1. Tell me more about this employer; e.g. industry, # of employees, and so on.
2. Describe a typical day in this role. What consumes your time?
3. Tell me more about your specific accounting responsibilities. For example, are you charged with payroll, A/R, A/P, inventory accounting, sales reporting, financial forecasting?
4. What outside agencies do you interact with? For example, do you work with an outsourced auditing firm? Accounting firm? Banking & finance legal team?
5. What in-house and SaaS accounting systems do you currently work with? Freshbooks? Quickbooks? Sage? NetSuite? Any others?
6. Do you prepare and manage balance sheets, income statements, short-term and long-term investments, fixed assets, shareholder’s equity, net income? What others?
7. Are you charged with negotiating and managing contracts with vendors, suppliers, and outsourced contractors? What are some of the largest vendor contracts you’ve negotiated and oversee? Any sizable negotiation savings worth mentioning?
8. Tell me about your staff management responsibilities in this position. How many direct and indirect reports do you oversee? What are their job roles and overall responsibilities?
9. Since joining the company, what have been your 5 most notable successes? Any successes with cutting costs? Reducing reliance on costly resources? Improving system performance? Boosting cash flow? Reducing outstanding receivables?
10. Have you participated in any audits within this role? Any notable audit results worth mentioning?
Keywords Relevant to Accounting Professionals
Accounting Information Systems
Accounts Payable
Accounts Receivable
Asset Management
Asset Purchase
Asset Allocation
Audit Controls
Audit Management
Bookkeeping
Budget Forecasting
Budget Planning
Capital Budgeting
Cash Flow Monitoring
Cash Flow Projections
Cash Management
Close Deadlines
Corporate Taxes
Cost Accounting
Cost Control
Cost Reduction
Cost/Benefit Analysis
Credit Card Reconciliations
Credit Policy Establishment
Credit & Collections
Data Mining
Debt (Re)Financing
Departmental Policies & Procedures
Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)
Equity Financing
Expense Control
Acquisition Feasibility Analysis
Financial Analysis
Financial Audits
Financial Controls
Financial Data Management
Financial Due Diligence
Financial Forecasting
Financial Models
Financial Planning
Financial Reporting
Financial Statements
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) (relevant only to companies NOT operating on a cash basis)
General Ledger
Governmental Accounting
Initial Public Offering (IPO)
Internal Controls
International Financial Reporting
International Finance
Inventory Monitoring
Investment Consulting
Investment Management
Investor Accounting
Investor Relations
Job Costing
Journal Entries
Letters of Credit
Leveraged Buy-Out (LBO)
Liability Management
Make/Buy Analysis
Margin Improvement
Mergers & Acquisitions
Monthly Reconciliations
Payroll Processing
Payroll Deductions
Payroll Tax Calculations
Profit/Loss (P&L) Analysis
Profit Gains
Project Accounting
Project Financing
Regulatory Compliance Auditing
Regulatory & Financial Reporting
Regulatory Filings
Return on Assets (ROA)
Return on Equity (ROE)
Return on Investment (ROI)
Revenue Gain
Risk Management
Sales & Revenue Reporting
Shareholder Relations
SOX Compliance (relevant only to publically traded [not privately owned] companies)
SOX Controls
Standard Accounting Practices
Stock Purchasing
Tax Obligations
Accounts Payable
Accounts Receivable
Asset Management
Assets
Audit/Auditing/Audit Controls
Balance Sheet
Benefits Administration
Billing
Budget/Budgeting/Budget Control
Business Plan
Buyout
Capital Budget
Cash Flow
Cash Management
Chart of Accounts
Collections
Compliance
Contract Management
Corporate Governance
Corporate Treasury
Cost Accounting
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)
Cost Reduction/Avoidance
Credit Management
Debt Management
Debt Refinancing
Depreciation/Accelerated Depreciation
Due Diligence
EBIT/EBITDA
Equity Underwriting
Expenditures
Expense Analysis
Financial Analysis/Modeling/Planning
Financial Statements
Fixed Assets
Fixed Cost
GAAP
General Accounting
General Ledger
Globalization
Initial Public Offering (IPO)
Internal Controls
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
Inventory Control
Inventory Management
Investment Analysis/Management
Investment Finance
Investor Relations
Loan Administration
Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)
P&L Analysis
P&L Statement
Payroll Administration
Policy Development/Administration
Procedures
Process Improvement
Process/Processing
Purchase Accounting
Quarterly/Year-End Reporting
Reconciliations
Regulation Compliance
Relationship Management
Risk Management
ROE/ROI/ROA
Sarbanes Oxley (SOX)
Tax Accounting
Taxation
Technology
Transaction
Treasury
Trend Analysis
Underwriting
Variance Analysis
Venture Capital
