What Does A Junior Accountant Do? (With Helpful Job Skills)

Updated 23 February 2023

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A junior accountant maintains and compiles financial reports and statements according to the government rules, regulations and requirements. Typically, junior accountants hold an entry-level position in the accounting department of an accounting or auditing firm or government sector. If you want to become a junior accountant, you can prepare yourself by learning about balance sheets, financial statements and writing financial reports. In this article, we discuss what does a junior accountants do and explore the skills required to succeed in this job role.

What Does A Junior Accountant Do?

A junior accountant is an entry-level accounting job position where you prepare and analyse financial records. The organisation may assign you several duties, including data entry, file maintenance or help with compliance tasks. As a junior accountant, your duties may include:

Preparing and updating financial statements

As an entry-level accountant, your job may require you to work closely with accounting supervisors to prepare financial statements. A financial statement is a written record that contains the business activities and a company's economic performance. Junior accountants also review, examine and update financial statements to ensure they are accurate and convey the actual transactions of a company. Your job profile may require you to check the financial report for compliance with state and government laid rules and regulations.

Reconciling bank statements

As a junior accountant, you often reconcile bank statements or records and compare them with your bookkeeping records for the same period to identify any discrepancies between the two. Bookkeeping refers to tracking your organisation's financial transactions by entering recorded data into accounting software or a physical set of books. During reconciling the bank statements, if you find any errors or discrepancies, your job is to make a record to keep track of all the company's financial transactions. Junior accountants actively work to resolve those discrepancies to ensure a smooth accounting process.

Posting journal entries

A journal is a company's official book containing records of all the transactions made in chronological order. As a junior accountant, you perform financial data entry tasks such as posting expenses and revenues of accounts in the company's general journal. Posting journal entries today is easier with the help of accounting software than it was to post entries manually in a journal. These data entry tasks that you perform as a junior accountant demand great attention to detail, especially when managing journals with multiple accounts.

Documenting fixed assets

Junior accountants take responsibility for recording, updating and maintaining documentation of fixed assets in an organisation. In accounting, fixed assets denote assets and properties that you cannot easily convert to cash. As a junior accountant, you calculate the depreciation or decline in all fixed assets to reflect their reduced value over time and dispose of assets when they are no longer in use. Junior accountants also calculate asset requirement obligations (ARO) for those assets to which ARO applies. You may also conduct periodic physical counts to determine the number of fixed assets.

Assisting with compliance reporting

A junior accountant often checks and ensures that all the accounting procedures comply with state and government guidelines, policies and practices. As an entry-level accountant, you assist with preparing, reviewing, and filing financial reports to confirm compliance and avoid any discrepancies. Junior accountants report any inconsistencies with the organization's accounts or financial statements and work to resolve them, especially if the records documented violate government standards or requirements.

Communicating with vendors

Since junior accountants assist with managing accounts and updating the general journal, they are often responsible for communicating with vendors about billing issues. This role demands you to answer questions that the vendors may have and provide basic customer service. If you find any discrepancies in the billing procedure or financial transactions, you must communicate clearly with the vendors to ensure no such issues arise in future transactions.

How Much Does A Junior Accountant Make?

The average base salary of a junior accountant is ₹13,137 per month. As a junior accountant, your salary depends on various factors, such as your educational qualifications, credentials and job location. You may also earn a higher income if you work in big cities as the cost of living in metro cities is usually higher.

Some of the big cities in India where a junior accountant makes more than the average base salary are:

Noida, Uttar Pradesh: ₹14,854 per month
Delhi, India: ₹15,528 per month
Mumbai, Maharashtra: ₹14,748 per month
Bangalore, Karnataka: ₹15,480 per month
Gurgaon, Haryana: ₹16,166 per month

Skills Required To Become A Junior Accountant

Here are some skills that are essential if you want to become a junior accountant in India:

Mathematical skills

Junior accountants document all financial transactions of a company and their job requires good mathematical, statistical and accounting skills. Your knowledge of mathematics can help you perform your daily accounting tasks proficiently. Often, a junior accountant corrects financial mistakes and updates new figures and business data that demand immediate understanding. Having excellent mathematical skills ensures you avoid making basic calculation-related mistakes and carry out data entry operations smoothly.

Accounting skills

Junior accountants record financial transactions of an organisation and perform accounting operations, like receiving invoices and reconciling bank statements. A junior accountant can benefit from having excellent accounting skills to complete their assignments efficiently. Their job also involves maintaining and documenting accurate data and information, so having excellent accounting skills can help maintain their focus on the task at hand and enhance the productivity of the job without making errors. As a junior accountant, combining your technical accounting skills with great attention to detail can help you perform your duties with precision.

Time management skills

Junior accountants work on multiple projects and handle different accounts and transactions at a time. Their job role requires their complete focused action for them to complete the task on time. Good time management skills can equip junior accountants to prioritise their tasks based on urgency. Managing time well also enables them to avoid mistakes when a deadline is approaching, since they have adequately allocated time to fulfil their duties. This strategy can also help organise their work better and they can quickly identify which tasks demand their immediate attention.

Analytical skills

Accounting work demands careful analysis of data and strong attention to detail to accurately record and document business transactions. A junior accountant goes through many files and financial records to ensure that every detail is up-to-date. Having good analytical skills allows them to look for inconsistencies in filing or recording documentation. If you can glance at errors quickly and correct them after carefully analysing contradictory data, you can be more productive at your job and use your time wisely to complete your other duties. A sharp analysis of data can help you quickly perform data entry tasks.

Organisational skills

Junior accountants handle multiple projects and work with several clients at a time and multitask to meet deadlines. Good organisational skills can ensure that they complete their tasks on time to ensure that their documentation and financial reports meet the standard guidelines. If you can manage your time well, you can easily organise your workload without worrying about necessary paperwork and deadlines. Good organisational skills mean you can get more work done in less time. A junior accountant's efficiency depends on their ability to organise and prioritise tasks at hand to maintain maximum productivity.

Communication skills

To efficiently fulfil their job responsibilities, a junior accountant may possess excellent communication skills, as their job profile requires them to communicate with vendors and other business stakeholders frequently. Often, an accountant's client may not have a solid understanding of financial concepts and transactions, in which cases it may become essential for the accountant to explain these things to their clients. Communicating ideas clearly can help ensure no gaps in communication and meeting the client's goals effectively. As an accountant, you can practise patience when speaking as it positions you as an active listener.

Salary figures reflect data listed on Indeed Salaries at the time of writing. Salaries may vary depending on the hiring organisation and a candidate's experience, academic background and location.