Deals with all incoming invoices.

Other duties:

• Dealing with a high volume of invoices
• Receiving calls from suppliers who are chasing payments
• Reconciling supplier statements and raising queries with suppliers
• Processing payment run once invoices are authorised. Most companies do a payment run weekly

Skills:

Need to be able to cope with a high volume of work, be accurate and have excellent attention to detail. Often putting suppliers off who are chasing for money. Needs to be able to deal with lots of incoming calls

Deals with all outgoing invoices (duties are the same as Purchase Ledger, but invoices are outgoing rather than incoming)

Duties:

• Processing high volume of invoices and credit notes
• Allocating payments to the ledger

Skills:

Accuracy ability to deal with volume and be accurate. Correct invoicing ensures a company’s cash flow.

Deals with the collection of outstanding debt, this person may also do all the sales ledger duties as above. In larger companies there may be separate staff for credit control and sales ledger.

Duties:

• Issuing statements
• Chasing overdue invoices by telephone email and letter
• Resolving queries to ensure payment
• Dealing with problem accounts and sending out threatening letters
• If necessary, instigate legal action

Skills:

Communication, tenacity, teamwork, negotiation.

Processes payroll either in-house for one employer, or in a payroll bureau who provide payroll services to lots of companies

Keywords / Duties:

• RTI – Real time information-since 2013 all payrolls are processed in real time. All information is given to the tax office when a payslip is generated. Candidates who haven’t done payroll recently may not be aware of these requirements so would need training.
• Auto Enrolment – all workers in the UK are not automatically enrolled into a pension scheme whoever they are employed by. Most clients require payroll staff to understand this process.
• SSP – statutory sick pay
• SMP – statutory maternity pay
• SPP – statutory paternity pay
• Attachment of earnings – usually enforced by HMRC on behalf of the student loan company or child support agency
• Gross to Net – employers often ask for an ability to manually calculate a person’s net pay from their gross pay. This is always fully automated, but somebody who can do this can spot an error if these figures don’t seem right.

Skills:

Knowledge of the above, accuracy, attention to detail, teamwork, communication.

This role can involve anything in accounts, so there are not typical duties but an all-round account assistant in a small company is likely to do:

• Sales ledger
• Purchase ledger
• Credit control
• Bank reconciliations
• Cash book
• VAT returns
• Intrastat and EC Sales List
• Nominal ledger
• Accruals and prepayments

Skills / Knowledge:

AAT an advantage, knowledge of how accounts systems work within an organisation.

This role can also involve anything in accounts and often includes most of the same duties as an Accounts Assistant. The difference between the two roles is that usually this role involves the candidate either studying for a professional qualification, or is qualified AAT, or part Qualified CIMA/ACCA/ACA.

This role would typically include the following duties in addition to those of an accounts assistant:

• Balance sheet reconciliations
• Accounts to trial balance
• Management accounts

A strategic role which requires the MA to analyse financial trends, produce predictions and liaise with all depts to help plan for maximum success.

Duties can include:

• Key role for companies when preparing for specific times (e.g. national holidays, projects)
• Setting budgets
• Reporting
• Negotiating contracts
• Forecasting
• Lead team of accounting technicians
• CIMA

A fully qualified role ACCA/ACA leads the day to day accounts function in a company.

Duties can include:

• Managements of finance systems
• Setting budgets
• Auditing
• Completing VAT returns
• Advising on tax planning
• Preparing accounts
• Detecting and preventing fraud

A Practice Accountant works for a firm and will only handle clients that are available through the firm. Earnings can vary greatly depending on the clients the accountant works with. They must be fully qualified ACCA/ACA.

Duties can include:

• Managements of finance systems
• Setting budgets
• Auditing
• Completing VAT returns
• Advising on tax planning
• Preparing accounts
• Detecting and preventing fraud

This person is generally a highly experienced accountant and must be fully qualified ACCA/ACA. It is a senior management role and involves ensuring that the accountancy function operates with maximum efficiency.

Duties can include:

• Contributing to overall financial strategy
• Financial analysis and reporting
• Budgeting and forecasting
• Supervise preparation of month end accounts and VAT returns