[Anonymous]

What software/IT skills do employers require for a financial reporting job?

[Anonymous]

Excel at a minimum.

[Anonymous]

Excel at a minimum.

[Anonymous]

MS Office (Excel, Word, etc.) PC or Mac (depends on what your company uses)

[Anonymous]

MS Office (Excel, Word, etc.) PC or Mac (depends on what your company uses)

[Anonymous]

It depends on what aspect of the reporting process you will be applying for. All of my staff accountants, which are the first level of our financial reporting, are required to have advanced Excel capabilities. We actually administer an Excel test to all applicants for those positions before making a decision. One of the staff accountants handles and reports all of our fixed assets so we required working experience of our fixed asset software when we hired for that position. One of our other staff accountants reports on all aspects of tax (sales/use, property) and had to have working knowledge of our tax software. During both hiring periods for those two specific positions we were extremely short staffed and didn't have time for the learning curve of hiring someone without the experience of the specific software needed. Obviously that would vary company by company and whether they had the time to train or not. Any accounting job will probably require experience working with an integrated AS400 system if it is not an entry level position.

[Anonymous]

It depends on what aspect of the reporting process you will be applying for. All of my staff accountants, which are the first level of our financial reporting, are required to have advanced Excel capabilities. We actually administer an Excel test to all applicants for those positions before making a decision. One of the staff accountants handles and reports all of our fixed assets so we required working experience of our fixed asset software when we hired for that position. One of our other staff accountants reports on all aspects of tax (sales/use, property) and had to have working knowledge of our tax software. During both hiring periods for those two specific positions we were extremely short staffed and didn't have time for the learning curve of hiring someone without the experience of the specific software needed. Obviously that would vary company by company and whether they had the time to train or not. Any accounting job will probably require experience working with an integrated AS400 system if it is not an entry level position.

[Anonymous]

I have a phone interview (within the organization I am currently working on a limited term job) coming up this week for a full-time position that requires comprehensive knowledge of multi-dimensional databases. Due to lack of experience with constantly changing IT updates around, I am going to rely merely with my online research about this MDD.

Please can someone give me a piece of advice about this area. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I have a phone interview (within the organization I am currently working on a limited term job) coming up this week for a full-time position that requires comprehensive knowledge of multi-dimensional databases. Due to lack of experience with constantly changing IT updates around, I am going to rely merely with my online research about this MDD.

Please can someone give me a piece of advice about this area. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I am not sure what you mean by multi-dimensional database, but my interpretation would be an AS400 system. It's a fully integrated system. For example: I work for an air conditioning distributor and we have a corporate office and 200+ selling branches throughout the US and 3 distribution centers. We are all connected to the same system so the buyers enter purchasing information into the system, the distribution centers enter receiving and shipping information into the system, AP enters invoices/checks into the system, the sales centers enter sales orders through the system, and we enter journal entries, etc. Everything is connected and updates master and temporary files and the necessary personnel have access to certain areas of the system (aka: database). When I was the financial analysis I had the ability to query off of any of the files and as the accounting manager I can see how everything entered into the system affects the general ledger. I use queries (SQL) to pull the information, determine what adjusting entries need to be done, and complete our financial reporting package. I could be wrong about what they want you to have experience with, but I've been in accounting for 10 years and every company, no matter the industry, has been similar to what I described above. Good luck. I wish I could help more.

[Anonymous]

I am not sure what you mean by multi-dimensional database, but my interpretation would be an AS400 system. It's a fully integrated system. For example: I work for an air conditioning distributor and we have a corporate office and 200+ selling branches throughout the US and 3 distribution centers. We are all connected to the same system so the buyers enter purchasing information into the system, the distribution centers enter receiving and shipping information into the system, AP enters invoices/checks into the system, the sales centers enter sales orders through the system, and we enter journal entries, etc. Everything is connected and updates master and temporary files and the necessary personnel have access to certain areas of the system (aka: database). When I was the financial analysis I had the ability to query off of any of the files and as the accounting manager I can see how everything entered into the system affects the general ledger. I use queries (SQL) to pull the information, determine what adjusting entries need to be done, and complete our financial reporting package. I could be wrong about what they want you to have experience with, but I've been in accounting for 10 years and every company, no matter the industry, has been similar to what I described above. Good luck. I wish I could help more.

[Author]

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