Staff Accountant

Job Description

Job Description

Job Description

A beginning staff Accountant ordinarily has a degree in accounting. He or she may have work experience in public or private accounting and may have little experience in auditing or preparing tax returns. The staff Accountant knows the basic accounting concepts involved, but may not know the exact procedures to be followed. All of the staff Accountant's activities must be supervised.

The staff Accountant may perform the following duties :

• Assist in preparation and mailing of confirmation requests.
• Schedule confirmations returned, list exceptions, and follow-up on their disposition.
• Prepare statistical and account analyses, including listing of data, recasting data from one format into another, and calculating percentage relationships.
• Perform, or assist in, counting of inventories of merchandise or supplies, and other assets.
• Foot columns and test extensions to verify their accuracy.
• Trace and vouch entries to original documents or sources.
• Trace inventory items observed at the initial count to actual final inventory record.
• Search for unrecorded liabilities by examining unpaid bills, accounts payable, and disbursements subsequent to balance sheet data.
• Excerpt leases, minutes, and other documents and prepare transmittal of journal entries to clients.
• Post and extend adjustments to working trial balance.

The staff Accountant is guided by an senior who briefs him or her in advance on the assignment, suggests expeditious methods, answers questions, decides on remedies when difficulties are encountered, and periodically reviews the staff Accountant's progress. The staff Accountant ordinarily does not deal directly with client personnel without guidance and supervision by the in-charge accountant. The work of staff Accountants is the foundation on which the work of others is based.

Staff Accountants generally do not set time budgets, but they should be given an indication of the time allotment for each phase of an assignment. The senior monitors the time schedule.

As a staff Accountant gains experience and proficiency, he or she may be given more difficult assignments and greater responsibility, including some of the duties of the in-charge accountant. Satisfactory completion of such assignments indicates the staff Accountant's readiness for promotion to the level of in-charge accountant.