Working as a group accountant

A group accountant is a very important role within an organisation's finance department.

Their key purpose is to provide, accurate, timely and relevant statutory reporting and management information to ensure management meet statutory requirements and achieve strategic business goals.

Essentially, Group accountants produce the financial statements for a group of accounts within the same company. Their role can be very complex so experienced group accountant’s are generally in high demand, particularly within large corporates.

What qualifications do I need?

Group accountants need to be CA qualified and have several years' post qualification experience, together with the following skills:

• Technical accounting experience
• Financial reporting as per IFRS' and other relevant standards
• Consolidation experience
• Staff management skills
• Report writing/maintenance of reports experience
   

Key attributes

Key personal attributes for a successful group accountant include:

• Strong interpersonal skills
• Deadline driven - you will be working to strict monthly reporting, budget and forecast deadlines
• Professionalism - group accountants deal with key business stakeholders
• Analytical - ability to interpret data to grasp the 'big picture'
• People management skills - ability to motivate your staff so they meet strict deadlines

Essentially, Group accountants produce the financial statements for a group of accounts within the same company.

Salaries

On average, salaries for group accountants are between circa $90-110k. 

Magic CV Words

IFRS, 'Big 4' statutory reporting, group consolidation

Group accountant career prospects

Most group accounting roles offer plenty of scope to learn new tasks and expand their remit over time. Proven group accountants can progress to the role of finance manager.