Challenging Accounting Jobs

Financial Accounting is the field of accountancy concerned with the preparation of financial statements for the use of external users, not involved in the day-to-day decision-making – banks, investors, shareholders, employees, regulators, and suppliers. Since different users have different information needs, the accounting information needs to be structured accordingly. Therefore, the financial statements are subject to regulations, unlike the information extracted by the management accounting. The financial statements show the summarized financial data in nominal monetary units, taken from the bookkeepers’ accounting records, and presented to the external users at the end of a particular time period – monthly, quarterly, or on an annual basis, depending on the company’s size, politics, and the law regulations.

The management accounting job aims at creating and analyzing information for in-house purposes. The information is used by the company’s management body in order to understand and evaluate the processes and outcomes much better, thus influencing the decision-making, planning, and controlling processes. What makes the management accounting different is the fact that it is future oriented. Although it relies on information from the past, it aims to give insights on the future. The results are usually confidential, used only by the internal management, instead of being publicly reported.

The Fund Accounting job emphasizes on accountability. As the collective investment schemes – funds – are a specific and complicated investment alternative, the goal of fund accountants is to demonstrate the accountability and stewardship of the fund, deterring its financial condition. Within fund accounting, unlike corporate accounting, it is more important to track how the organization is spending money, rather than how it earns it.
Fund accounting jobs are related to calculating, analyzing and reporting Net Asset Values (NAVs) and Yields, while adhering to policies, procedures, and regulatory guidelines (such as GAAP, HGB, IFRS, etc.). The preparation of annual, quarterly, and monthly statements and reports is also part of their responsibilities, as well as providing business relationship support, process improvement, and cash reconciliation.
Experience in public accounting and auditing is what usually makes a successful candidate, if one does not already have some investment or fund accounting background. Such experience, combined with accounting and audit qualifications (CIA, ACCA, etc.), or Tax advisory (Steuerberater) exam, is what makes candidates invaluable for companies.

The controlling professionals are usually the chief accounting officers of a company, leading the accounting department. Their main job is to control the accounting process of the company – from the financial statements through budgeting, to tax compliance, payrolls, and so on. Being the department’s supervisor, the controlling professional needs to ensure that everything is in accordance with the regulatory and accounting standards, appropriate for the organizational structure, and adequate for achieving the department’s goals. The controlling accounting job is related to the issuing of financial statements and annual reports, preparation of budgets and forecasts, and conducting of financial analysis as well.