Question Bank: Accounting

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Below, you will find questions divided into sub-categories for Accounting.

Accounts Payable

1. Describe a time when you implemented a change in accounting protocol or procedure that provided a commercial benefit to the organization you were working in?
2. How many invoices have you handled on a monthly basis?
3. Tell us about an invoice discrepancy that you discovered and how you resolved the discrepancy.
4. Tell us about an invoice dispute that you were involved in and what your role was in resolving the dispute.
5. Tell us about your experience in accounts payable.
6. Tell us what you do when someone gives you a payment?
7. What accounts payable applications are you familiar with?
8. What are the steps you go through to check your accounting work before submitting it? Give an example of this?
9. What items of information do you need before you can approve an invoice for payment?
10. What steps would you take before approving an invoice for payment?

Accounts Receivable

1. Tell us about a suggestion you have made as accounts receivable?
2. Tell us about your experience in accounts receivable.
3. To what extent were you involved in collections?
4. What are key tasks for accounts receivable?
5. What is the most recent skill you have learned that related to accounts receivable?
6. What made you choose to apply to accounts receivable?
7. What tertiary qualifications have you attained that related to accounts receivable?
8. When you are doing an analysis of your accounts, what should you actually look for?
9. Why do you think you would do well for accounts receivable?
10. You’ve been asked to prepare a bill for services. What information should be included in the bill?

Audits

1. A big part of this job will require you to influence people, as well as operations to achieve audit goals within budget. Tell me about your experience leading large, complex audits.
2. Auditors uncover information and as such require discretion and tact. Tells us more about a situation when you had to exercise your discretion on the sensitive issue.
3. Describe a situation where you noted internal control weaknesses and how you worked to resolve them.
4. Describe the time when you had to lead the corporate audit planning, risk assessment processes, and strategic planning?
5. Have you ever set up a course of action to accomplish a long-range goal or vision as an auditor? What was it and how did you set it up?
6. How do you identify priorities and allocate resources to complete the tasks?
7. How do you maintain your focus on detailed tasks?
8. How do you stay informed of what is going on in your area of responsibility as an auditor?
9. How would you handle an investigation of an accounting employee you trusted and respected for making improper journal entries and falsifying financial statements?
10. If you had to audit an area in which you had no experience, how would you gain the knowledge to plan and complete the audit?
11. Tell me about a situation where you detected a client/auditees needs and how you worked to meet those needs.
12. Tell me about a time when you discovered some small item or detail that helped identify a major audit or tax issue.
13. Tell me which college course required the most attention to detail. Please explain how you dealt with the demands of the class.
14. Tell us about a time when you had to work at a fast pace for a long period of time as an auditor. What kind of work was it? What did you do when you got tired?
15. Tell us about your experience in conducting audits.
16. Tell us a situation about how you handled an audit conflict
17. We are looking for someone who can improve our processes. What improvements into making in the audit process with your last employer?
18. What do you do to stay current on audit tools, techniques, and programs?
19. What kinds of companies have you audited? Which one was the most difficult for you? Why?
20. What skills do you have that would be helpful when conducting an audit?
21. What type of inventory audits have you been involved in? Describe challenges you’ve faced.
22. What types of problems have people asked you to solve as an auditor? How did you respond?
23. What types of writing have you done in your job as auditor? Can you give some examples?
24. What was the most complex risk assessment you have to complete?
25. What would you do if your independence as an auditor is being interfered with?
26. Why do you think you would do well for audit?
27. You are auditing a department where employees are unhelpful and consistently delay getting needed information to you. What would you do?
28. You will have to make presentations of audit results to management. What was the most difficult presentation you have to make?

Cost Accounting

1. Can you give an example of when you created a cost?
2. Describe some of the methods used to allocate support costs.
3. Describe some of the methods you used to allocate support costs.
4. Describe the components of an effective chargeback system.
5. Have you handled international accounts before?
6. Have you implemented or administered a chargeback system?
7. Tell me about any disputes you have amongst material costs for a particular project you worked on.
8. Tell me about your work as a cost accountant.
9. Tell me the information about cost sheets.
10. Tell me your most valuable lesson from cost accounting.
11. Tell us about your experience in cost accounting.
12. What are fixed costs?
13. What are variable costs?
14. What is a chargeback?
15. What is marginal cost?
16. What is the purpose of a chargeback?
17. What is your most valuable experience in cost accounting?
18. Why do you feel cost accounting is important in our business?

Fixed Assets

1. How do you measure the job performance of fixed asset positions?
2. What are the key tasks for a fixed asset clerk?
3. What experience have you had in fixed assets accounting?
4. What have you learned from your past jobs that related to fixed assets?
5. What made you choose to apply to the fixed asset position?
6. What tertiary qualifications have you attained that related to fixed assets?

General Ledger

1. What are the Various Interfaces Conversions that you have done?
2. What are the various Reports and Forms you have done?
3. What do you enjoy most about your general ledger accountant career?
4. What experience do you have with updating the general ledger of an organization?
5. What experience do you have with using information recorded in the general ledger of an organization?
6. What general ledger accountant qualifications and training do you have?
7. What general ledger accountant skills do you have?
8. What procedure do you use for testing after implementation as a functional consultant?
9. What qualities have you got that would make you a good General Ledger?

