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Entry-level roles

All businesses are responsible for managing and accounting for their finances. Whether you're self-employed or a multi-national company, each transaction must be recorded and is used by an accountant to balance the books.

Much of the work involved here is clerical based. The job titles may be familiar but do you actually know what they involve on a day-to-day basis? Read on and find out. If you're considering roles in accountancy or finance, there may be something of interest to you. 

Considering a career in credit control?

Credit control is by no means a simple job. It's the processes by which companies ensure that their customers pay their invoices and the company turns over.

It's a varied job and requires a wide range of skills, in particular the ability to work effectively with people - whether that be liaising with colleagues from other departments or negotiating with customers over the phone regarding late payments. As you develop in the role you'll find yourself problem solving. This could involve investigating and settling payment disputes by finding delivery notes and invoices. You may also need to seek advice from collection agencies and solicitors if customers fail to settle their accounts. You must enjoy working with numbers as a significant part of a credit controller's job involves understanding what customers owe and recording payments accurately so that an accountant is able to balance the books at the end of the month.

Within credit control, there is ample opportunity for career development. Entry-level jobs tend to be largely paperwork based - processing invoices and sending them to customers and producing credit notes. From there people progress to having contact with customers through a number of different channels - over the phone, via email and in writing - doing whatever is necessary to make sure unpaid invoices are settled.

If you're successful, there is scope to progress through the ranks to become credit-control supervisor or team leader and then develop further to an assistant credit manager job or to credit manager or credit director.

While working in credit control, your skills can be recognised nationally through Credit Management qualifications. The Institute Of Credit Management (ICM) provide a set of standards that credit controllers can be measured against. These are acknowledged through a series of professional qualifications, the ICM Diploma Pathway, ranging from Level 2 (GCSE A-C standard) to Level 5 (degree level). 

Interested in payroll jobs?

The payroll department of any business, large or small, plays a pivotal role in its success. It ensures that employees are paid correctly and on time, contractual obligations are met and tax and other withholding duties are upheld. People usually begin their career as a payroll clerk, working their way to payroll assistant/supervisor or payroll manager.

A day in the life of a payroll clerk involves lots of administrative work, like the keying of time sheets, calculating holiday allowances, working out tax queries, dealing with maternity and sick pay for staff. Similar to a credit-control job, the ability to communicate with people is essential - liaising with HR departments and helping colleagues resolve their pay queries. We all expect and rely on getting paid on time and being paid correctly, so working to deadlines and working quickly is an essential part of the job.

As a payroll clerk, there is plenty of opportunity to work towards qualifications to formalise your skills and have them acknowledged nationally. The Chartered Institute Of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) offer many different qualifications from National Pay Roll Certificates to Masters Degrees in Payroll Management. 

Looking for a bookkeeping job?

Bookkeeping is the recording of all financial transactions carried out by an organisation. These include everything from sales and purchases to income and payments. These records are then used by an accountant to produce reports and to balance the books.

Bookkeeping jobs are far from easy. Working regularly to tight deadlines, bookkeepers are responsible for making sure all transactions are recorded so that accountants and management teams can evaluate the performance of a business. The quality of their figures is crucial and, as such, bookkeepers are organised individuals who must enjoy "number crunching" and maintaining accuracy in their work, even under pressure.

You may also see bookkeeping processes being referred to as accounts payable jobs and accounts receivable jobs. Accounts payable is also known as the purchase ledger. Purchase ledger clerks receive and match invoices to orders and are responsible for all transactions and paperwork associated with goods purchased by the company.

Accounts receivable or the sales ledger is concerned with all transactions
with customers. Sales leger clerks will manage all information relating to
sales invoices. This may include creating customer accounts, producing
invoices, dealing with customer queries, the allocation of cash and banking
and reconciliations.

As a ledger clerk, you will need to be organised and a confident communicator as both roles require liaising with people - whether it be a customer who is querying a price on an invoice, or arranging for the return of a faulty product that had been bought for the sales team. Strong IT skills and knowledge of Microsoft Excel would also be an advantage for getting to grips with accounting software and collating data.

As with other transactional roles, the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers offer a variety of different qualifications that enable people to benchmark their skills and have their expertise acknowledged, which helps to further their careers. There is often scope to develop and get promoted to an accounts payable team leader or an accounts receivable team manager. Some clerks move into a more varied accounts assistant or assistant accountant job where there's greater exposure to different areas of finance.

Taking a temporary role to gain experience

Temporary or contract work can be a great way to gain experience in new sectors.  They also show you to be flexible and open to change, which is obviously key in the market place at the moment. There may also be opportunities that you would consider in the short term. Many employers permanently hire contract/temporary workers so this opportunity should always be considered as a route into an organisation and a great platform for you to actually demonstrate your ability.