The 10 stages of growth in an accountant's career – an indicative list for all segments of society
Fresher
Degree in accounting
B Com, B Sc Accounting, Etc
Office-boy
Filing of accounting information
Preparation of lists
Counter Staff
Voucher preparation (sales bills, receipts, etc)
Preparation of daily summary reports
Data Entry Clerk
Transactional data entry as per clear instructions or guidelines
Entering indicated fields from a voucher to a software
Cannot understand why the source information is entered in the particular field in the software, but transfers data without errors
Accountant
Enter vouchers in an accounting system without errors
Can determine which account will be affected by each transaction
Accurately posts to the correct ledger all sales, receipts, purchases, payments, expenses, credit notes, debit notes and 50% of journal vouchers that are generated during the year in an organisation
Senior Accountant
Can identify the completion of transactions
Can report on anomalies and repair them by third party communication
Can reconcile (a) sales and receipts for receivables or customers, (b) purchases or expenses and payments for payables or suppliers, (c) receipts and payments for banks and (d) balancing of other accounts
Can perform routine reporting to managers, but not to CEO or MD
Cannot design systems at this stage
Chief Accountant
Ledger accounts creation under proper grouping
Prepare an ideal accounting structure to suit any business model
Design a filing structure for the records of any organisation
Prepare or design voucher formats by selecting the fields of information required to be captured to suit business intelligence needs
Carry out a ratio analysis of the information generated by accountants
Cannot utilise available information for decision-making at this stage
Assistant Finance Manager
Post graduate or Graduate with several years of experience
Costing / Budgeting / Forecasting / Planning
Communication with management and third parties (customers, suppliers, bankers, government)
Implement decisions by coordinating with various departments in the organisation (but not engage in framing those decisions as this will be done by managers)
The activities at this stage are limited to what goes on within the organisation and information of external factors is not considered for decision-making
Finance Manager
Projections / Analysis / Policy Making / Advice
Part of Senior Management of the Organisation
Auditor / Analyst
Lend expertise to multiple organisations simultaneously
Have an Industry-wide / Global / Regional perspective and use that knowledge to enhance the decision-making for longer terms
