Having a strong sense of ethics is very important in the world of bookkeeping. You should be able to draw the line between what is ethically right and what is ethically wrong in the blink of an eye. That is the very objective behind this bookkeeping interview question.
- Reach qualified candidates and get to the interview stage faster with a free job posting on Monster.
- For multiple-choice and true/false questions, simply press or click on what you think is the correct answer.
- The solutions you present to the interviewer will label you as a solution-oriented person who isn’t easily deterred by such challenges.
- To ease your candidate’s nerves, start off the interview with these general bookkeeper interview questions to get them talking about themselves.
With NetSuite, you go live in a predictable timeframe — smart, stepped implementations begin with sales and span the entire customer lifecycle, so there’s continuity from sales to services to support. Employers ask this question to evaluate whether you are fully aware of your skill sets or not. Answer by describing your top traits and the skills you picked up from your experience of working as a bookkeeper in the past. Talk them through the various software applications that you have worked on and how you worked your way through each software to understand the various ins and outs to deliver accurate results. After collecting sales tax from customers, remit it to your state or local government and record it in your books. If your business has a physical presence in a state that enforces sales tax, you must collect it from customers at the point of sale.
What, According to You, are the Key Skills Necessary to Become a Successful Bookkeeper?
Cash-basis accounting is the simplest way to manage your books. With cash-basis accounting, you only record transactions when you physically make or receive a payment. This is a single-entry accounting system, meaning you record each transaction once. Recording transactions by hand is the most inexpensive and time-consuming method. It also opens up your business to common accounting errors, such as miscalculating or failing to balance accounts, which can be costly. We’ll try to answer them (and more) by going over 18 common accounting questions and answers.
You can expect this question to come your way toward the end of the interview, as the interviewer wants to know if you’ve done your research on the company and its bookkeeping requirements. It is a question that aims at knowing whether you are genuinely interested in the available position and the company itself. Make sure to read through the job description and take a look at the company’s website before appearing for the interview. If there is anything you found hard to pick up on or did not understand, this is your chance to pose those questions to your interviewer.
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Receive instant access to our graded Quick Tests (more than 1,800 unique test questions) when you join AccountingCoach PRO. Business owners love Patriot’s award-winning payroll software. Treat funds from family and friends seriously by creating a contract and payment plan (friends and family are worth their weight in gold, but only if you pay back borrowed funds!). Crowdfunding is a financing method where you ask for investments or donations, generally from a large group of people.
Try our payroll software in a free, no-obligation 30-day trial. You can shop around for different vendors to find better deals on supplies, inventory, and equipment. Or, you could look for expenses that you can reduce or cut out altogether.
Stay up to date on the latest accounting tips and training
But if you don’t stay on top of your accounting responsibilities, other entities (like the IRS or creditors) may step in and hit you with penalties. Bookkeeping is one of the essential functions of running a successful business. Whether it is a small business or a large multinational corporation, accurate bookkeeping is an absolute must for a business to operate in the legal space and sustain itself in the long term. For example, you’re a florist who purchases $500 worth of flowers from your supplier Fiona’s Flower Supply. You do not pay at the time of delivery, but receive an invoice for your debt of $500 that you have 90 days to pay. If you have difficulty answering the following questions, learn more about this topic by reading our Bookkeeping (Explanation).
- “Current Assets” are short-term assets that a company expects to use up or sell within a year, while “Fixed Assets” refers to long-term assets a company does not plan to use up or sell for some time.
- Your small business income, or profit and loss, statement summarizes your business’s profits and losses during an accounting period.
- They also work in tandem with accountants to produce financial statements and other reports.
An accounting assessment test gauges an individual’s knowledge of basic accounting information, often used to screen potential candidates for bookkeeping and lower-level accounting jobs. Take this short quiz to assess your knowledge of basic accounting. The 35 questions include many topics covered in a typical Accounting 101 class. Another aspect of being a bookkeeper is creating budgets and forecasting future expenses to help an employer or clients understand the inflow and the outflow of money from their accounts.
Can You Share an Instance Where You Had to Reconcile Conflicting Financial Information?
This question is asked to find out what strategies you adopt to stay on top of your work. Do thorough research on what are some of the best practices that are adopted by industry-leading professionals and mention your own practices that have made you stand out in your professional career. Recording financial transactions require a comprehensive understanding of the different accounting methods.
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You can use cash-basis, accrual, or modified cash-basis accounting to manage your books. If you enjoyed it, make sure to explain with a specific example of your time training someone new to the job and share your learnings and takeaways from it. If you do not possess experience training, make sure to mention that you are open to new experiences and opportunities that come your way. Talk about an instance where the completion of a project had to be fast-tracked due to changes in the client’s requirements and how you adapted to the changing scenario to deliver timely results. You need to ensure that your answer indicates that you’re capable of working under pressure. Employers ask this question to ensure that you meet their expectations when it comes to work ethic and how flexible you are with it.
