Every firm has an accounting department to manage the accounts and to keep a record of money matters involved internally or externally in the organization. The accounting sector finds its use in almost all kinds of industries, organizations, banks or public offices. Needs to handle financial issues like salaries of employees, various payments made during the sale and purchase of materials in the firm, profit made by the company and other details are controlled by the accounting department.
The accounting department is run by a group of eligible people known as account executives who deal with all the financial matters of the firm. These account executives are supervised by an accounts manager which looks up in the task of every individual working under him and is fully responsible for it. This is a very challenging task to perform as the details of the company finances lie in the hands of the accounting department, headed by the account manager.
The accounting managers can be of different types like relational account managers, sales account managers, regional account managers, public relational account managers, etc. and they have different tasks to perform in a firm. For example, a relational account manager has the duty to form relations to feed to the firm’s treasures and to maintain old relations for sustaining the benefits been obtained from the customers.
The sales account manager finds his/her duty in the sale and purchase of products done by his/her company and manages finances. An advertising account manager handles the budget and the money spent on the promotion or advertisement of the company. The account manager maintains the client-firm relationship and adds to the benefits of the firm. The customer’s trust in the firm depends on the accounting department of the firm because it is related to the money matters, which are given importance by the people and the firm. The account managers play an important role in building the firm’s reputation in the corporate world. The account management done by these account managers is not an easy task and needs good qualifications or skills.
Account Manager Qualification
Those seeking a career in the accounting department of any firm and want to become an account manager must have a degree in accounts, advertisement, media or banking services. The bachelor degree in commerce would work or master degree in commerce would be great to get the job. It takes time to get to the roots of the accounting job and therefore experienced people are preferred for this job. The fresher might get this job, but at a junior position as an account executive. As they get the full scenario of the field, they get promotions very easily and become an account manager.
Other than qualifications, some additional skills are required for this job, which an individual must possess in order to perform efficiently.
Skills required:
- Management skills- An individual must posses account managing talent while working as an account manager in a firm. He or she has to manage the company financial records and budget details for which he or she should have some management skills.
- Leadership qualities- An account manager has to lead a team of at least 50 or 60 executives for this they must have leadership qualities
- Good communication skills- The account manager working in the public relational department have to deal with customers for which they have to communicate well with the customers in order to please them
- Good presence of mind- To handle treasures of a firm is not an easy task and involves taking great responsibility. So, the account managers must have a great presence of mind as accuracy is essential in this field.
- Good numeric aptitude: He or she should be good at mathematics in order to do faster calculations accurately
- Innovative ideology: He or she must be able to generate new and efficient ideas which can help in the promotion of their firm
- Honesty- As dealing with money matters of a firm an account manager must be honest and must not indulge in any kind of fraud or cheating activities.
- Analytical skills- There are times when an account manager has to take important decisions as quickly as possible. For this, he or she must have good analytical skills
- Other training in the field of business management, accounting services or banking services would definitely add to the chances of becoming an account manager.
Career Growth
There are different types of accounting jobs and opportunities, varying with the type of the company and depending upon the nature of the company. Accounting managers are hired by the government sectors for account handling and financial management purposes. There are several vacancies in this field, as the position needs full care and responsibility.
More often the accounting managers are hired by the private sector companies like ad agencies, software, media-based and sales-related firms. The salaries of the account managers are usually very good, but it varies for a fresher and experienced person.
A fresher may get a lesser salary at the start as he or she gets a junior position, but salary gets better with time and he is at a good position of an account manager in no time.
