What you need to know about Accounting Clerk jobs

Let’s have a look into what accounting clerk jobs are, the work an accounting clerk does and what exactly they work with. Today we widen our understanding of their responsibilities, from the basic day to day tasks and the bigger picture that their efforts build up to. Job Mail takes a closer look at the level of education needed and where you can find courses intended to gain you entry into this field.

What is an accounting clerk?

An accounting clerk is usually an entry level into the accounting industry. There are a number of fields one can specialise in the accounting industry, all these fields have room for a clerk. You are not all restricted to just one of those fields as a clerk, but when hiring; companies look for professionals in the specific fields. So specialising in one of the fields under the accounting umbrella is not a bad idea, you will better stand out for the specific field you have associated yourself with.

An accounting Clerk’s job title will in most cases indicate their specialties including billing clerk, payroll clerk, purchase agent and account payable clerk to name just a few. Being a clerk is great position if you intend to build an accounting career.

There is no limit as to the type of company you can work for. Qualified professionals are hired by all types of companies that wish to maintain all their finance and business records.

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Accounting Clerk Job Description

An accounting clerk works for medium to large companies, managed by a qualified accountant. The accounting clerk job description includes a number of tasks intended to assist professionals that depend on the tasks they complete.

The tasks of an accounting clerk heavily assists and makes the job of their supervisor easier and definitely betters the operation of the company. The clerk’s tasks are like the foundation of the company, accuracy is a vital factor in their work.

The tasks associated with these accounting jobs involve performing accounting functions to support supervisors, when there is an accounting problem, they are expected to research and track the problem in order to solve it. This betters the accuracy and quality of the findings and decisions made by management.

Some of the talks a clerk is responsible for are assisting accounting personnel, recording daily transactions, processing payment by the company, working with invoices and cheques, updating daily worksheets to the general ledger system, assist with front desk customer service and drafting account statements and a list of other reports.

Remember accounting clerk jobs can fall just about anywhere in the accounting field, their tasks range from recording to drawing up reports, presenting their findings in an understandable manner, easily understood by the people that are making use of the reports.

Education and Salary of Accounting Clerks

Though the position of an accounting clerk is an entry level into the accounting industry. To be hired as one, you need to have gotten at least a Diploma at any of the recognised tertiary level institutions available. Some well-known colleges like Boston City Campus and Damelin, as well as universities such as The University of Johannesburg and Tshwane University of Technology offer Diplomas in Financial Accounting.

Be sure to visit the Training and Courses page on Job Mail to look for relevant training programmes.

For admission into the Diploma courses, you need to have completed your Matric with the minimum requirements. You can continue your studies part time while you’re a clerk to climb up the corporate ladder, achieving the role of a chartered accountant (CA).

In the early stages of being a clerk with little to no experience, the average salary will be just below R100 000 per annum. As experience is gained between 5 to 10 years the average salary will have increased to just above R120 000 per annum.

The later stages in the career of an accounting clerk the salary average is just about R160 000 per annum. Most clerks do not stay too long as clerks as they branch out to go higher up the ladder.

Characteristics and attributes of an Accounting Clerk

There are characteristics that an accounting clerk will ideally have in order to be a clerk or fill any of the Accounting Jobs. You need to be very comfortable with long hours spent in front of a computer. It should come naturally to dot your i’s and cross your t’s, accuracy is very important as decisions that determines the future of the company will be based on the work done by the accounting clerks.

Accounting is all about money and presenting numbers and working on them, applications and software like Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Money, QuickBooks and Pastel is a must. It is important to prioritise and be able to work independently.

Being an accounting clerk is just an entry level position in the accounting industry, the possibilities are almost endless with all the directions you can branch in to. Looking for exciting accounting clerk jobs and opportunities? Register your CV on Job Mail now and start applying for jobs today!

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What you need to know about Accounting Clerk jobs | Job Mail Blog

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Let’s have a look into what accounting clerk jobs are, the work an accounting clerk does and what exactly they work with.

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Jacob Mphahlele

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Job Mail

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