Holmes Institute: Corporate Accounting - Employer Expectations Report

This report, prepared for the HI5020 Corporate Accounting unit at Holmes Institute, analyzes the qualifications, skills, and experiences employers seek from corporate accountants. The research involved collecting 30 job advertisements from various online platforms like Seek, Jora, and Indeed, to understand the nature of the roles, industries, and required skills. The report then establishes a connection between the topics covered in the HI5020 unit and the skills identified from the job advertisements. It also includes a discussion of additional topics that could enhance the unit's coverage, and concludes with a critical analysis of the skills necessary for a successful career as a corporate accountant. The report emphasizes the importance of personal attributes like autonomy, communication, and analytical skills, alongside professional qualifications like CA and CPA, and key roles and responsibilities in corporate accounting.

Running head: CORPORATE ACCOUNTING
Qualifications and experiences that employers seek from Corporate Accountants
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CORPORATE ACCOUNTING
Executive Summary
This report contains an analysis of the qualifications, skills and experiences that
employers are seeking from people they are looking to employ as corporate
accountants. The first step towards completing this report is to identify 30 corporate
accountant jobs from websites like Seek, Jora and Indeed. These job advertisements
are studied in a thorough manner to understand the nature of the jobs, industries
employing people and what are the skills required by them. After this, a link is
established between the topics learned in the MPA unit HI5020 corporate accounting
and the skills required by the employers. A mention of the topics which should have
been included in the unit are also mentioned. The report ends with a critical analysis of
the skills required to become a corporate accountant.

2CORPORATE ACCOUNTING
Table of Contents
Introduction.....................................................................................................................3
Details of Job Advertisements Collected........................................................................3
Name of the Organisations and their industry breakdown.............................................3
List of all the job titles mentioned...................................................................................4
List of Personal Attributes required................................................................................5
Explanation of the personal attributes............................................................................6
List of academic and professional qualifications............................................................8
Key Roles and Responsibilities of an accountant..........................................................8
Explanation of key roles and responsibilities.................................................................9
Relation between roles and Unit HI5020........................................................................9
Additional topics to be added to Unit HI5020...............................................................10
Critical Analysis of the required skills...........................................................................10
Conclusion....................................................................................................................10
References...................................................................................................................12

3CORPORATE ACCOUNTING
Introduction
The accountant profession has undergone a significant amount of changes over
the years since it was first introduced. In the modern day, the role of an accountant
appointed by the management is not just limited to the preparation of financial
statements and maintaining the books of accounts. They should also be able to
communicate the information in an effective manner so that it can be understood by all
the stakeholders of the entity. Based on the findings from the financial statements,
forecasts can also be made about the future of the entity. Hence, an accountant should
have an all-round knowledge of all the aspects of his profession so that his
employability chances increase than others competing with him in the market. The
emphasis of the business in the modern day is the communication of information that is
useful for all the stakeholders involved in a business. The information is not just limited
to the financial information and needs to be more detailed. Hence, an accountant should
work on his overall development and not just be limited to working on the technical
skills.
Details of Job Advertisements Collected
The total number of job advertisements that have been collected are 30. Due to
the changing nature of hiring people over the years, online websites have become an
extremely popular source of hiring people. Hence, all of the advertisements are
collected through the internet sources. They have been collected from the job websites
Seek, Jora and Indeed. The total number of jobs collected from each of the website is
as follows:
Seek – 10 advertisements
Jora – 10 advertisements
Indeed – 10 advertisements
Name of the Organisations and their industry breakdown
Serial Number Name of the organisation Industry
1 Michael Page Information Technology
2 DFP Recruitment Essential Services in NSW
and Canberra
3 Doyle Executive Accounting and Financial
services
4 MPC Kinetic Energy and Resources
5 Redpath Property and Construction
6 Studco Building Systems Manufacturing and
Construction
7 Sandvik Mining and Rock
Technology
Mining and Construction
8 Allianz Partners Insurance
9 Linx Cargo Care Group Ports and Logistics
10 Byers Scott Accounting Services

