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Professional accounting or taxation technician

Professional accounting or taxation technician

Level 4 - Higher Technical Occupation

Working as an accountant or bookkeeper for an accounting practice, business, organisations or HMRC.

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Summary

This occupation is found in organisations of all sizes whether small, medium, large or global. This occupation is present in public, private, and third sector organisations.

Professional accounting technicians may work in the accounts or finance department of an organisation or a professional accountancy firm.

The broad purpose of the Professional accounting technician is to prepare, co-ordinate and implement accounting tasks that support the creation of financial statements. 

Professional accounting technicians apply their technical knowledge and skills to specific tasks within an accounting  team. Tasks may include supervising assistant accountants and others to deliver processes. They may also assist senior accountants, management and other stakeholders by providing timely financial data and reports.  They ensure compliance with internal controls. This may include tasks that involve interactions with His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), applying legislation and complying with regulations, ethical and professional codes.

In their daily work, an employee in this occupation interacts with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders. This could include junior colleagues, senior managers, clients and customers, suppliers, lenders, government agencies and auditors. They take a risk-based view of transactions and data to identify key risks and help to mitigate those risks. A typical day could include being in an office overseeing data entry, control account reconciliations and monthly, quarterly, yearly reporting.  They may be involved in researching and resolving accounting problems. It is essential that people in this occupation are comfortable using digital tools and keeping up to date with changes in the occupation.

A Professional accounting technician will work alone as well as in, or supervising, a team. 

An employee in this occupation will be responsible for quality assuring financial statements. They provide key reliable accounting data on a day-to-day basis.  

Typical job titles include:

Accountant
Accounts payable and expenses supervisor
Assistant auditor
Assistant financial accountant
Assistant management accountant
Commercial analyst
Finance adviser
Junior analyst

Keywords:

Accountancy
Accounting
Audit
Auditing
Book Keeping
Bookkeeping
Fraud

Knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs)

K1: The principles of professional ethics and codes of conduct in an accounting environment including approaches to interpreting ethics in complex situations.
K2: Professional standards and legal regulations relevant to an organisation’s financial information such as accounting standards, ethical codes and internal principles.
K3: The wider financial and accounting professional landscape including the role of accountancy, the requirement to stay abreast of changes in accounting technology and practice and awareness of the role of regulators and professional bodies.
K4: Principles of double entry bookkeeping and accounting standards to create and report financial information to the users of accounts.
K5: Principles of financial accounting for a range of single entities. For example, sole traders, limited companies or partnerships, adjustment and reporting including standard year end journal entries and the correction of errors.
K6: Principles of management accounting for example, the purpose of management accounting, budgetary planning and control, costing, decision making.
K7: Principles of interpretation of financial information for management accounts preparation or the drafting of financial statements, such as ratio analysis.
K8: Systems of risk management and financial control, and identification of potential vulnerabilities that could lead to issues such as internal fraud or money laundering.
K9: Principles of data analysis, data security and cyber security to support collation, analysis and compliant handling of data and working safely online in an accounting context.
K10: The nature and importance of key climate, environmental and emerging sustainability challenges and their impact on service delivery in accountancy, such as sustainable business practices, risk, government regulation, and the benefits of economic sustainability for stakeholders.
K11: The impact of equality, diversity and inclusion on service delivery within accountancy, for example enhancing organisational reputation with customers, investors, and staff, improving business performance, and growth.

S1: Collate and analyse financial information, and show how that information can be used most effectively to support value creation within an organisation.
S2: Apply accounting principles and adhere to legislation to ensure records are accurate and compliant with law or company policy when delivering accounting activities, such as the financial accounting of single entities, limited companies or partnerships or management accounting activities for an organisation.
S3: Apply professional scepticism when undertaking accounting activities to inform and evaluate decision making on the content of true and fair accounts, being alert to conditions that may indicate possible misstatement of financial information due to error or fraud, establishing the facts sensitively and being aware of unconscious bias.
S4: Interpret financial information for accounting purposes, such as using judgement to determine the correct way to report or account for transaction or undertaking ratio analysis.
S5: Participate in or support others with quality improvement activities, for example the improvement of personal working practices.
S6: Use software packages to assist with accounting tasks in line with cyber and data security requirements, using data securely and safely, including backing up data.
S7: Deliver accounting tasks with a critical eye to transactions and trends, demonstrating a ‘right first time approach’.
S8: Use workload management principles to plan, organise and prioritise own tasks, and manage time effectively.
S9: Use accounting information to add value to the organisation through use of data visualisations, analysis and interpretation, and communicate financial information in a way that facilitates understanding for non-finance stakeholders.
S10: Communicate accounting information through a variety of media to enable key stakeholders to understand what is required, considering the risks and benefits to the organisation of social media and other digital applications.
S11: Build and maintain collaborative, professional relationships with internal and external stakeholders to deliver accounting tasks, recognising the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion.

B1: Actively engages in the wider business and provides information that contributes to influencing business decisions.
B2: Applies a transparent, objective and sustainable manner to meet the ethical requirements of the profession and actively encourages this behaviour with colleagues in their team.
B3: Committed approach to personal wellbeing and has an awareness of support and resources available.
B4: Works collaboratively with others, contributing to cultivating an open, honest, and empathetic work environment, and actively encourages this behaviour with colleagues in their team.
B5: Adaptable and accepts changing priorities and working requirements to enable self and colleagues the flexibility to maintain high standards in a changing environment.
B6: Reflects on own practice and seeks learning opportunities for continuous professional development.

Duties

Duty D1

Prepare and maintain timely and accurate financial reporting for example, audit documentation or control account reconciliation often to tight deadlines.

Duty D2

Co-ordinate accounting and finance input from colleagues and peers.

Duty D3

Apply professional scepticism to identify and evaluate what information is missing or incomplete and takes steps to obtain it.

Duty D4

Help to identify key accounting risks and assist in implementing design strategies to mitigate them.

Duty D5

Communicate and present accurate and timely data to stakeholders, on an ad hoc and regular basis, using an appropriate channel to meet deadlines.

Duty D6

Use financial digital and technology systems and processes to support the delivery of accurate and timely financial and accounting information.

Duty D7

Deliver accounting activities taking account of confidentiality, reputational risks and data security.

Duty D8

Undertake Continuous Professional Development by keeping up to date with relevant statutory obligations and procedural best practice.

Duty D9

Collaborate with people both internally and, or, externally at appropriate levels with a view to deliver a service that meets customer’s needs with a commitment to professional and ethical standards, for example, professional code of conduct and duty of confidentiality as appropriate.

Duty D10

Consult stakeholders to inform important business decisions and make recommendations to key stakeholders.

Duty D11

Undertake monthly and year end reporting of financial and accounts information. This will include the timely collation of data from a range of sources, including both predictable routine finance and accounting data requirements and unexpected requirements.

Duty D12

Complete and maintain financial and accounting records including the timely collation of routine and specialised data from a range of sources. For example, different functions within one organisation, or a range of external clients if operating in practice.