Roles, Responsibilities, and Qualifications of Corporate Accountants

This paper explores the roles, responsibilities, qualifications of corporate accountants. It discusses the skills, experience, and attributes needed to become a corporate accountant. The paper also examines how the knowledge acquired from MPA unit HI5020 Corporate Accounting has helped in gaining the skills, experience, and attributes needed to become a corporate accountant.

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Corporate Accounting
Student’s name
Course
Institutional affiliation
Instructor’s name
City and state
Date

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Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Advertised Jobs................................................................................................................................4
Jobs descriptions from various job advertisements.........................................................................5
Roles & Responsibilities..................................................................................................................6
Personal attributes required for a corporate accountant..................................................................7
How the knowledge acquired from MPA unit HI5020 Corporate Accounting has helped me in
gaining the skills, experience and attributes needed to become a corporate accountant...............10
Skills, experience and attributes needed to become a corporate accountant.................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................16
Appendices....................................................................................................................................17

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Abstract
This paper explores the roles, responsibilities, qualifications of corporate accountants.
Corporate accounting is one of the key indicators of a successful company, government
authorities and many other kind of a business. There are many jobs about accounting and finance
all over the world. This is due to the increasing need of financial statements and reports done on
weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual basis. However, several attributes need to be followed to
become one of the most appreciated accountants, these features or attributes include; rime
management, competency, flexibility, good communication skills among others. In addition,
several trainings need to be practiced in order to achieve and meet the requirements of the
employers in need of accountants. Some of the trainings include the Certified Public of
Accountancy, CIMA, ACCA among others. It is evident that most of the fresh graduates lack
experience and at the end they become unemployed, this implies that practical skills are needed
at first place as a great achievement much as corporate accounting is concerned.

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Introduction
Corporate accounting is one of the branches in accounting that requires skills, experience
and responsibilities such as overseeing financial reporting and how to accord with rules and
regulations of any company, developing budgets, forecasting future performance of companies,
and creating & managing financial reports for the company (Davis & Thompson, 2019). Many
corporate accountants lack jobs since they do not meet most of the requirements of companies
they apply. However, some of the skills required do not need any expertise such as enthusiasm,
communication, resilience and many more and so these are termed as ‘attributes’. In most cases,
the skills gained in lecture rooms are relevant more so if the theory part of it is transformed into
practice (Sollosy, 2019). Nevertheless, the jobs for corporate accountants are commonly
available since no company or business can operate minus having an accounting department as
it’s the backbone for any losses and profits within the company (Davis & Thompson, 2019).
However, it seems very difficult to entrust a person with money since accounting is all about
numbers. Corporate accountants are responsible for the assets and liabilities within the company
and this calls upon for accuracy while calculating. Its therefore very important for any
accountant to acquire all the relevant skills, experience and attributes for an accounting job
before applying for any job.
Advertised Jobs
There are various companies posting jobs that have advertised accounting jobs.
Accounting carriers can be reserved on a high basic level since most of the accountants and
CPAs always inspect the financial accounts about government, companies and individual clients

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(Indeed.com, 2019). There are numerous jobs in the field of accounting that CPAs can actually
view and take on. Some accountants are self-employed while others operate for big firms with
offices in the nations (Seek.com. 2019). It is evident that some accountants and CPAs work for
regular or full-time basis whereas others work on contracts
These companies include seek.com and ‘indeed marketers. The companies with their
respective positions are as follows with their respective sources.
‘Indeed .com marketers’ and Seek.com companies advertised different jobs in September
of 2019. These jobs are; Experienced Bookkeeper/Office Assistant experienced in Balanced
bookkeeping (bookkeeping and small practice accounting) and tax fields. The company that
advertised this job is Bundaberg & Wide Bay. Another job advertised was Credit Control and
Customer administrator (Accounts Receivable or Credit Control) at Bottomline Technologies
located in Sydney area found in inner west and Eastern suburbs. Another job advertised under
this website was Assistant Accountant in Ovolo Hotels (Indeed.com, 2019). Assistant
Accountant shall be providing with the senior accountant of the hotels with financial statements
monthly. Similarly, Assistant Accountant job was advertised by Thales Australia and New
Zealand fund in Sydney. In addition, the Pirtek Fluid System found in Sydney Parramatta and
Western suburbs advertised the job for Corporate Assistant Accountant.
Jobs descriptions from various job advertisements
Most jobs as per professional accountants’ vacancies are concerned require experienced
candidates at least on 2-year experience basis. The required descriptions are; the interested
candidates should portray analytical skills and knowledge of problem solving. Also, most of the

