Bookkeeping is one of the essential functions of running a successful business. Whether it is a small business or a large multinational corporation, accurate bookkeeping is an absolute must for a business to operate in the legal space and sustain itself in the long term.
Bookkeepers ensure that the financial records of a company are up-to-date and are factually recorded without any discrepancies in them. They also work in tandem with accountants to produce financial statements and other reports.
If you’re in the market looking for a bookkeeping job, you will face a ton of questions in your interview about your experience and your understanding of accounting principles as well certain behavioral questions. In this blog, we list down the 25 most common bookkeeper interview questions and answers to help you prepare for your interview.
1. What, According to You, are the Key Skills Necessary to Become a Successful Bookkeeper?
This type of question is usually posed to the candidate to test if they have the skills relevant to bookkeeping. Essentially, they’re looking for someone who is organized, able to work independently, and under tight deadlines. Ensure that you bring up the skills you possess that make you the ideal bookkeeper for any organization. Additionally, for brownie points, you can even mention the skills you’d like to improve on to become an even more accomplished bookkeeper.
2. Can You Share an Instance Where You Had to Reconcile Conflicting Financial Information?
As a bookkeeper, it is one of your primary responsibilities to reconcile financial information. This type of question is a scenario-based question and is usually asked to test your presence of mind and your ways of working when things go sideways. It is advised that you go about answering these questions with an appropriate example from your past experience as that will carry the most weightage because it tells the interviewer two things – You have faced such situations before and that you successfully navigated your way out of it.
3. What Accounting Software Applications are You the Most Familiar With?
Bookkeepers use a host of software applications to get their work done. The reasoning behind this bookkeeping interview question is that the interviewer wants to ascertain if you have experience using the same or similar software programs that are being used in their company. One way to stay ahead of the curve is by researching what software the company you’re applying for uses and then drawing similarities with previously worked programs.
4. What Accounting Methods are You Most Accustomed To?
Recording financial transactions require a comprehensive understanding of the different accounting methods. Usually, each company has methods that are specific to its organization. Therefore, the reason behind this question is to check if you are familiar with their particular accounting system. It would again benefit you to do your research on the company and its accounting systems. Make sure that you focus on the different accounting methods you’ve previously worked with and the features that differentiate each of them.
5. What are Your Best Practices For Stay Organized and Efficient at work?
Being organized and efficient at your work is paramount in bookkeeping. Employers are always looking for this quality in candidates. This question is asked to find out what strategies you adopt to stay on top of your work. Do thorough research on what are some of the best practices that are adopted by industry-leading professionals and mention your own practices that have made you stand out in your professional career.
6. What, According To You, is The Most Challenging aspect Of Bookkeeping?
Bookkeeping, like any profession, comes with its challenges. Your employer will want to know your understanding of the profession and your experience with it. You need to ensure that your answer lets you shine in a positive light and that you are up for the challenges that a job like bookkeeping brings with it. Additionally, highlighting any particular skill set or prior experiences that make you a qualified professional for this role will also help shift the tide in your favor.
7. Can You Share an Instance When You Had to Work on Financial Statements for an External Stakeholder?
As a bookkeeper, you will be required to work with external parties such as investors and clients. Your interviewer may pose this question to you in order to understand more about your experience with third-party entities. They will want to know if you are up to the task when working on tight deadlines and your ability to accurately produce financial statements when time is of the essence.
You can go about answering this question by sharing an example of when you had to work on a strict deadline and the steps you took to ensure that you met not only your organization’s needs but also your external stakeholder’s needs.
8. What Do You Think is the Most Crucial Characteristic of a Successful Bookkeeper?
This is an opportunity for you to showcase your skills and your knowledge as a bookkeeper and how you can excel in it. You could start answering by describing the traits such as attention to detail, problem-solving skills, and being organized at your work. Take them through how you used these essential qualities in your work and the importance of having them in a profession such as bookkeeping.
9. Can You Share an Instance Where You Had to Stretch Beyond Your Working Hours to Meet the Needs of a Client or Employer?