4CORPORATE ACCOUNTING
11 Beach Energy Oil and Natural Gas
Exploration
12 Integrate AV Audio Visual Services
13 Penfold Projects Landscape Design and
Construction
14 Dean & Ling Customer Services
15 Davidson Recruitment Community Services
16 Mansell Taylor Consulting Consulting Services
17 Myer Docklands VIC
18 UGL Pty Ltd IT related services
19 MMSG McMillan
Shakespearean Group
Entertainment Industry
20 Hanrob Pet Hotel Pet Services
21 Australian Bureau of
Statistics
Educational Services
22 Suncorp Group Financial and management
Services
23 Energy Resources of
Australia
Mining and Energy
24 Port Arthur Historic Site
Management Authority
Government Services
25 Wisetech Global Software
26 Guardian Childcare and
Education
Childcare services
27 ALDI Retail Services
28 Zurich Insurance Group Insurance
29 Pepper Group Global Financial Services
30 Westrac Automobile Industry
List of all the job titles mentioned
Chief Financial Officer
Financial Accountant
Corporate Financial Control Accountant
Financial Accountant
Management Accountant
Financial Accountant – Corporate

5CORPORATE ACCOUNTING
Senior Business Analyst/Business
Reporting/Management Accountant
Management Accountant
Senior Financial Accountant
Senior Financial Accountant
Senior Corporate Accountant
(Technical)
Senior Accountant
Senior Accountant/ Financial Controller
Corporate Restructure Accountant
Financial Accountant
Corporate Accountant
Finance Systems Accountant
Financial Accountant
Senior Accountant
Corporate Accountant
Tax Consultant
Corporate Accountant
Corporate Management Accountant
Financial Accountant
Tax Accountant
Cost Accountant
Financial Accountant
List of Personal Attributes required
Ability to work autonomously

6CORPORATE ACCOUNTING
Sound relationship building and communication skills
Multitasking skills
Highly organised with ability to prioritise and manage large amounts of workload
Strong personal drive and ability to challenge personal quo
Strong analytical skills
Independent thinking and self-starting abilities
Ability to thrive in a non-hierarchical environment and willingness to get job done at
any cost
Commercially astute mind
Highest standards of accuracy and precision
Professionalism, practical judgement, integrity and result oriented
Ability to think creatively and be self-motivated
High energy levels
Logical and analytical reasoning
Proven organisational skills, attention to detail and ability to thrive under pressure
Making a difference to the organisation
Deliver high quality work while maintaining turnaround times
Good levels of confidence
Ability to be a good cultural fit
Efficient, outgoing, positive attitude and eagerness to deliver great work in a timely
manner.
Leadership skills and able to coach and motivate others
Be comfortable in communicating to all levels of management
Knowing how to manage risk
Effective time management skills
Explanation of the personal attributes
After thoroughly going through the requirements of every job, the attributes that
have been identified above have been considered to be the most important
requirements to undertake the job of a corporate accountant. The explanation of these
attributes is as follows:
 Ability to work autonomously refers to working by oneself without the fear or
dependency on higher authorities in any situation. A person working
autonomously has to be answerable to the authorities for the decisions taken by
him. However, he will not always have a person with him to lean back on or to
blame the language there.
 Personal drive refers to the motivation of the person to do better work on a daily
basis and challenge themselves over their perceived limitations and try hard to
overcome them by undertaking new challenges.
 Analytical skills refer to the ability of a person to understand the implications of a
situation in detail. This includes the ability to understand the underlying
circumstances in an efficient manner and applying them according to the
situation (Debortoli, Müller and vom Brocke 2014).

