8 Ways To Improve Your Accounting Skills

Accountancy is a core part of business. Whether startup or conglomerate, businesses rely on accounting skills to keep the cash flowing, books balanced, and everyone paid. Even in tough economic times, good accountants' finance ideas help businesses locate savings and stay afloat.

Whatever stage of your accounting career, you never stop improving your skills. Your business or accountancy degree will help you land a solid job as a financial or cost accountant. Credentials like CPA or an MBA are great, of course. But if further studies are not an option, you can still develop other essential skills to help you stand out.

As a financial accountant, math and numbers are your comfort zone. So it may surprise you to learn that the higher you go the more your accounting skills must go beyond numbers. Many Filipinos have benefited from accounting jobs outsourced to the country. But that goes both ways: if our accounting skills stay basic, the jobs can always migrate to the next country with even lower salary costs.

Here are some ways to build on your foundation and keep your accounting skills sharp.

1. Embrace technology. Learn how to re-learn.

Accounting concepts are solid, but the technology keeps evolving. Don't get attached to one platform. Make time to understand the major systems (SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle), business intelligence tools (Cognos, Crystal Reports), and now, the emerging technology of blockchain. Technology keeps moving. If you learn how to re-learn, you won't be left behind.

2. Skill up in data and analytics.

Accountants are used to seeing the patterns in numbers, but today's analytics are on another level. The growth of computing power means that huge volumes of financial data can be aggregated in different ways to squeeze out the knowledge inside. The computers crunch the numbers, but you must ask the right questions and correctly interpret the answers.

Even if you're not interested in a highly technical data science career, accounting skills updated with analytics are already in demand. Luna Academy partnered with JobStreet to create this Excel-based short course, which you can take as a good intro. If this catches your interest, more extensive online courses, including Luna Academy's own full data analysis track, can help.

Also read: How Filipino Employees Want to Learn Post-Pandemic

3. Add value through critical thinking and business sense.

A good accountant is more than a spreadsheet ninja. Ultimately, clients expect you to solve problems, make policies, and connect the spreadsheets to major business issues. Based on the reports and data, what should the companydo? You learn this skill not in books, but on the job. Look for extra projects that may be outside your starting job description -- and your eight hours -- but pay off in new skills, mentors or ways of thinking. That's what makes a CFO, and it cannot be automated.

4. Communication is an accounting skill.

Forget the introvert stereotype. Even the best spreadsheet can't introduce itself. Your spoken presentations and written reports explain your figures to non-accountants. Do speaking or writing make you anxious? Join a club like Toastmasters or take business writing classes. With more practice, you'll gain confidence and feel at ease communicating your thoughts. When your presentation comes, do several dry runs for your content and your equipment.

5. Show you can collaborate.

The myth of the lone wolf is just that -- a myth. Significant projects require teams, and people are harder to read than spreadsheets. But collaboration is more than "pakikisama" and popularity. It means you find the most efficient use of people and time for a project. You work well with different kinds of people, see others' point of view and help them see yours. Prove you're a team player so you can be a team leader.

6. Change? Be adaptable, not anxious.

Pivot is more than an Excel command, it's a survival skill. Tax laws, regulations and reporting requirements can change quickly. Your team could be dissolved or your company acquired. Stay on top of contacts and industry movements. Be alert for new ways to apply your accounting skills.

7. Seek out a broad range of experiences early in your career.

Don't settle too long in your first role. Accounting has many different aspects : bookkeeping, financial reporting, internal auditing, taxation, compliance. Gain experience in a few of these, or on teams handling clients from different industries. The wider your exposure, the wider your options -- and your professional network. Even within the same company, speak to your boss to request changes in your job profile, team or clients at least every two years.

8. ... then specialize in a sector or industry.

Once you've tried a range of aspects, choose one to focus on. As with doctors or lawyers, you need specialized knowledge and accounting skills to reach the next level. Visit the website of any Big 4 accounting firm, and you will see lines of practice: healthcare, technology, etc. These are the new industries that need complex accounting solutions. Pick your long-term interest and focus on the leading employers in your city or region.

Now that you know about the need for these skills, what next? Keep them in mind for future career planning. If your work does not provide learning opportunities, invest the extra WFH time and money to upgrade your accounting skills with the best online courses you can afford.

As you improve your accounting skills to qualify for #JobsThatMatter, make sure your Jobstreet profile keeps up! Remember you can always search jobs and visit Career Advice for tips, insights and courses to make your application stand out.