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job descriptions in various advertisements require candidates with excellent communication and
interpersonal skills, good time management and organizational skills (, 2019).
The interested candidates for various advertised jobs require accountants’ experience with
certified public accountants (CPA), ACCA and chartered institute of management accountants
(CIMA) in order to be considered experienced. Such bodies offer trainings and qualifications
especially in management accountancy and corporate accounting. The trainings provide the
accountants with current knowledge about the on-going changes in the industry. This image of
professionalism asserts that at least 80% of the accountant to be employed (, 2019). This is
because the combination of skills practically, attitude and appearance depicts success of the
business. The candidates (accountants) are expected to have positive attitude especially on the
new arising researches about the profession in order to create genuine enthusiasm while at work
place. This helps the accountant to always become assertive while completing the various
assigned tasks for the organizations with ease and high degree of reliability.
Roles & Responsibilities
The observed job opportunities require the candidates to be able to know how to create
reports in order to give recommendations after the public or internal sector audits. This therefore
tests the accountants’ knowledge of computer and creativity.
Furthermore, most of the advertised jobs as professional corporate accounting is
concerned require candidates or accountants with skills of preparing financial statements always
on monthly, quarterly or annual accounts. In addition, the interested candidates are advised to be
able to make liaisons with accountants both internal and external for the purpose of handling
accounting irregularities.

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In addition to the MPA course H15020 corporate accounting review, several accountants
are required to have strong expertise in information technology. Accountants must look
knowledgeable in the field of information technology and software of accounting (AVADO,
2018). This comes as the challenge when the employer or the client knows how to use such
software as well. As far as accounting is concerned, cloud computing is currently the latest
technology that is used at a wider range (Seek.com. 2019). This helps the accountants to keep the
data and always ready in case it is needed. Therefore, clients need to keep their financial
statements up to date in all platforms. However, some clients may need to adopt such
technologies et in actual sense they could not afford. This therefore seeks assistance from the
knowledgeable accountant to advise the client accordingly.
Personal attributes required for a corporate accountant
In accounting industry, clients have many expectations from accountants to have many
implications on their organizations. Many skills are required in order to boost high degree of
precision while at work. In summary, professional accountants are required fully of being with
extreme precision, strong practical knowledge and love for the field. This is because a small
mistake in accounting can cost and make negative impact on the entire clients’ business. With all
the organizational skills accountants should portray, this attempts to help accountants to produce
reliable services while at work. Some of the attributes required for the corporate accounting
profession are as follows
Excellent Organization; corporate accountants should consider all the data, figures and paper
work in their working environments. Accountants are required to have the systems that that
quickly find information about finance and accounting of a given organization (, 2019). Most

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significant is that, accountants should be able to make their works organized for the purpose of
maximizing and allowing time un expected or undisturbed researches and analysis as well.
Killer time Management skills; in current world, corporate accountants play vital roles in
contributing to the policy and strategic decisions made in the organizations. Furthermore,
Accountants are required to have various tasks that are over and above their financial
management. Therefore, they should be able to prioritize and produce the most and reliable
productivities while at work.
Attention to Details; this is one of the obvious attribute an accountant should follow
while in the field of accounting. In real terms, accountants should be able to investigate about the
nature of numbers or financial figures whether they are correct or not. This helps them to have
detailed information because of diligence about accuracy. This therefore should be their daily
routine schedule that should not be reminded of due to their nature of the field.
Focus on the Client; It is evident that, to be an accountant does not necessarily mean that
all the time one will be dealing with numbers or figures but clients as well need to be considered.
This brings about the purpose of orienting the accountants strongly in relation to clients’
requirements. Corporate accountants need to have strong knowledge about the existing industry,
clients in detail and the entire sector under prioritization. In addition, such knowledge helps them
to make decisions about accounting procedures and some economic measurements that could suit
very well the business or organization (AVADO, 2018). It is therefore important to note that, the
advice from the accountant is always of value and estimating the organization’s trend thus
making the relevancy of accounting.

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Creativity; In the field of Corporate accounting, it is essential for great accountants to
have basic creative minds in whichever case. This is because accountants are responsible for
practicing the possible solutions and knowledge to clients. However, some of the solutions to
clients or organization need a lot of critical thinking and creativity in order to yield appreciable
work.
Sector commitment; It is very important to note that, accountants should be able to be
committed to the given operations of the organization and become passionate with the activities.
This therefore makes accountants to be hired on the permanent or long term employment basis.
This incidence is as a result of being committed in whatever decision made by the specified
accountant in the organization (Cengage Learning, 2019). More so, it is costly to replace the
accountant in form of time, effort and finances as well, and so, it is necessary for the accountants
to show their impact in the organizations especially during their period of dreadful transition.
Strong trustworthiness; Most significant in the field of accounting is that, the nature of
information given out by the trusted accountant should always be confidential. Besides, one of
the features of being a trusted accountant is one should always be kin of the information
collected not always t be administered to the third parties (BusinessPhrase. 2018). This therefore
defines the ethical manner of conduct in accounting field and thus portraying the reputation of
trustworthiness in achieving the set goals of the organization.
Extreme Communication Skills; One of the important attributes of the accountants is that
one should be with good communication skills. Corporate accountants should be able to
collaborate and talk to colleagues from various departments of the organization. More so,
accountants should not only zero themselves with financial staff, but also with non-financial