7CORPORATE ACCOUNTING
 Relationship building skills refer to the skills involved in interacting with new
people on a regular basis and getting them to conduct business with the
company in some capacity. This is highly beneficial to the company as it is useful
in expanding the existing market of a business.
 Communication skills refer to the ability to effectively make the other person
understand one’s message through verbal communication, written words or
indirect communication. This is an extremely useful skill as miscommunication
often leads to a breakdown in the relationships between various stakeholders.
Hence, an organisation should always be able to maintain proper communication
channels that benefit the business in every way possible (Martin and Nakayama
2013).
 Multitasking skills refer to the ability to efficiently conduct more than one
particular task at a time without disturbing the flow or effectiveness of any one of
the tasks that the person has undertaken.
 A highly organised person who has a lot of clarity about what they are doing and
when and how they will complete the task. Ability to prioritise refers to the ability
to be able to differentiate between various options that are available to him
(Naznin 2013). After differentiating, the person should be able to choose the best
option available to him and when to undertake it. Managing workload is a skill in
which a person should be able to do a large amount of tasks by remaining
unfazed by the challenges posed by the tasks and completing them efficiently.
 Independent thinking is an important attribute in which a person is able to think
for himself and have his own set of thought process. He does not depend on
others to guide him on what are the actions that should be undertaken by him in
the future. Self-starting abilities refer to the skills of the person in starting a new
task by himself without being unfazed by the obstacles that lie ahead of him.
 A non-hierarchical environment is one in which there are no fixed roles, positions
and responsibilities given to individuals. They will have to think for themselves
and act in a manner that they think will be beneficial to the organisation. Getting
a job done refers to being committed to the task undertaken by an individual and
ensuring that it is completed to be able to benefit the organisation in the future.
 Commercially astute mind is one that has good idea of business and can identify
with ease whether a particular step or investment undertaken by them is likely to
benefit the organisation in the future or not. Any investment that is considered to
be not beneficial to the organisation should not be undertaken by the people
involved in the business.
 Accuracy and precision are two important personal skills. Accuracy refers to the
ability to do a job in a manner that is almost flawless. Precision is the ability to do
a job accurately over a period of time continuously.
 Professionalism refers to acting by keeping the guidelines of the job and the
governing principles of conduct prescribed by a particular professional body in
mind (K. Sejjaaka and K. Kaawaase 2014). It means that a person should always
give priority to the right thing and complete his job as agreed upon with other
parties. Integrity refers to an honest state of mind in which a person should act in
a manner which does not harm anyone and also makes sure that no fraud or
misleading activity is undertaken by the firm.

8CORPORATE ACCOUNTING
 Creative thinking is a departure from the traditional fact based thinking and leads
to a person coming up with unconventional or different solutions than what is
usually deemed to be the way of approaching a particular problem (Ericsson et
al. 2018). A self-motivated individual is one who does not always need an
external factor to influence him to undertake a particular task or act in a certain
manner. He himself recognises the need to act in a responsible manner and
makes sure that there is no fault from his side regarding the completion of a
particular task.
 High energy levels refer to the ability of an individual to work continuously without
losing the motivation to work and also ensuring there is no drop in the quality
levels of the work produced. This is the case even if he has to work for a time
period that is more than his usual level of work.
List of academic and professional qualifications
Chartered Accountant
Certified Public Accountant
A diploma in accounting or above
Advanced computer literacy skills like Excel
Strong finance background with tertiary qualifications in accounting, finance or other
related disciplines.
Graduate Degree and 2+ years in a Chartered Accounting firm
In depth knowledge of AASB and IFRS
Proficiency in MS Office Suite
Key Roles and Responsibilities of an accountant
Raising sales invoices/credit notes
Processing of employee expenses
Processing Bank Statements
Monitoring Finance Help desk requirements
Assisting with rebate/programme claim submissions
Coding accounts payable invoices
Timely and accurate accounting of the books of accounts
Ownership of key account reconciliations and support the head office
Support the completion and accuracy of trial balances, Balance Sheet Reconciliations
and working papers on a monthly basis to Reconciled accounts
Monthly, Quarterly and Annual financial reporting
Consolidation of financial statements
Preparing statutory financial statements
Accounting treatment advice for various transactions

