If you have an eye for numbers and the ability to interpret them, you may be the perfect candidate for an accounting analyst job. These professionals analyze data to find ways to increase profits and reduce risk.

This career requires an extensive knowledge of finance, taxation and legal compliance. It also requires a bachelor’s degree in accounting or a related field.

Preparation of Financial Reports

Preparing financial reports is a major part of an accounting analyst’s job. These reports include balance sheets, cash flow statements, journal entries and other financial documents.

The Accounting Analyst is tasked with preparing and reviewing these documents to ensure accuracy. This involves performing statistical analyses of data, making sense of complex financial information and presenting it in a meaningful way to management and other personnel.

As a part of this role, the Accounting Analyst may also be tasked with the responsibility of compiling and submitting required financial reports in support of regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and other external agencies. This is achieved by analyzing, reviewing and approving financial information received through the internal corporate reporting process or from other team members in preparation for inclusion in these nonpublic reports.

Financial Auditing

Financial auditing is the process of examining an organization’s accounting records and statements to see if they are accurate and follow the company’s acceptable accounting standards. This helps ensure that lenders and investors can rely on the information in the company’s statements.

The auditing process includes four phases: planning, setting internal controls, testing, and reporting. Each phase is aimed at increasing the reliability of financial data to give management a clear picture of the business’s current financial status and help them make informed decisions.

Financial auditing is a valuable service for companies and organizations, especially when applying for government grants or seeking loans. It can also help a company win a tender in the public or private sector and give potential buyers a better understanding of the business’s financial state.

Preparation of Financial Statements

The preparation of financial statements is one of the most important responsibilities of an accounting analyst. These documents provide a window into a company’s financial health that can be difficult to gauge using other methods.

The balance sheet is the most basic of these documents and displays the total value of a company’s assets and liabilities at a particular time period. Ideally, the amount of assets should be equal to the total amount of liabilities, showing that a business has sufficient resources to pay its debts.

Similarly, the income statement shows an entity’s profit or loss for a specific period. It also includes operating costs and overheads, which can be used to help track how a change in strategy or policy affects profits.

These statements can be issued to investors, tax authorities, or other significant partners who request them for external reporting purposes. They are normally prepared annually but can be produced quarterly in some cases to ensure consistency and comparability among different companies.

Financial Analysis

Accounting analysts use their expertise to help companies and their clients make wise financial decisions. They research economic trends, analyze current and historical financial data, and forecast future market performance.

A financial analyst can work for banks, insurance firms, investment firms and pension funds. They evaluate the financial stability of companies, prepare reports and meet with company heads to discuss their findings and make strategic recommendations.

One way that analysts assess the value of a business is through fundamental analysis, which uses ratios and data within a company’s financial statements to determine whether the security is overvalued or undervalued. They also perform top-down and bottom-up financial analysis, using a top-down approach to analyze a company’s overall financial health, then conducting a ratio analysis to identify microeconomic factors such as products and services offered, supply and demand, and other indicators of corporate performance over time.