Account Assistant jobs in Accounting

Assistant accountant jobs are admin roles, involving carrying out duties to help an accountant or an accounts team. This can include processing invoices, filling in ledgers, generating reports and reconciling accounts. Part-qualified accountant jobs are typically a precursor to moving into a fully-qualified accountancy role later.

Account assistant jobs can require a lot of flexibility, as you may be asked to answer a wide variety of queries both from an accountant colleague and from external clients and supply chain providers. Assistant accountants often work in fast-paced environments, and you may be partly responsible for significant amounts of money and regulatory reporting compliance.

Typical tasks of an account assistant

Assistant accountants carry out a long list of administrative duties on behalf of the senior accountant. For those working in account assistant jobs on any given day, they might be asked to raise and process sales invoices, conduct credit control and chase overdue payments. With respect to internal queries, you may be involved with cash book maintenance, expenses requests, purchase and ledger activities.

Part-qualified accountant jobs can involve a significant amount of liaising with external parties, ranging from suppliers to customers to other third-party providers. You may be asked to liaise with banks on all kinds of business transactions, to verify that payments have been sent and received, and about any other financial issues related to them.

Assistant accountants need to be confident when working with numbers and large sums of money. You will be expected to work diligently, to be available to the senior accountant when you are needed, and to spend your time on priority admin tasks when you are not actively answering a query.

Qualifications required for an account assistant job

Most assistant accountant jobs will require you to have a degree in a relevant field such as accounting, business studies, economics, finance or maths. Part-qualified accountant jobs may be restricted solely to applicants who have already embarked on Associate of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) or Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) qualifications.

In account assistant jobs where previous experience is required, you will typically need a minimum of a year of experience working in a similar role, either in an accounts department or within a dedicated credit control team. Your application will benefit if you can demonstrate a high level of familiarity with common programs such as Microsoft Word and Excel, as well as popular business accounting software packages such as Sage.

Hard/soft skills needed for an account assistant job

Hard skills required for account assistant jobs include computer skills and a high level of numeracy. Experience handling large sums of money will stand you in good stead. You may be asked to complete a numeracy or mental arithmetic test as part of the assessment for your application.

Soft skills required include the ability to stay calm under pressure and to prioritise the most important tasks at busy times. Flawless attention to detail is a must, especially when processing large transactions. Analytical skills when compiling reports can be advantageous, along with generally good communication and interpersonal skills.