A Solution to All Your Accounting Needs

Financial reports and analysis are an integral part of every business and might require significant expenditure in terms of hiring suitable manpower. Sizeable amount of overhead charges are incurred in employing accountants and hence outsourcing is a good option to curtail this expense.

Management in every organization requires income and profit and loss statement to access the functioning of the business. Numbers are essential to evaluate the performance of the business and to understand the various heads of expenses and incomes. Efficient running of an organization will ensure maximum gains with minimum investment and this is the goal of every management. Accountants employed by the organization often prepare financial statements and keep a complete visibility on all the bills and payments that have to be made. Having an in house accounting team though essential can prove to be expensive as it entails salaries for all accountants hired and also other expenses like space for their seating and electricity among others.

Outsourcing bookkeeping is a good way to reduce your costs as it provides enhanced services at lesser costs. It also saves you from the trouble of having to manage an accounting team and the company you have outsourced your accounting to often has one point of contact that you can reach out to for all your financial queries. All bills and invoices have to be scanned and mailed to the company providing the service and they maintain details of all the payments and even make the payments on your behalf. Ledger books are also maintained by them and hence you are saved from all the paperwork and also makes more space available to you which you can utilize for other activities.

A bookkeeper as well as a CPA manager is provided by the company you outsource to and thus all your accounting is very professionally managed. Tax services are also provided by companies undertaking outsourcing assignments and they take care of all your tax needs ranging from filing to even planning. Research on tax is also undertaken by them to help you with the possibilities while indulging in transactions that are complex in nature. Accurate and timely reports which are the key essentials for successfully running a business are provided at the click of a button. All your financial information is made available to you online and can be accessed by you at any time during the day or night. You no longer have to search through piles of files to get the data you need and can pull out various reports through the internet. All data shared by you is maintained on a secure server and information is kept confidential and can be viewed only by you and personnel authorized by you.

Payroll service is also provided by these companies and they help in preparation of salaries and their disbursement and completely take care of all payroll inputs. Nonprofit organizations often run on tight budgets however they need to showcase all their financials in an accurate manner and they too can outsource their accounting to save money and to focus on their core competency. Outsourced accounting services use QuickBooks for maintaining accounts and this is excellent software to key in numbers and helps in maintaining accurate data. Forecasting and budgeting services are also provided by these companies and they function as your accounting team though located away from your office premises.

Accounting Analyst Job Description

If you are looking for the job descriptions for an accounting analyst, below are some you can use. There are different kinds of accounting analyst job descriptions because accounting analysts work in different industries, departments and positions.

#1. Accounting Analyst Job Description

This accounting analyst job description is for work in Accounting Policies and Systems Department (AP&SD)

The Accounting Analyst will be responsible for interpreting and implementing new accounting systems and procedures. He/She will analyze and offer recommendations on the feasibility of accounting information system proposals. He/She will determine if proposed systems meet user information requirements and conform to accounting policy.

He/She will be expected to develop EDP support specifications and user manuals describing financial data flow and input/output requirements. He/She will analyze the financial feasibility and impact of proposed budget items, investment alternatives and capital or operating programs, and provide support in preparing expenditure requests.

He/She will prepare highly confidential and technical financial reports and forecasts on cash receipts and disbursements, corporate income, operating and capital plans and expenditures, manpower budgets, investments, and the consolidated financial position.

The Accounting Analyst will be required to analyze subsequent variances and identify trends and opportunities to lower or control costs. He/She will gather financial data for use in implementing the participation agreement, and support operations organizations in responding to audit recommendations and implementing corrective action.

He/She will be responsible for developing and revising instructions for the Accounting, Payroll and General Instruction Manuals. He/She will interpret his/her application for operations organizations.

#2. Advanced Accounting Analyst Job Description

This job description is for accounting analyst working in the Accounting Process Department of a company.

