Accounting contains various areas – © Friedberg / stock.adobe.com[/caption] Accounting is an important part of the company organization. It analyzes and documents all business transactions of a company within a fiscal year for internal and external purposes. Thus, accounting forms the basis for the annual financial statements and can be used for accountability purposes for their accuracy.
Depending on the size of the company, accounting can be very complex. While in small companies the complete accounting is often in one hand, in large companies it is done by different accountants:
- Financial accountant
– Accounts receivable accountant
– Accounts payable clerk
– Asset accountant - Payroll accountant
- Balance sheet accountant
By the way: Bookkeeper is not a protected job title, as it is not an apprenticed profession. In fact, anyone who has learned a commercial profession and works in the corresponding field can call themselves an accountant.
Financial accountants record income and expenses in the company
As part of the accounting department, financial accounting forms the basis for external accounting and internal accounting. The financial accountant records all business transactions and posts them to the appropriate accounts in accordance with the GoB rules. These business transactions include incoming invoices, outgoing invoices and other payment documents.
Depending on the size and structure of the business, a financial accountant performs duties in these areas of accounting:
- Accounts receivable
- Accounts payable
- Asset accounting
In very large companies, different accountants are responsible for completing tasks in different areas:
" Accounts receivable accountant
Accounts receivable accounting includes the management of receivables and credit notes as well as the realization of accounts receivable. An accounts receivable accountant monitors all payments received via the bank and cash register, prepares outgoing invoices as well as reminders of payment arrears and agrees payment and credit terms with customers. In addition, you enter outgoing invoices in the accounts, post incoming payments and clarify payment differences.
In summary, these are the tasks for an accounts receivable accountant:
- Create outgoing invoices
- Posting outgoing invoices and incoming payments and assigning them to accounts
- Dunning and receivables management
- Create credit memos
- Clarification and reconciliation of accounts
"Accounts payable clerk
Unlike accounts receivable, accounts payable deals with receivables from suppliers and service providers. In addition to posting and account assignment, the tasks of an accounts payable clerk also include checking incoming invoices for accuracy. In detail, this results in the following tasks, for example:
- Control, account assignment and posting of incoming invoices
- Process travel expense reports
- Process and post credit card statements and office cash registers
- Entering and initiating outgoing payments
- Assists in the preparation of monthly, semi-annual and annual financial statements
- Advance sales tax return to the tax office
"Asset accountant
Asset accounting deals with the assets in the company. This includes, for example, company cars, furniture, buildings and land, company hardware (z.B. Computer, business cell phone, laptop) and software programs. Asset accountants value every newly acquired asset according to balance sheet aspects and according to the depreciation period. In addition, their duties include auditing, posting and account assignment of fixed assets as well as regular fixed asset inventories.
Payroll accountants process personnel costs
Payroll accounting is the interface between companies, employees, health insurance companies and authorities. The payroll accountant manages the remuneration of employees in the company. This results in various tasks:
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- Prepare, run, and follow up on payroll
- Reporting and certification
- Prepare and supervise payroll tax and social security audits
- Registration and certification social security
- Maintain master data
- handle and manage company pension plans
- Process additions and departures of employees
- Contact for employees, health insurance companies and authorities
Depending on the organization and size of the company, a payroll clerk's duties may also include issuing employment contracts, notices of termination, warnings and references, as well as formulating and publishing job advertisements.
Accountant
Before we get to the tasks of a balance accountant, one thing first: Unlike other accountants, the balance accountant is a publicly recognized qualification – provided you have completed further training to become a balance accountant and successfully completed this with an examination before the IHK.
In the balance sheet accounting, the figures of all subareas come together in the annual financial statement. In this way, it makes the decisive statement about the success of the company and shows how the figures are made up in detail. The duties of an accountant are extremely complex. Because with the preparation of financial statements his work area does not end by far. He determines important key figures from the balance sheets, which serve as a basis for business management decisions. He develops profitability plans and liquidity plans and works closely with credit institutions and investors. So the accountant is involved in important decision-making processes in the company. It also organizes accounting department operations and takes responsibility for employees.
To illustrate how diverse the scope of duties of the accountant is, here is an overview of his responsibilities in the company:
- Organize accounting processes
- prepare monthly and annual financial statements according to the Commercial Code
- Balance sheets according to tax law
- Create statistics and evaluations
- Accruals, deferrals and account reconciliation
- Responsibility for all income and expenses, revenues and costs
- Reporting of the monthly financial statements
- Cooperation in liquidity planning, budget planning, cost center calculations, profit and loss calculations, calculations, strategic planning
- Reporting to banks and investors
- first point of contact for tax authorities, auditors, tax advisors and banks
- Accompanying audits by the tax authorities
- Prepare investment decisions by comparing financing options
- professional contact person for colleagues in accounting and other departments
- further develop internal processes and systems, z.B. Booking guidelines, training for employees in other departments
- Tax returns (for sales tax, payroll tax, income tax and corporate tax)