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staff. This aids the work of accounting through collecting visible and reliable data from different
departments thus depicting the purpose of good communication skills. It is clear that, good
communication skills from accountants helps them to resolve issues arising from their clients.
Collaboration; Being collaborative is something that different accountants do not expect
at all. It is more lucrative for the accountants to work in teams, this spirit helps to provide
accurate, reliable or dependable information in order to make good decisions for the
organizations (Ahmadi, 2018). In addition, the accountants should have it in mind that it is good
to work as a team since it supports the objectives of with different classes of workers and gain
professional skills as well as personalities.
Flexibility; Accountants should be able to overcome arising challenges and quickly
respond to the difficulties in the environment of work. Most significant factor is that, different
policies and offices change at increased pace in today’s situation (BusinessPhrase. 2018).
Therefore, the accountants should notably change with the current situations especially in terms
of technological advancement. This can be achieved through getting more trainings for
accounting in order to make advantage over the alterations. This is because the degree of agile is
necessary in responding towards the changes of regulations of the organization in order to
produce good and reliable services.
How the knowledge acquired from MPA unit HI5020 Corporate Accounting has
helped me in gaining the skills, experience and attributes needed to become a corporate
accountant.

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Majorly, I have gained skills of collecting information, accurately measure them, make
analysis and finally present and explain the outcome and its effects on business performance.
Also, according to the topics learned in the unit, I have been able to gain the skills of determining
how several organizations come up with their performance work plans throughout the year
(Davis & Thompson, 2019). The performance of any business depends on the plans and targets
set by management. Also, I have acquired knowledge on using several accounting packages
employed in analyzing data of a business that is later used to strengthen decision making.
I have also gained experience in managing financial reports of a business and how to
create one. Also have learnt ways of budgeting and make future forecasts for the company. This
is one of the major skills that a corporate accountant requires to carryout activities effectively
(Davis & Thompson, 2019). Furthermore, I have gained skills of overseeing financial reports
and according with regulations of any company.
The MPA unit of Corporate Accounting requires the accountants to have knowledge on how to
prepare financial statements as well as in job descriptions. Besides, most of the advertised jobs as
professional corporate accounting is concerned require candidates or accountants with skills of
preparing financial statements always on monthly, quarterly or annual accounts (Cengage
Learning, 2019). In addition, the interested candidates are advised to be able to make liaisons
with accountants both internal and external for the purpose of handling accounting irregularities.
As it is in MPA review of corporate accounting, accountants need to be Create; In the
field of Corporate accounting, it is essential for great accountants to have basic creative minds in
whichever case. This is because accountants are responsible in practicing the possible solutions

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and knowledge to clients (Cengage Learning, 2019). However, some of the solutions to clients or
organization need a lot of critical thinking and creativity in order to yield appreciable work.
Skills, experience and attributes needed to become a corporate accountant.
No matter how big or small an organization or company may be, there is always need to
have a corporate accountant or an accounting department (Ahmadi, 2018). However, not that all
people who perused a degree in corporate accounting acquire or know the skills required at the
workplace and so here are some important skills, experience and attributes that an employer
looks from a corporate accountant employee;
Innovation ability is very crucial to any corporate accounting employee since almost all
projects require strict control and an innovative mind. Many recruiters require candidates who
have new and sounding ideas that are in position to bring in development to the company. This is
due to the fact that the world currently keeps on evolving with development of new ideas. Also,
the issue of understanding is very essential to job-seekers. One is expected to have better
knowledge of the field and in this case it’s the corporate accountancy field (Sollosy, 2019).
Acquiring new information, managing projects and meeting new clients is an expectation for
each and every job and with all this, there is need for a corporate accountant to have a clear
understanding of how the company operates.
In addition, communication is very vital to a corporate accountant. It is the responsibility
of an accountant to portray large amounts of information and make it clearly understood by the
organization. At times, an accountant may be hired by another firm as an auditors and the
auditing can only be successful in case there is effective communication between the auditor and
other workers. Moreover, commercial awareness is another skill that most corporate accounts