Since the profession of bookkeeping requires you to work on tight deadlines, you will be required to go above and beyond your normal working hours to meet the requirements of your employer or a particular client. Employers ask this question to ensure that you meet their expectations when it comes to work ethic and how flexible you are with it.
Leading with prior experience is again beneficial here. Talk about an instance where the completion of a project had to be fast-tracked due to changes in the client’s requirements and how you adapted to the changing scenario to deliver timely results. You need to ensure that your answer indicates that you’re capable of working under pressure.
10. Can You Walk Us Through an Instance Where You Had to Deal with a Difficult Client?
Bookkeepers always work with different types of clients and customers. Each customer is different and poses a new challenge not only in terms of meeting their requirement but also as an individual. Employers ask this question to get an understanding of your level of expertise when dealing with difficult individuals. Frame your answer in such a way that it describes how you dealt with the client as a professional while also being empathetic to their situation.
11. How Do You Remain Productive When Dealing With Complex Tasks?
There are often complex tasks that bookkeepers have to undertake, such as recording financial transactions and reconciling accounts. These types of activities generally tend to overwhelm an individual, which is why an employer asks this question. It is important to showcase that you know how to continue being productive when working on these complex tasks.
Again, lead with examples such as what strategies you implemented that helped you remain focused as well as organized while undertaking bookkeeping responsibilities.
12. Do You Possess Any Experience in Training New Joiners on Bookkeeping Software Applications?
If you’re an experienced bookkeeper, then you’d know training newcomers on booking software applications is a part of the job. Your interviewer will pose this question to you to check whether you possess any experience training others and if you enjoy the training process or not.
If you enjoyed it, make sure to explain with a specific example of your time training someone new to the job and share your learnings and takeaways from it. If you do not possess experience training, make sure to mention that you are open to new experiences and opportunities that come your way.
13. Why Do You Feel You are Most Suited for This Role of a Bookkeeper?
Employers ask this question to evaluate whether you are fully aware of your skill sets or not. Answer by describing your top traits and the skills you picked up from your experience of working as a bookkeeper in the past. Talk them through the various software applications that you have worked on and how you worked your way through each software to understand the various ins and outs to deliver accurate results.
14. Tell Us Of an Instance Where You Were Overloaded With Too Many Duties and Had To Delegate Or Reject Taking In More Work?
Delegating work is an art. As a bookkeeper, it is very important that you master this skill as you will often find yourself overwhelmed with work. This is an important aspect of you that the interviewer is trying to figure out. It is a question of if you know when to admit that you need help and whether you are capable of making the right judgment call in deciding what’s most important and prioritizing it accordingly.
15. Can You Tell Us About an Instance Where You Were Faced with an Ethical Dilemma and How You Handled the Situation?
Having a strong sense of ethics is very important in the world of bookkeeping. You should be able to draw the line between what is ethically right and what is ethically wrong in the blink of an eye. That is the very objective behind this bookkeeping interview question. Describe a situation when you were faced with an ethical dilemma and explain how you handled it.
If you haven’t faced a situation that put you in the spot, then what you can do is try to reassure the interviewer of your sound understanding of what is right and wrong and how the consequences of bending the ethics may potentially have a severe impact on your reputation and career.
16. Describe a Time When You Failed in This Role and The Lesson You Learned from It?
A single failure teaches you a lot more than a string of successes. Having said that, the interviewer will be aware of the fact that bookkeeping is a job where errors will happen no matter how proficient you are as a bookkeeper. The intent behind this bookkeeping question is for the employer to understand if you are mature enough to own up to your mistake and stay accountable for it. Talk about an instance where you failed and how you came out of it with the lessons you picked up along the way.
17. How Do You Stay Up-To-Date with The Ever-Changing Laws, Technologies, and Methods of Bookkeeping?
Like every other professional field, bookkeeping is also prone to changes which is why it becomes extremely important to stay up-to-date with them. Your answer should stimulate a sense of confidence in the interviewer and show that you are dedicated to learning new techniques and emerging technologies in the field of bookkeeping. Illustrate your methods of staying with the times, such as reading different reports from renowned publications about the changes in this respective field or networking within your circle where everyone shares their best practices.
