellent organization. Accountants must keep up with all figures, data, and paperwork in their daily jobs. They need a system for quickly finding information they need. Accountants should be able to organize their work to maximize productivity and allow time for undisturbed research and analysis.

Killer time management skills. Today, accountants are playing an increasingly important role in contributing to strategic decision-making, so their schedules are full to the brim. They need to take care of many tasks beyond financial management and should be able to prioritize them to make the most from their time at work.

Attention to detail. These traits are obviously key in the daily reality of accountants who need to make sure that numbers work and are correct. An eye for details and due diligence for accuracy should be part of their modus operandi, not something they need to be reminded of.

Focus on the client. Being an accountant means not only dealing with numbers, but with clients as well. That’s why accountants should have a strong orientation toward meeting client requirements – they need to understand the industry, sector, and client in detail. Only this helps them to decide which accounting rules or economic measures could fit the business. An accountant’s advice is always of value and knowing their way around a sector is the best way to make it more relevant and actionable.

Creativity. That’s right – great accountants have creative minds as well. They’re the ones who practice out-of-the-box thinking to come up with fresh solutions – some client problems aren’t textbook cases and require special attention and a degree of creativity

Commitment to the sector. Accountants should commit themselves to a particular industry and be passionate about it. This is what makes them attractive hires – companies are looking for individuals for long-term employment and stop at nothing to motivate such talented accountants to join in. That’s probably because replacing an accountant costs a lot of time and effort, seriously affecting the productivity of employees during the dreadful transition period.

Extreme trustworthiness. The kind of information accountants deal with every day is very confidential in nature. One of the most important features of great accountants is that they’re professional and never impart any knowledge to third parties. This is the ethical way to conduct an accounting business, and having a reputation for trustworthiness can only help in scoring great jobs.

Great communication skills. Needless to say, accountants must be able to communicate and collaborate with colleagues from different departments. They should also be able to communicate key insights to nonfinance staff – accountants can use various data visualizations form to aid their communication effort and ensure that their insights are properly understood. Communication is also key to developing successful relationships with clients.

Collaboration. This is something not many professionals expect. We’ve all cherished the idea of a lonesome accountant busy number-crunching in a small cubicle – but this image is completely inaccurate. In fact, accountants work in teams and provide support to different departments – that’s why they should be able to efficiently impart their expertise to clients and decision-makers. They should feel what others need to know and support the goals of the team, working with different kinds of professionals and personalities.

Flexibility. Accountants who are able to embrace challenges and effectively respond to changes in working environments make up for very valuable members of any organization. In the digital age, offices change at an accelerated pace and accountants must be able to adapt and take advantage of those alterations. A high degree of agility is also necessary for responding to regulatory changes in the industry – only then they can provide quality service.

It’s clear that being a great accountant requires a lot of effort, but also key personality traits that make up for a level-headed, creative, and detail-oriented individual – the highly successful accountant every company wants to hire.

The Accountant Interview

there were just over 1.3 million accountants employed in the United States. Every business in the nation has an accountant on staff, contracts with an accountant, or relies on an accounting firm to help them manage their financial affairs. Accountants are indispensable. Notwithstanding, there is fierce competition for the best accounting jobs and positions. Landing a good job requires more than a knowledge of accounting, it requires good interview skills

Accounting interview questions can be challenging. That’s why it’s so important to prepare before you interview for any accounting position. You may be the best accountant in the world, but if you can’t communicate that you’re best, in a meaningful way, you’ll be passed over for less qualified candidates. Our goal is to introduce you to the questions that most interviewers use and help you learn interview strategies that will help you rise above the competition.

What type of questions can you expect in an accounting interview?

Most good companies, that have a human resources department, employ interviews that consist of practical exercises and questions designed to test your accounting ability and knowledge. You can expect to perform some simple and some challenging accountancy tasks. These days, it’s also common for hiring managers and employers to test your familiarity with, and ability to use, accounting software. Testing your ability to use popular accounting programs helps the interviewer determine if you can really do you’re job, or if you just a lot of talk.

Why do you want to become an accountant?

Why do you want to become an accountant, why did you choose this career path or why accountancy are common questions an interviewer will use to start off an interview. They’re pretty straightforward questions that require straightforward answers, but don’t underestimate their importance.

When answering this question, don’t talk about your past. “I became an accountant because it’s the only thing I could do with a degree in accounting”, is a bad answer. “I became an accountant because I thought it would be stable career path”, while honest, isn’t going set you apart from other job candidates. In stead, focus your answer on the future. Talk about your career goals, your motivation, and your skills.