Introduction
Accounting is essential for running a business and keeping track of the profits, losses, earnings, expenditures, liabilities, and assets of an organization. It helps the investors, stakeholders, and managers to evaluate the financial position of a company. An accountant performs all these accounting tasks and delivers financial information to different users for decision-making. An accountant provides statistics in the form of balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements. Hiring a qualified accountant for your business is essential to perform all the accounting tasks effectively.
An interview is an essential part of hiring an accountant or any employee for your business. It helps in selecting the candidate most suitable for the job. So, a pre-planned and well-organized interview will help you chose the right accountant for your business. It also helps the employer assess whether an applicant would likely fit in with the corporate culture.
After reading this article, you will learn how to interview an accountant for your business or five interview questions for accountants.
How to interview an accountant for your business?
Interviewing the accountant involves asking questions related to accounting concepts, accounting problems, up-to-date accounting trends, etc. It includes analyzing the competency-based and situational approaches of the candidate. Below are a few questions that you must ask if you do not know how to interview an accountant for your business.
Ask about the current accounting laws
A professional accountant is one who keeps himself up-to-date with the current accounting laws and regulations. So, asking an accountant about the current accounting trends will give you an idea about the candidate, whether he’s informed about the latest developments in accounting or not. Also, ask how they keep themselves informed about these trends.
Does the candidate have experience in the specific position being offered or not?
Ask the accountant you are interviewing about his or her experience in the relevant field with your type of business. An experienced accountant understands how to design charts of accounts for a startup business, tools to support a startup business, comprehension of cash inflow and outflow analysis, inventory management. If the accountant doesn’t have the experience required for your job post, they might not be a good fit.
What services do they provide?
Accountants are helpful for several reasons such as bookkeeping, bill payment, receipt management, invoicing, waterfall charts, financial projections & modeling, budgeting, etc. Accountants love to discuss a wide range of services they offer. So, don’t hesitate to ask what services they do offer, and more importantly, what they will not provide on your behalf.
Methods of accounting and software they use & are familiar with
A business has a preexisting set of tools designed to perform accounting tasks. The accountant you are interviewing should know and understand these tools and software. So, it is vital to confirm that the accountant you want to hire is familiar with these tools, but also if he or she is experienced enough to provide you with guidance on the best tools for your business.
Validating the experience by presenting a real-time scenario
The interviewer needs to be sure that the accountant being interviewed knows exactly what he or she is saying. To validate the interviewee’s words, present a few real-life scenarios you have encountered in your business accounting and see how they describe the process or solution.