As a member of the Internal Controls team The Advanced Accounting Analyst will participate majorly in the annual assessment of the Company's financial controls as required by Sarbanes Oxley. He/She will be involved in controls and process improvement projects throughout the Company.

He/She will be responsible for coordinating the maintenance of the Company's detailed financial controls and process documentation. Provide support in the assessment of the design effectiveness of Company's process control framework.

He/She will give advice on effective controls, provide support for the annual scoping exercise for 404 assertion process, including risk assessment of significant financial transactions.

This individual will be involved in controls and process improvement projects and function as the SOX 404 representative on the systems implementation projects to offer support to control design and Segregation of Duties security case design.

He/She will help in management self-testing process, such as providing periodic training to testers and reviewers, MST testing instruction development and MST Quality Assessment.

He/She will be involved in developing educational and training materials on 404 process and COSO internal controls framework. Work with Internal Audit on their testing for operating effectiveness. Provide support in the determination of testing needed for management assertation. Involved in evaluating overall effectiveness of control framework as input to management for assertation.

The accounting analyst will be responsible for keeping up to date in SEC and PCAOB requirements for 404 assertion process. He/She will maintain knowledge in effective business process internal controls.

#3. Financial Accounting Analyst Job Description

The Financial Accounting Analyst will be primarily required to provide support to the Financial and General Accounting Manager to perform the responsibilities for that area.

He/She will produce accurate Balance Sheet and ensure it represents the company's financial position in all material respects. This individual will be pivotal in developing annual budget and in forecasting as well as understanding of the performance of the company. He/She will be involved in developing strategies to improve performance.

The Financial Accounting Analyst will perform querying and data mining information from SQL databases to be used in analytics. Perform bank reconciliations; General Ledger Account substantiations. He/She will be responsible for monitoring the attainment of various performance goals / metrics, assuring the existence of appropriate controls at each step, and searching for new opportunities.

He/She will provide support in budgeting and forecasting. Provide regular monitoring and evaluation of varying performance strategies. He/She will be involved in strategy revision, planning, program enhancement and overall process improvement.

Accountability Through Accounting

As an individual or business there is need for a level of accountability to ensure your life or business is governed above board. Accounting is part of the business systems every business must have to help manage the resources and processes. You can only tell the health of the company if you have the correct Accounting system in place. One of the reason behind the failure of some businesses is the fact that there is minimal or no accountability of the leaders to the board or the board to the employees and so on. If no one can be held responsible for the business' performance then that business suffers from stunted growth.

- Accounting enhances accountability - Accounting produces the much needed financial performance reporting which the Directors can use to bring employees to account. We can easily tell the level of performance of a leader by simply analyzing the profit they managed to make in a month through the strict accounting policies.

- Accounting tells the health of a business - Before any investor gets involved in a business, they check the health status of the business they are about to invest in. This happens when the accounting system produces the reports. sometimes the financials are published in the press and signed off by the company secretary who then assumes full or total responsibility or accountability for the correctness of the information.

- Accuracy in Accounting is critical - One would rather not have accounting information that accumulate papers which are not accurate. With wrong data, wrong decisions are made. No one can be brought to account. It is costly to make decisions based on incomplete or wrong information.

- Accountability is for the entire workforce - Sometimes people assume that the finance people by virtue of dealing with accounts need to be accountable. Everyone has to account for what they do, how they do it and why.

- Accountability is pivotal for proper corporate governance - There can never be proper governance of a business without clear accountability structures.

I have watched over the years that situations where I have refused to be accountable, I have slowed down in making the desired progress in life. I remember when I would keep to myself with no one that could speak into my life, at that point I did the most mischievous things in life. Why not? I had no one who could look at me sternly in the face and tell me as it is. My wife taught me how accountability can be achieved through accounting with the way she handled family accounting issues to the last cent. She is one very accountable person I know. Sadly, I still lag behind in this area. I spend first and sometimes forget to keep those concerned informed about my financial actions.