Top 50 Accounting Interview Questions
1) Why did you select accounting as your profession?
Well, I was quite good in accounting throughout but in my masters, when I got distinction I decided to adopt this field as a profession.
2) Do you have any professional experience of this field?
Yes, I have worked as an accountant at two different places.
3) Did you use accounting applications at your previous companies or prefer working manually??
Yes, I have used Advanced Business Solutions and AME Accounting Software in my previous jobs.
4) Can you name any other accounting application?
Yes, I am familiar with CGram Software, Financial Force, Microsoft Accounting Professional, Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Small Business Financials.
5) Which accounting application you prefer most and why?
I think all are good though but Microsoft Accounting Professional is best because it offers reliable and fast processing of accounting transactions that saves time and increases proficiency.
6) What is the abbreviation for the accounting terms debit and credit?
Debit abbreviation is “dr” and credit abbreviation is “cr”.
7) How many types of business transactions are there in accounting?
There are two types of transactions in accounting i.e. revenue and capital.
8) What is balance sheet?
It is a statement that states all the liabilities and assets of the company at certain point.
9) Have you ever heard about TDS, what it is?
Yes, TDS abbreviates Tax Deduction at Source.
10) In balance sheet, where do you show TDS?
It is shown on the assets section, right after the head current asset.
11) Do you have any idea about Service Tax or Excise?
It is a kind of hidden tax that is included in the service provided by the service provider and paid
by the service receiver.
12) Do you think there is any difference between inactive and dormant accounts?
Yes, both are different terms in accounting. Inactive accounts means that accounts have been closed and will not be used in future as well. While, dormant accounts are those that are not functional today but may be used in future.
13) What is tally accounting?
It is the software used for accounting in small business and shops for managing routine accounting transactions.
14) How can you define departmental accounting?
It is a type of accounting in which separate account is created for departments. It is managed separately as well as shown independently in the balance sheet.
15) Define fictitious assets?
These are the assets that cannot be shown or touch. Fictitious assets can only be felt such as good will, rights etc.
16) By saying, perpetual or periodic inventory system; what do we mean?
In the first one i.e. the perpetual inventory system, the accounts are adjusted on continual basis. In the periodic inventory system, the accounts are adjusted periodically.
17) In accounting, how do you define premises?
Premises refer to fixed assets that are shown in the balance sheet.
18) In accounting, VAT abbreviates what?
VAT means Value Added Tax.
19) Do you possess any knowledge about accounting standards?
Yes, as per my knowledge there are total 33 accounting standards published so far by ICAI. The purpose of these standards is to implement same policies and practices in any country.
20) What is ICAI?
It is the abbreviation of Institute of Chartered Accountants in India.
21) How can you explain the basic accounting equation?
We know that accounting is all about assets, liabilities and capital. Therefore, the accounting equation is:
Assets = Liabilities + Owners Equity.
22) Define Executive accounting?
It is a type of accounting that is specifically designed for the business that offers services to users.
23) Define Public accounting?
Public accounting offers audits and CPAs to review company financial records to ensure accountability. It is for general public.
24) What is a CPA?
CPA stands for Certified Public Accountant. To become a CPA, one should have to do many other qualifications as well. It is a qualification with 150 hour requirement; it means that one should complete 150 credit hours at any accredited university.
25) What do you think is bank reconciliation statement?
A reconciliation statement is prepared when the passbook balance differs from the cashbook balance.
26) Differentiate Public and Private Accounting?
Public accounting is a type of accounting that is done by one company for another company. Private accounting is done for your own company.
27) What is project implementation?
Project implementation involves six steps in total such as:
Identify Need
Generate and Screen Ideas
Conduct Feasible Study
Develop the Project
Implement the Project
Control the Project
28) Do you think Accounting Standards are mandatory and why?
Yes, I do believe that accounting standards play a very important role to prepare good quality and accurate financial reports. It ensures reliability and relevance in financial reports.
29) Can you name different branches of accounting?
There are three branches of accounting named as “Financial Accounting”, “Management Accounting” and “Cost Accounting”.
30) Differentiate Accounting and Auditing?
Accounting is all about recording daily business activities while auditing is the checking that whether all these events have been noted down correctly or not.
31) Define dual aspect term in accounting?
As the name implies, the dual aspect concept states that every transaction has two sides. For example, when you buy something, you give the cash and get the thing. Similarly, when you sale something, you lose the thing and gets the money. So this getting and losing is basically two aspects of every transaction.
32) What do we mean by purchase return in accounting?
It is the term introduced in the records for every defective or unsatisfactory good returned back to its supplier.
33) Define the term material facts in accounting?
Material facts are the bills or any document that becomes the base of every account book. It means that all those documents, on which account book is prepared, are called material facts.
34) Have you ever prepared MIS reports and what are these?
Yes, I have prepared few MIS reports during my previous jobs. MIS reports are created to identify the efficiency of any department of a company.
35) Define company’s payable cycle?
It is the time required by the company to pay all its account payables.
36) Define retail banking?
It is a type of banking that involves a retail client. These clients are the normal people and not any organizational customers.
37) How much mathematics knowledge is necessary or required in accounting?
Not much knowledge but basic mathematical background is required in accounting for operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
38) Define bills receivable?
All types of exchange bills, bonds and other securities owned by a merchant that is payable to him are said as bills receivable.
39) Define depreciation and its types?
By depreciation we mean that a value of an asset is decreasing as it is in use. It has two types such as “Straight Line Method” and “Written Down Value Method”.
40) Differentiate between consignor and consignee?
Consigner is the owner of the goods or you can say he is the person who delivers the goods to the consignee. The consignee is the person who receives the goods.
41) Define balancing in accounting?
Balancing means to equate both sides of the T-account i.e. the debit and credit sides of a Taccount must be equal/balanced.
42) How much statistics knowledge is necessary or required in accounting?
You must be very good at statistics if you want to do well in accounting. Otherwise, with minimum knowledge you cannot manage your day to day transactions effectively in accounting.
43) Define Scrap value in accounting?
It is the residual value of an asset. The residual value is the value that any asset holds after its estimated life time.
44) Define Marginal Cost?
Suppose you have to produce an additional unit of output. The estimated cost of additional inputs to produce that output is actually the marginal cost.
45) Define Partitioning in accounting?
It is a kind of groups made on the basis of same responses by a system.
46) Differentiate between provision and reserve?
Provisions are the liabilities or the anticipated items such as depreciation. You can say provisions are expenses. Reserves are the profits of any company and a part of that profit is placed back to the business to keep it sustainable in tough times of a company.
47) Define Offset accounting?
Offset accounting is one that decreases the net amount of another account to create a net balance.
48) Define overhead in terms of accounting?
It is the indirect expenditure of a company such as salaries, rent dues etc.
49) Define trade bills?
We know that all types of transactions need to be documented. The trade bills are the documents, generated against each transaction.
50) Define fair value accounting?
As per fair value accounting, a company has to show the value of all of its assets in terms of price on balance sheet on which that asset can be sold.
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