Most Popular Questions

1. Describe for me a time when you have come across questionable accounting practices. How did you handle the situation?
2. Describe some recent projects you were involved in to improve efficiency and effectiveness. What did you do?
3. Describe your most challenging encounter with month-end/year-end closing. How did you resolve the problem?
4. Describe your PL (profit/loss) experience.
5. Have you completed month-end/year-end closing? How much experience do you have with this?
6. Tell me about your knowledge of commissions accounting.
7. What experience have you had with tax accounting?

Payroll

1. A payroll administrator must be able to thrive under pressure. Due to the nature of the job, you will be required to meet deadlines within the payroll cycle. How do you manage job stress and pressures?
2. Based on IRS rules, what criteria distinguish a consultant from an employee?
3. Describe your experience with the administration of electronic timekeeping.
4. Due to the nature of the job, you will be required to meet deadlines within the payroll cycle. How do you manage job stress and pressures?
5. Have you set and reached your career goals as a payroll administrator? How?
6. How do you ensure and maintain employee confidentiality by protecting payroll operations?
7. How do you monitor your department’s productivity or performance as a payroll administrator? Give some examples.
8. How do you rate your experience of supervising the payroll system? How many payroll systems have you been accessed to date?
9. How do you stay organized to keep timely payroll processing?
10. How would you handle an upset employee whose pay is inaccurate?
11. In your day-to-day clerical duties, how do you resolve payroll discrepancies when collecting and analyzing information?
12. Please describe how you would handle an employee who fails to report time records before the payroll deadline.
13. Sometimes in payroll, a payroll clerk must handle irate employees due to a payroll error. Tell me about a time when you had to deal with an employee or contractor who was angry and even abusive to you. How did you handle this situation?
14. Suppose you became aware that a fellow payroll admin was accessing information that he or she was not authorized to do so. How would you handle the situation?
15. Tell us about a time when you had to deal with an employee or contractor who was angry and even abusive to you. How did you handle this situation?
16. Tell us about a time when your enthusiasm dropped after an especially long workday. When did it drop? What did you do?
17. Tell us about a time when you took disciplinary action against an employee. How did you decide what to do?
18. Tell us about the most complicated report you have to prepare related to personnel. For example, over time, these, headcount, retirement contribution, and so on.
19. Think about some times when your work was above standard and when it was below standard in our job as Payroll Administrator. Think of several memorable examples. What were some reasons for the differences in performance?
20. What are some of the most important reports you have written? How difficult were they to write? Why? What reactions did they get?
21. What do you do to stay current with provincial, federal, state, municipal regulations?
22. What experience have you had in the payroll?
23. What is your experience with computerized payroll systems for software?
24. What is your proficiency with Microsoft applications?
25. What kind of training and certification do you have related to payroll?
26. What payroll forms are you familiar with?
27. What was the most complicated payroll you are responsible for?

Supervisory

1. Discuss the important steps to approve an invoice payment? What course of action would you like to take if the invoice is consisting of calculation errors?
2. Discuss the main problems you have experienced during supervising or inspecting a particular payroll program?
3. Do you have experience in implementing cost-cutting procedures? If yes, discuss the essential steps.
4. Do You Have Experience Processing Special Pay Items?
5. Explain your involvement in accounting audit procedures and discuss your responsibilities for the same?
6. Give me an example of a time when you had to implement a change within your department. What was the situation, the steps you took, and the result?
7. Give us an example of the accounting reports that you've prepared.
8. Give us an example of your ability to negotiate?
9. How do you deal with difficult people?
10. How do you handle an invoice error dispute? Tell me about your skills of working on diverse invoice software?
11. How do you make sure that your employees are accountable? Describe the perfect manager-employee relationship.
12. How many activities are involved in supervising the accounting payroll system?
13. How might quality problems manifest themselves in an accounting department?
14. How to measure/appraise your position: Accounting supervisor?
15. How would you deal with an irate employee who has not received his expense reimbursement?
16. Identify some important steps to take during the conversion of an accounting system.
17. Our Accounts Payable Department has not had a permanent supervisor in six months. Morale is suffering and the employees are stressed. If you are a successful candidate, what steps will you take to correct the situation?
18. State any three major duties of an accounting supervisor? What are the fundamental objectives and aims of this designation?
19. State your approach of evaluating invoices and billing payments? State a difference between billable and non-billable expenses?
20. Tell me about a suggestion you have made as an accounting supervisor?
21. What are the key tasks for the accounting supervisor?
22. What are the attributes needed for a supervisor in accounting?
23. What are the measures that you as a supervisor of the accounting department should take to maintain quality?
24. What are the top three knowledge/top three skills for accounting supervisors?
25. What aspect of supervision do you find the most difficult?
26. What cost-cutting measures have you implemented?
27. What do you know about the position of accounting supervisor?
28. What experience have you had in processing expense statements?
29. What is the major difference between payroll management and payroll distribution? Discuss the role of a payroll distribution journal.
30. What is the most important contribution you will make to our team?
31. What is the most recent skill you have learned that related to accounting supervisor?
32. What made you choose to apply to be accounting supervisor?
33. What percentage of discounts lost did you have in Accounts Payable? Did the percentage increase or decrease under your supervision?
34. What specifically do you do to set examples to your fellow employees?
35. What types of guidelines would you follow in determining the integrity of data?
36. What was your biggest challenge for being a supervisor?
37. What were some of the challenges faced when maintaining payroll operations by following policies and procedures; reporting needed changes?
38. Which accounting systems are you familiar with?
39. You are given several rush projects to be completed in a short period of time. How would you establish priorities? What steps would you take to solve technical problems?
40. You’ve been asked to prepare a training class for completing expense statements. What points will you emphasize to ensure accurate expense statements are submitted?