Basic Account Manager Assistant Interview Preparation Guide

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Accounting can be divided into several fields including financial accounting, management accounting, auditing, and tax accounting. Financial accounting focuses on the reporting of an organization's financial information, including the preparation of financial statements, to external users of the information, such as investors, regulators and suppliers; and management accounting focuses on the measurement, analysis and reporting of information for internal use by management. The recording of financial transactions, so that summaries of the financials may be presented in financial reports, is known as bookkeeping, of which double-entry bookkeeping is the most common system.

★ Generate sales for a portfolio of accounts and reach the company's sales target.
★ Identify new sales opportunities within existing accounts to remain a client-account manager relationship by up-selling and cross-selling.
★ Manage and solve conflicts with clients.
★ Interact and coordinate with the sales team and other staff members in other departments working on the same account.
★ Establish budgets with the client and company.
★ Meet time deadlines for accounts

A liability account is a general ledger account in which a company records its debt, obligations, customer deposits and customer prepayments, certain deferred income taxes, etc. that are the result of a past transaction. Common liability accounts under the accrual method of accounting include Accounts Payable, Accrued Liabilities (amounts owed but not yet recorded in Accounts Payable), Notes Payable, Unearned Revenues, Deferred Income Taxes (certain temporary timing differences), etc.

Deferred revenue is not yet revenue. It is an amount that was received by a company in advance of earning it. The amount unearned (and therefore deferred) as of the date of the financial statements should be reported as a liability. The title of the liability account might be Unearned Revenues or Deferred Revenues.

Assets are sometimes defined as resources or things of value that are owned by a company. Some examples of assets which are obvious and will be reported on a company's balance sheet include: cash, accounts receivable, inventory, investments, land, buildings, and equipment.

Key accounts provide a lot of business because they contain a small number of clients which contribute a large portion of the company's sales. According to research, sales from a company's key accounts has increased from 23% in 1975 to 60% currently.

To maintain the company's existing relationships with a client or group of clients, so that they will continue using the company for business.

This financial statement begins with the bottom line of the income statement and then lists the items considered to be other comprehensive income. Some of these items involve currency translation, hedging, available-for-sale securities, and pensions.

★ Principles of Accounting was often the title of the introductory course in accounting. It was also common for the textbook used in the course to be entitled Principles of Accounting.
★ Principles of accounting can also refer to the basic or fundamental accounting principles: cost principles, matching principles, full disclosure principles, materiality principles, going concern principles, economic entity principles, and so on. In this context, principles of accounting refers to the broad underlying concepts which guide accountants when preparing financial statements.
★ Principles of accounting can also mean generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). When used in this context, principles of accounting will include both the underlying basic accounting principles and the official accounting pronouncements issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and its predecessor organizations. The official pronouncements are detailed rules or standards for specific topics.

Prior to electronic worksheets, accountants had several pads of paper with a varying number of columns (and rows) preprinted on them. The pads of paper were labeled as columnar pads. The preprinted paper in these pads allowed accountants and bookkeepers to easily prepare manual spreadsheets.
With the introduction of VisiCalc (the original electronic spreadsheet) followed by other electronic spreadsheets or worksheets (e.g., Lotus 1-2-3, Excel), the use of columnar pads of paper declined significantly.

Equity is used in accounting in several ways. Often the word equity is used when referring to an ownership interest in a business. Examples include stockholders' equity or owner's equity.
Occasionally, equity is used to mean the combination of liabilities and owner's equity. For example, some restate the basic accounting equation from Assets = Liabilities + Owner's Equity to Assets = Equities.

The definition of a short term or current asset is cash and other assets that will turn to cash or will be used up or consumed within one year of the balance sheet date. If a company's operating cycle is longer than one year, the definition allows for assets turning to cash, used up, or consumed during the operating cycle to be reported as a current asset.

Organic growth often refers to the growth in a company's sales that did not occur because of an acquisition of another company. Expressed another way, organic growth is the internal growth or the growth from its existing businesses-not from the businesses it acquired during the period.

The chart of accounts is a listing of the general ledger accounts to which amounts can be posted. The chart of accounts is a helpful tool for identifying the best account for recording a transaction.
In some accounting software the chart of accounts may be the means to open new general ledger accounts and to control their position in the financial statements.

Window dressing refers to actions taken or not taken prior to issuing financial statements in order to improve the appearance of the financial statements.

This financial statement is also known as the statement of operations, statement of earnings, or income statement. It reports the corporation's revenues, expenses, gains and losses (except for items stipulated as other comprehensive income) for a period of time such as a year, quarter, 13 months, etc.

This statement of financial position reports a corporation's assets, liabilities and stockholders' equity as of the final instant of the date shown in its heading (December 31, January 31, June 30, etc.)

A noncurrent asset is an asset that is not likely to turn to unrestricted cash within one year of the balance sheet date. (This assumes that the company has an operating cycle of less than one year.)
A non-current asset is also referred to as a long-term asset.
Non-current assets are reported under the following balance sheet headings:
★ Investments (long-term)
★ Property, plant and equipment
★ Intangible assets
★ Other assets

This financial statement is often presented as the statement of shareholders' equity, statement of equity, statement of changes in stockholders' equity, etc. It reports all of the changes in stockholders' equity which occurred during the accounting period.

A fiscal year usually refers to an accounting year that does not end on December 31. (The accounting year of January 1 through December 31 is usually referred to as a calendar year.) Some examples of the fiscal years used by U.S. corporations include:
★ The 12 months of February 1 through January 31
★ The 12 months of October 1 through September 30
★ The 12 months of June 1 through May 31
★ The 52 weeks (four 13-week quarters) ending on the Saturday closest to January 31 (This will require an occasional fiscal year of 53 weeks since 52 weeks X 7 days = 364 days vs. 365 days per year.)

Sales refers to the revenues earned when a company sells its goods, products, merchandise, etc. (If a company sells one of its non-current assets that was used in its business, the amount received is not recorded in its Sales account.)
The amounts recorded at the time of the sales transaction is also known as gross sales since there may be subsequent subtractions for sales returns, sales allowances, and early payment discounts. (Gross sales minus these subtractions results in the amount of net sales.)

These are the amounts earned through the sale of goods and the providing of services.

These include the cost of goods sold, SG&A expenses, and interest expense.

The income statement is a key financial statement which reports on a company's profitability during a relatively short period of time such as the past year, month, 13 weeks, etc. The heading of the income statement informs the reader of the period covered.
The main components of the income statement are:
★ Revenues
★ Expenses
★ Certain gains and losses

An accounting period is a period of time such as the 12 months of January 1 through December 31, or the month of June, or the three months of July 1 through September 30. It is the period for which financial statements are prepared. For example, the income statement and the cash flow statement report the amounts occurring during the accounting period, and the balance sheet reports the amounts of assets and liabilties as of the final moment of the accounting period.