An accountant is someone who has an important role in managing a company’s accounting and finances, so it is necessary to have hard skills and soft skills .
Through these hard skills and soft skills , accountants can fulfill their responsibilities and obligations well.
In order to support an effective and efficient accounting system, high human resources are also needed, so that an accountant’s hard skills and soft skills must be improved properly.
So that you can understand these skills and abilities well, Today we will discuss them for you.
What Accounting Hard Skills Are
In general, hard skills refer to technical skills or abilities needed to support a job.
Usually hard skills are the main component that determines whether you can bear the responsibilities and obligations of the job.
The higher the quality of your skills, the greater the benefits the company will give you because they also rate you highly.
Examples of Hard Skills that Accountants Must Have
So, what are some examples of hard skills that an accountant often needs to be successful?
Usually this is related to how you can record transactions neatly and prepare good financial reports.
In addition to practices regarding recording and preparation, hard skills are also related to knowledge in terms of basic taxation and basic calculations in accounting.
Becoming a successful accountant also requires having general hard skills , such as business process and project management .
1. Recording Financial Transactions
The first hard skill that is mandatory for accountants to have is the ability to record incoming and outgoing financial transactions in detail, accurately and neatly.
This is important because it will be the basic foundation in creating transaction journals, posting to the general ledger, and preparing financial reports.
Furthermore, an accountant must be observant in collecting various transaction evidence and testing its validity effectively.
2. Preparation of Financial Reports
Furthermore, skills that are no less important are understanding and techniques in preparing financial reports.
This is the most core hard skill component for an accountant because their daily work will involve a lot of financial report management.
You can start by understanding the types of financial reports created by companies, such as cash flow statements, profit and loss statements, balance sheets, year-end reports, and consolidated financial statements.
You can understand more about the types of financial reports that companies need, starting from their format, standardization of their preparation, to the flow of their preparation.
3. Taxation Knowledge
Financial reports are also closely related to the tax components listed therein.
Understand some of the basic tax rules that are often included in financial statements.
This can help in managing taxes in the current period to the future periods.
4. Basic Accounting Calculations
Basic accounting calculations refer to various calculations to describe a company’s debts, assets, and capital.
Understanding basic accounting calculations and analyzing them well is essential to maintaining a balance between cash income and expenses.
Later, this can serve to validate whether the financial recording process is accurate or not.
5. Financial Performance Analysis
Finally, an accountant must also be able to analyze the company’s financial performance between periods comprehensively.
Through this assessment, the company gains in-depth insight and can later be used as a reference for strategies in the next period.
Not only will it be used internally, this data is also often used as a consideration for investors to determine their steps in investing in the company.
What is Accounting Soft Skills ?
Soft skills are personality traits, personal attributes, or even habits that can act as supporting abilities in the scope of work.
Soft skills are also closely related to emotional intelligence or behavioral skills which may be needed in certain conditions.
For example, when in a sudden and emergency work situation. An accountant must remain calm and maintain focus so that there is no risk of errors that can cause errors in recording or preparing financial reports.
Other examples of soft skills needed by an accountant include interpersonal communication, integrity, problem-solving , and conflict resolution.
Examples of Soft Skills that Accountants Must Have
Some soft skills that can support the work of an accountant well include:
1. Have integrity
Having high integrity is very helpful in maintaining the professionalism of an accountant.
This relates to fulfilling one’s responsibilities well, being honest, and accepting all constructive criticism.
If you maintain this trait well throughout your career, of course it will have a big impact on increasing your confidence in your work.
2. Problem Solving
Problem solving skills mean you can define and solve various problems with the right decisions.
Having these soft skills is certainly very helpful in accounting because in practice there is a high risk of human error .
So that when an accountant finds a problem or obstacle during the process of recording, compiling and reporting financial data, they can resolve it well.
3. Conflict Resolution
Finally, there is the ability of an accountant to apply conflict resolution. This means that accountants can solve problems where conflict exists and resolve them cooperatively and wisely.
This is important because the financial data managed by accountants is often related to the work of other divisions, such as the sales, marketing, and warehouse divisions.
Therefore, if a conflict occurs, someone is needed who maintains calm to be able to identify the problem, intervene between the various parties, and make an agreement between the conflicting parties.
Benefits of Skills in the World of Accounting
Having hard skills and soft skills can help an accountant to maximize work performance in his career.
Having high hard skills is very helpful in managing various accounting practices such as recording, compiling, and forecasting well.
They can plan the implementation of management effectively and interpret various financial data accurately.
Moreover, they can prepare and report financial reports transparently and comprehensively.
On the other hand, having soft skills also helps increase client and public trust in an accountant’s work.
This can be done thanks to an accountant who has succeeded in building effective communication with clients, is honest, and can fulfill his obligations well.
Tips for Developing Accounting Soft Skills and Hard Skills
You can develop various hard and soft skills through daily activities or by opening up new skill insights through certification or courses.
1. Understand Yourself
The first thing that is the basis for steps to develop self-skills is to “understand yourself” first.
This is important because if you start to improve your skills without knowing your own abilities and needs, it will certainly be ineffective.
First, map out what shortcomings you feel, the skills you want to improve, the goals you want to achieve, and the steps to achieve them.
2. Access Skill-Relevant Insights
Once you are able to map out the skill points you want to improve, you can start developing them by accessing places that have that insight.
You can try taking an accounting certification course to comprehensively understand the various hard skills and soft skills that accountants need in the professional world through experts.
There are several accounting certifications that can be taken by prospective accountants, such as Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Sharia Accounting Certificate (SAS), or Tax Consultant.
However, if you just want to learn it autodidactically, there is a lot of information that you can access on the internet for free but is still reliable.
3. Applying it to the real world of work
You can also learn it directly and practically in the real world of work.
In general, everyone who works also continues to improve their hard skills and soft skills through the work they do, whether routine or situational.
If you think you have the skills to do a new task, you can dare to ask your team leader.
Of course they will also be cooperative in helping to improve your skills as an accountant.