18. What is The Most Challenging Aspect of Managing Finances For a Business?
More often than not, bookkeepers have to deal with financial data that is very complex and demanding. This bookkeeping question is to understand if you’re comfortable with numbers and your ability to handle the challenges that come your way as a bookkeeper. Describe what you feel is challenging in bookkeeping and the different approaches you utilize to overcome those challenges. The solutions you present to the interviewer will label you as a solution-oriented person who isn’t easily deterred by such challenges.
19. Do You Have any Questions for Us About the Role of a Bookkeeper in Our Company?
You can expect this question to come your way toward the end of the interview, as the interviewer wants to know if you’ve done your research on the company and its bookkeeping requirements. It is a question that aims at knowing whether you are genuinely interested in the available position and the company itself. Make sure to read through the job description and take a look at the company’s website before appearing for the interview. If there is anything you found hard to pick up on or did not understand, this is your chance to pose those questions to your interviewer.
20. Do You Have any Experience in Auditing or Risk Management?
One of the major facets of bookkeeping is working in auditing and risk management. Therefore, this bookkeeping question is a no-brainer from the interviewer’s perspective because they want to know your experience in these fields. If you have prior experience in it, then take the interviewer through the process and connect it with how it relates to the job at hand. If you do not, you can explain other similar experiences from your past that are related to bookkeeping.
21. How Do You Think Your Bookkeeping Skills Can Be Beneficial to Our Company?
This is a bookkeeping interviewquestion to help the interviewer determine your competency in a new role and your plans to use your skills to succeed in it. When you answer, talk about your experiences in your previous job as a bookkeeper or any other experience that you feel is relevant to bookkeeping and how you plan to use them for the benefit of the company.
22. Can You Tell Us of a Time When You Had to Navigate Through a Complex Tax Return?
Complex tax returns are a common occurrence in the life of a bookkeeper. Your potential employer will want to know that you are skilled and capable enough to deal with such situations. These are often some of the toughest roadmaps to navigate through as a bookkeeper, and leading the answer by describing a situation where you had to work through a complex tax return will definitely be of benefit to you. Doing this paints a picture of you being a veteran as a bookkeeper who is more than capable of handling such complicated tasks.
23. How Do You Think Your Bookkeeping Skills Can Help Us Streamline Our Processes?
Another bookkeeping interview question focuses on how your skills can be beneficial to the company. In this case, how can your skills be used to make the existing processes better than they were before? Lead with your previous experience as a bookkeeper and the best practices you picked up for streamlining processes. Make sure to describe how you used your best practices to help ease several bookkeeping exercises. This will put your communication skills in not only the spotlight but also the core competencies that make you a successful bookkeeper.
24. Why Does the Accumulated Depreciation Value of Assets Go Into the Asset Account?
You will sometimes be posed with the simplest of questions to test how strong your foundational knowledge is. Such questions require you to think on your feet because they may seem straightforward when taken at face value, but they’re not. When answering this question, make sure to indicate that you are aware of entering specific transactions and how such transactions affect the company’s balance sheets as well.
25. Do You Carry Any Experience in Forecasting Future Expenses and Creating Budgets?
Another aspect of being a bookkeeper is creating budgets and forecasting future expenses to help an employer or clients understand the inflow and the outflow of money from their accounts. This gives them a clear understanding of their spending capacity and helps them make decisions regarding investing, spending, and saving money.
Interviewers want to know whether you have experience doing this and if you can carry out this operation effectively or not. Explain to them what a budget is according to you. Follow it up with an example of where you crafted a budget for a client and how it benefited them.
Conclusion
Preparing for a bookkeeping interview can often be a daunting task. But when you prepare yourself with the right question and answers, it becomes easier for you to confidently demonstrate the skills you bring to the table from your years of experience as a bookkeeper.
These are the top 25 bookkeeper interview questions and answers in 2023. We hope that they give you some clarity on what to expect in the interview and ultimately help you ace it in the end. Good luck!
