The Importance of Non-Technical Skills in Accounting Practice

This essay identifies and discusses five non-technical skills crucial for a graduate accountant working in a public accounting firm. These skills include integrity, communication, commitment, openness, and relationship building. The essay justifies the importance of each skill with references to academic literature, emphasizing how they contribute to effective service delivery, client relationships, and overall professional success in the accounting and finance field. The discussion highlights the need for graduate accountants to possess these non-technical abilities to meet employer expectations and navigate the dynamics of client interactions effectively.

Running head: ACCOUNTING PROFESSIONAL SKILLS 1
Accounting Professional Skills
Name
Affiliation
Date

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Non-technical skills Reflection
There are many non-technical skills that are important to me as a professional advisor. These
include; Integrity, communication, building relationship, flexibility, commitment, openness
among others. The above non-technical skills are explained below in relation to self-reflection
while at work in the accounting and finance firm.
Integrity is one of the non-technical skills I will consider when am employed in the accounting
firm (Awayiga, 2010). Any graduate accountant should be with integrity in his or her service
delivery because finance issues need to be handled with care and honest since clients require
quality and completeness in the services rendered to them in order to match with the employers’
expectations. I will be consistent and honest in delivering the services especially the finance and
books of accounts.
Furthermore, communication is one of the key professional skills I will ensure while at
work. As a good accounting practitioner, I will be able to communicate and learn how to listen to
new ideas effectively not only to clients but also to employers (Jackling, et al, 2009). The need
for the clients can be understood and resolved out after I have fully talked about, explained and
presented the financial transactions that the clients may require. Communication can either be
verbal or non-verbal according to the client’s need for critical and effective accounting and
finance. I will be able to adopt the current ways of communication with colleagues at work and
to the clients by using mails, chatrooms, messaging among other electronic platforms for clear
information about accounting transactions.
In addition to the above skills, commitment at working place is another non-technical
skill that I will consider (De Villiers, 2010). While at work, I will always be committed in terms

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of sacrificing my time, knowledge and all my efforts to acquire more accounting skills in my
profession and also to deliver the best of my expectations to the clients. Accounting and finance
departments require committed and self-driven workers since the field deals with financial data
computations which at times create fatigue among workers in the process of handling a number
of clients in a stipulated time period. However, by me being committed to what I will be doing,
the accounting and finance procedures and works can be done and reflected with ease.
More so, openness to the clients is also among the vital non-technical skills to be
practiced while in accounting and finance department. I will be able to interact with people from
various entities or titles. Being open and trustworthy to the clients is another way of motivating
and persuading various groups of people in accounting. Openness with intelligence is one of the
skills employers like to see from the graduate accountants to which shows greater ability,
potential and good identity at the place of work (Kavanagh and Drennan, 2008).Most of the
employers or managers tend to recruit accountants who are always open in any case, competent
and intelligent. Openness plays the fundament role in handling finances since clients assume that
whatever they exchange or keep with an institution is safe.
Building of relationship or trust among the colleagues and the clients is also one of the
key non-technical skills that I will highly practice in the accounting firm. I ideally know that,
accounting and finance profession needs some time to build trust and a close relationship among
the colleagues and the clients (Maelah et al, 2012). Building a client-relationship will help me to
understand challenges and make reliable and consistent contributions to the employer as well as
accounting firm in particular. Creation of relationship and trust empowers effective
communication between me and the people I will be serving. These people can be either the
clients or my employers.

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Also, I will be flexible in the way of delivering my services while at the work. A graduate
accountant should be able to eject and acquire professional skills from other departments of the
accounting firm (De Villiers, 2010). Being flexible and relationship-building among the
colleagues and clients will help fresh graduates especially me to acquire plenty of practical skills
than being rigid with only one profession. While at work, I will be able to volunteer in other
departments of the accounting firm in order to be equipped with more knowledge and skills to
enhance my practical side of my profession, one of these departments where I will interested in
working with them include; customer care desk where I will acquire a customer- relationship
which will build my accounting carrier as a result of being involved and used to clients and with
different services to be delivered to them.

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References
Awayiga, J., Onumah, M. &Tsamenyi. (2010). Knowledge and Skills Development of
Accounting Graduates: The Perceptions of Graduates and Employers in Ghana. Retrieved
fromhttps://tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09639280902903523?
src=recsys&journalCode=raed20.
De Villiers, R. (2010). The incorporation of soft skills into accounting curricula: preparing
accounting graduates for their unpredictable futures.” MeditariAccounting Research, Vol. 18,
No. 2, 1-22.
Jackling, B., and P. De Lange. (2009). "Do Accounting Graduates' Skills Meet the Expectations
of Employers? a Matter of Convergence or Divergence?" Accounting Education, 18.4/5: 369.
Kavanagh, M. H., and L. Drennan. (2008). "What Skills and Attributes Does an Accounting
Graduate Need? Evidence from Student Perceptions and Employer Expectations."Accounting
and Finance, 48.2: 279.
Maelah, R., Amani, A., Muhammadun,Z.,Ramli, R. ( 2012).Enhancing Soft Skills of accounting.
Retrieved fromhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042812037603.