9CORPORATE ACCOUNTING
SAP maintenance
Liaising with key business partners and stakeholders
Explanation of key roles and responsibilities
 Reconciliation of balances refers to the rechecking of balances that are shown in
the trial balances and making sure that the actual balances meet with the figures
shown in the books of accounts (Smith and MALONEY 2013).
 As financial reporting on a timely basis has become much more prominent than
ever before, keeping the books of accounts ready for usage by the stakeholders
at the required time has become much necessary than before.
 As the key roles and responsibilities of a corporate accountant revolve around
accountancy, the accountant should be able to provide advice on the steps to be
taken with respect to certain matters in accountancy and how they should be
treated in the books of accounts.
 Consolidation of financial statements refers to the measure in which the books of
accounts of the parent company and its subsidiaries are combined together to
show the results of the group as a whole. This is useful as it eliminates the
intercompany transactions and show the proper performances of the company as
a whole (Blanchette et al. 2013).
 Monitoring finance desk help requirements refer to acting upon all the queries
received as a part of the business and making sure that they are resolved in an
adequate time interval.
 Statutory financial statements need to be prepared by keeping the regulations
and guidelines to be followed in mind. This requires a good level of knowledge
not only about accountancy but also aspects like corporate law and changes in
the requirements of the preparation of financial statements (Gitman, Juchau and
Flanagan 2015).
 Coding accounts on the basis of invoices payable refers to the updating of the
books of accounts on the basis of the invoices received and making sure that
they are in agreement with each other. In case of any disagreement between the
both, the same should be highlighted and correction measures should be taken
on a quick note.
Relation between roles and Unit HI5020
The aspects learned from the unit corporate accounting like preparation and
reconciliation of financial statements are very useful in applying for the role of a
corporate accountant. The unit is also helpful in performing other roles like providing
accounting advice for treatment of various transactions and properly maintaining the
books of accounts. This is in addition to the reconciliation of accounts on a timely basis
and also perform the time based financial reporting as mentioned above. Statutory
financial statements can be prepared with much ease due to the knowledge acquired in
the area of financial reporting (Abreu 2015). The information acquired from such

10CORPORATE ACCOUNTING
financial statements is highly useful and it becomes easy to understand due to the
knowledge acquired about company’s financial statements and how to interpret them.
Liaison with stakeholders can also be conducted with ease and they can be updated
about the principles governing the IFRS regulations and the changes in the statutory
requirements which necessitated the preparation of the financial statements in a certain
manner (Borys and Solarz 2013). Processing activities like processing bank statements,
employee expenses and preparation of credit expenses are also achieved in an easy
manner due to the knowledge acquired from the unit Corporate Accounting.
Additional topics to be added to Unit HI5020
The knowledge provided by the unit Corporate Accounting is very useful in the
preparation of statutory financial statements of a company in an accurate manner.
However, more emphasis should be laid on the inclusion of integrated reporting as a
part of the curriculum due to its increasing importance in the modern business (Owen
2013). Another area that could be improved upon is related to the inclusion of the
aspect of information technology in the preparation of the financial statements. A proper
inclusion of a financial tool which is used in the practical world would give a better
perspective and additional skills in the area of corporate accounting (Belfo and Trigo
2013). While stock exchange regulations are important, more emphasis should be given
on the accounting for stocks related to a company as the demand for a corporate
accountant who can work on the financial markets and mergers is also very good. The
skills that need to be developed through this topic are understanding the performance of
a firm on the basis of the accounting policies and business practices followed by it (Kim
and Zhang 2016). The ability that needs to be developed is the understanding of a firm’s
business practices and how they are likely to impact its health in the future. An inclusion
of the practical aspects would result in acquiring more robust knowledge about the
financial markets. The emphasis on corporate governance measures should also be
increased from what is being currently a part of the unit.
Critical Analysis of the required skills
In the modern day business environment, the skills that are most required to
become a successful corporate accountant are good technical skills in accountancy,
ability to prepare statutory financial statements in an accurate and timely manner and
communicating the same information to all the stakeholders of the organisation (Van
Akkeren, Buckby and MacKenzie 2013). One also needs to be properly aware of the
statutory requirements to provide advice about a particular accounting transaction and
taxation advice to a company. The topics learned in the corporate accounting like
mergers and acquisitions, setting up a company form of business and preparation of
consolidated financial statements are all skills that are in high demand in the current
market. Hence, the unit has been very helpful in providing the skills required to become
a practising corporate accountant.
Conclusion
From the collection of the job advertisements and a thorough analysis of the
skills and requirements of the particular job, it is evident that the skills most required by
the employers are a strong set of technical skills in the preparation of financial