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usually forget though it is very crucial in business (lated professions database. 2019). Applying
skills of determining the performance of a business, what economic, social, political and
environmental factors could affect the business and can these factors be approached and solved
(Zhao, 2019). It is entirely known that the major role of an account is to follow up the
commercial performance of the firm, say, determining the costs incurred and the profits gained
and this makes it relevant to have commercial awareness (Zhao, 2019)..
Enthusiasm is one of the most significant attribute that recruiters for any kind of job seek
interest. The potential of introducing and adding positive energy to the organization and having a
believe that your role in that workplace is relevant is one way of being enthusiastic (lated
professions database. 2019). This shows that you are able and willing to learn your trade.
Initiative is another skill required besides enthusiasm and understanding. This trait makes
employers know that you are an independent employee who is able to think and work effectively
minus being forced. In turn, this builds on the trustworthy employers have in you and the
chances of being promoted are quiet higher though you may become ‘freelance’ in your career as
time goes by.
Credibility is the currency for any accountant. While at work, it is very important to build
your trust for employers, clients and fellow workmates. The commonest work of an accountant is
to ‘play’ around with the company’s money either at cash or at bank and its upon you to build
your own trust. Having trust from people is one way of succeeding in your job career and being
dishonest will automatically create disguise and unemployment (lated professions database.
2019). Therefore, the attribute of being trustworthy should be maintained for the good of your
career.

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It is often recommended for a corporate accountant to have a will of putting hard graft. It
is always a wish for any employee of a certain career to go on rising from the moment of entry
level, however, it may not be as easy as one thinks and wish to be. Ability to be able to work at a
fixed deadline, interact with different clients and stay calm and positive is something that
satisfies employers. Resilience is the ability to keep a ‘cool head’ and put trust in your set of
skills.
Before ‘embarking’ on the career of corporate accounting, there is need to take the issue
of stability crucial though it may seem irrelevant at the beginning. Since being flexible is among
the appealing aspects in accounting, being stable with appropriate documents is a requirement.
Most companies while advertising usually need some documents as an ‘added advantage’ and in
accounting having documents like Certified Public Accountancy (CPA), Certificate of Public
Practice (CPP) and accountants registered with Chartered Accounts (CA) are normally preferred
(Sollosy, 2019).
International experience in working, currently many companies are in need of expanding their
services all over the world and so having some experience in international work may be an added
advantage in future. Since the work of a corporate accountant is constant all over the world, most
recruiters prefer employing free and flexible workers and so having that experience may ‘push’
one from a lower position to a better one (lated professions database. 2019).
Conclusion
In conclusion, Corporate accountants play bigger role towards the decision making
policies of certain companies or individual clients. There are different kinds of jobs about

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accounting and finance around the globe. This is because there is increasing need of financial
statements and reports done on weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual basis. In addition, several
attributes need to be followed to become one of the most appreciated accountants, these features
or attributes include; rime management, competency, flexibility, good at communication skills
among others. In addition, several trainings need to be practiced in order to achieve and meet the
requirements of the employers in need of accountants. Some of the trainings include the Certified
Public of Accountancy, CIMA, ACCA, Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Chartered Global
Management Accountant, Certified Information System Audit (CISA)among others. In
summary, fresh graduates just from institutions and universities lack experiences while in
offices, this implies that practical skills are need in first place as great achievement as per
corporate accounting is concerned.
References

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Ahmadi, A., 2018.How Does Firm Characteristics Affect the Choices Dividend Payout? Evidence
of Firms Listed in the Tunisian Stock Exchange. Journal of accounting and marketing. Retrieved
from: https://www.omicsonline.org/ArchiveJAMK/currentissue-accounting-marketing-open-
access.php
AVADO. 2018. Top 8 skills you need to nurture as an accountant. Retrieved from:
BusinessPhrase. 2018. Powerfully Effective Business Skills and Software That Make a
Difference. Retrieved from: https://www.businessphrases.net/accounting-skills/
Cengage Learning. 2019. Personal Attributes for Business Success. Retrieved from:
https://www.cengage.com/resource_uploads/downloads/0538447052_173981.pdf
,A.2019. . Retrieved from:
Davis, S.S & Thompson, J., 2019. What Role Does an Accountant Play in Business Operations?.
Retrieved from:
Indeed.com .2019. Let employers find you. Retrieved from:
lated professions database. 2019. Professional qualifications in Accountancy. Retrieved
from:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_qualifications_in_the_United_Kingdom#Profess
ional_qualifications_requiring_an_attestation_of_competence
Seek.com. 2019.Corporate and related Accounting field jobs. Retrieved from:
Sollosy, M., 2019.The Future of the Accounting Profession: Accounting for Strategic Human
Capital,Social Media Impacts and Artificial Intelligence. A special issue of the Journal of
Corporate Accounting & Finance. Retrieved from:
Zhao, Q., 2019. Interaction between securitization gains and abnormal loan loss provisions:
Credit risk retention and fair value accounting. Wiley online library. Retrieved from:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14685957/current

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Appendices
This part shows the snapshots of posted jobs
Appendix 1

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Appendix 2

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