Almost every other company requires an accountant, and every year thousands of people graduate in commerce subjects only. There are so many job opportunities and at the same time thousands of candidates. So, whenever you are going to give an accountant job interview, you should have an idea about commonly asked accounting interview questions and answers.

The preparation for the accounting job interview is a must, because when you don’t know how to articulate a particular response in your favor then you won’t be able to secure a job. Keep in mind that you are going to compete not with 15 or 20 other candidates, on average a job position attracts more than 250 candidates. Imagine how tough this competition is going to be, so stay one step ahead of others and do your best accounting job interview question preparation.

1. How to review the overall situation of a company through its statement?

In any business, Cash is the King of the corporate empire. To check the situation of a company, you can check the cash flow statement. It demonstrates how much cash is generated by a company. A true picture of any company can be obtained via a quick look at its cash-flow statement.

2 Tell me about three financial statements.

It is one of the entry-level accounting interview questions. A balance sheet is a financial statement that allows you to check the company's assets, liabilities and shareholder’s equity. A review of the company's expenses and revenues are provided through the income statement. A third financial statement is regarding one of the most important statements of a business, it is named as cash flow statement. In this statement, you can have a look at cash flow from operating, investing and financial activities of a business.

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3. Which accounting applications are you familiar with?

The purpose of asking this question in an accounting job interview is to ascertain whether you have any knowledge about accounting application or not. In your question, you should mention the best application but don’t forget to add a quick comparative analysis of your selected application with other applications. This is one of the most frequently accounting interview questions to ask by an interviewer since he wants to know how well you can talk about recent developments in the accounting field. And what you know about its best type of accounting software.

Example Answer: I like to use XYZ company’s name accounting software because it helped me a lot in my last job. Before that, I used the A or B accounting application but once I started using XYZ, I realized that it is far better in terms of productivity and efficiency than others.

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 4. How did you reduce costs in your previous accounting job?

It is one of the most basic accounting interview questions and makes sure you ready your answer. Every company likes to hire an accountant who can help them reduce costs through his diligence. Even if you didn’t do this before, you need to prepare a story where you can show how successfully you cut the cost of your last firm through your deliberate efforts.

Example Answer: Our firm has different departments, where each department pays a separate fee for some software. I gathered details of all software and their providers. Since we were paying different providers varied fee, I decided to take a package deal from just one provider. As we were getting multiple applications and software from one company, they discounted the monthly license fee. This is how I cut operation costs 15 percent for my last firm. I felt good when the executive board not only appreciated my actions but also recognized my work by allowing me a special bonus.

5. What’s the difference between deferred revenue and accounts receivable?

When you receive cash from the customer for services and goods you didn’t send to them as yet then it is named as Deferred revenue. When you have delivered products and services but customers didn’t pay cash then this owed cash is known as account receivable.   

People who are applying for manager accounts jobs in Pakistan, often have to answer some tricky questions like this.

6. What does having negative working capital mean?

It is among the most tricky accounting interview question because in different situations it has different meanings. So, you need to flip both sides of a picture in front of your interviewer. In this way, he will know that your concept of working capital is clear.

There are some industries such as retail business when customers pay upfront and inventory sale is high, so it moves quickly. However, suppliers of this inventory give credit of 30 days to a company. 

In such a scenario, the company gets cash from the customer before they pack back to its supplier.

1.  Negative working capital is an efficient sign of business having low inventory and accounts receivable.

2. In some other industries, negative working capital may be a warning sign that the company is facing financial trouble and has less than the required capital.

7. Tell us a time when you had to prepare a financial statement on a deadline or some unexpected timeline. How did you handle all that?

In every company, accountants have to face multiple deadlines which sometimes require them to spend extra time in office. Since such situations are uncomfortable, it is natural that an accountant doesn’t like to encounter them. Now the purpose of asking such a question is to check your behavior, how you work under pressure and also to judge a little about your time management skills. Make sure you give an honest answer without mentioning the fact that such situations are nothing but a burden.

Here are the best interview skills that help you give the best answer during an interview.

Don’t exaggerate when you are going to respond to these kinds of accounting interview questions. 

Example Answer: I still remember a time when I had to prepare a year-end Financial statement for XYZ company. The real target was not to make the statement but to gather all the information from 12 departments of that company. My report was dependent on the findings and information from every other department.

 My co-workers were very responsible. Though collecting and managing yearly data and information was a big task but everyone played his role well. Since I had a deadline to meet, I spent three hours an extra full week just to make sure that my clients have year-end reporting in their hands before time. It was a challenging report to submit but I did it with the help of my colleagues and extra work hours.

8. What type of audits have you done?

If your job requires you to do an audit then you need to prepare audit interview questions as well. The interviewer will not only ask you about different types of audit but may like to dig deep and get an idea about the outcomes. 

Don’t forget to refresh your experience stories about financial and operational audits. This memory refresh will help you get the best accountant jobs in Pakistan.

9. How do you minimize the risk of error in your routine work?

Accounting is all about playing with numbers, signs, and symbols. Error and mistakes are very common in this field.

But a little mistake can lead to big financial trouble. So, when you are going to respond to this most tricky accounting interview question then you don’t have to say that errors never happened on your watch. Never say that you are not superhuman.

Instead, acknowledge error possibility but at the same time describe how you maintain high standards of your financial reporting by maintaining a culture and habit of checking and rechecking within your team. Tell them how you make check and balance a must-have task of your routine work activities.