11CORPORATE ACCOUNTING
statements and a good accounting background. A professional degree like CA or CPA
is a mandatory requirement in most of the situations and additional skills are required in
the form of expertise in using MS Excel, SAP and Tally. The accountant should be able
to provide ready advice in matters relating to the smooth running of the business like tax
advice, statutory requirements in preparing financial statements and conducting a
thorough analysis of the details of a merger and an acquisition. He should also be able
to deal with a vast amount of workload at once and hence being able to prioritise and
meeting the deadline requirements are one of the skills that most employers are looking
for in a corporate accountant they are looking to employ.

12CORPORATE ACCOUNTING
References
Abreu, R., 2015. Accounting for citizenship: The role of accountant. Procedia
Economics and Finance, 26, pp.933-941.
Belfo, F. and Trigo, A., 2013. Accounting information systems: Tradition and future
directions. Procedia Technology, 9, pp.536-546.
Blanchette, M., Racicot, F.É., Sedzro, K. and Simonova, E., 2013. IFRS adoption in
Canada: An empirical analysis of the impact on financial statements. Certified General
Accountants Association of Canada, pp.1-68.
Borys, G. and Solarz, M. eds., 2013. Finance and Accountancy for Sustainable
Development: Sustainable Finance. Publishing House of Wrocław University of
Economics.
Debortoli, S., Müller, O. and vom Brocke, J., 2014. Comparing business intelligence and
big data skills. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 6(5), pp.289-300.
Ericsson, K.A., Hoffman, R.R., Kozbelt, A. and Williams, A.M. eds., 2018. The
Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance. Cambridge University
Press.
Gitman, L.J., Juchau, R. and Flanagan, J., 2015. Principles of managerial finance.
Pearson Higher Education AU.
K. Sejjaaka, S. and K. Kaawaase, T., 2014. Professionalism, rewards, job satisfaction
and organizational commitment amongst accounting professionals in Uganda. Journal
of Accounting in Emerging Economies, 4(2), pp.134-157.
Kim, J.B. and Zhang, L., 2016. Accounting conservatism and stock price crash risk:
Firm‐level evidence. Contemporary Accounting Research, 33(1), pp.412-441.
Martin, J.N. and Nakayama, T.K., 2013. Intercultural communication in contexts. New
York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Naznin, H., 2013. Correlation between emotional intelligence and transformational
leadership behaviour. Journal of Business and Management, 13(2), pp.64-67.
Owen, G., 2013. Integrated reporting: A review of developments and their implications
for the accounting curriculum. Accounting Education, 22(4), pp.340-356.
Smith, J. and MALONEY, K.P., 2013. Certified Public Accountant. PLLC is a correct
usage of the credential.
Van Akkeren, J., Buckby, S. and MacKenzie, K., 2013. A metamorphosis of the
traditional accountant: an insight into forensic accounting services in Australia. Pacific
Accounting Review, 25(2), pp.188-216.