Accountant interviews test two things: whether your fundamentals are solid, and whether you can be trusted with the books when something looks wrong. Expect a few questions on your path and why this business, a set of technical checks on accruals, journal entries, reconciliations, depreciation and inventory, and several what-would-you-do scenarios about deadlines, errors and pressure to bend the rules. Each question shows what the interviewer is really checking, a shape for your answer and a sample you could say out loud. Rules on standards and tax differ by country, so check the ones that apply where you work, and swap in your own stories before the day.
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Start: what first pulled you towards accounting, in one or two lines.
Experience: the roles, internships or study that built your core skills.
Next: the specific kind of work you want, and why this role leads there.
"I got into accounting through a part-time job doing bookkeeping for a small family business while I was studying. I liked that the numbers had to tie out, and that when they didn't, there was always a real reason to find. After I qualified I spent two years in a finance team handling payables, bank reconciliations and month-end journals. That gave me a good base in the full cycle. What I want next is more ownership of the close and the balance sheet, so I'm not just posting entries but reviewing them and explaining the results. This role looks like the right step because you'd have me owning reconciliations and accruals while still learning from a strong team."
Saying you picked accounting because it seemed stable, with nothing about the actual work you enjoy.
Model: how the company earns revenue, in plain words.
Accounting impact: the balances and judgements that model creates.
Your fit: where your experience matches those areas.
"From your annual report and website, you're a wholesale distributor with a few warehouses, selling mostly on credit to retailers. So I'd expect the big areas to be inventory, receivables and payables. Inventory means stock counts, costing and watching for slow-moving lines. Selling on credit means ageing reviews, credit limits and an allowance for customers who don't pay. And with a lot of suppliers, the payables side needs good matching and controls on who can change bank details. That fits well with what I've done, because my last role was in a trading business where I ran the payables ledger and helped with the quarterly stock count. I'd want to learn how you handle stock at the warehouses, since that's usually where the surprises are."
Describing the company's products from the homepage with no link to what that means for the books.
Strength: one area, with proof of what you've actually done.
Gap: one real gap, named plainly.
Plan: how you are closing that gap.
"My strongest area is reconciliations. In my last job I owned the bank, payables and payroll control account reconciliations every month, and I got the unreconciled items down to a short list of timing differences that I could explain line by line. I'm also comfortable with accruals and prepayments. Where I still need support is anything close to the final statements, like preparing the cash flow statement or handling deferred tax. I understand how they work, but I haven't prepared them start to finish on my own. I've been working through practice sets for my exams, and I'd want to shadow whoever prepares them here so I can take on part of it after a few closes."
Claiming to be equally strong everywhere, or naming a gap so small it is really a disguised strength.
Sources: standard setters, professional body updates, tax authority notices.
Habit: a regular routine, not just before exams.
Action: an example of a change you applied at work.
"I keep it simple and regular. I read my professional body's technical updates, I'm signed up to the standard setter's news alerts and the tax authority's updates for where I work, and I do my continuing learning hours through short courses on things I actually use. Once a month I skim what's changed and ask one question: does this touch anything we do? Most months the answer is no. When it's yes, I raise it early. At my last company, a change to indirect tax invoicing rules meant our sales invoices needed an extra detail. I flagged it a couple of months before it took effect, worked with the person who manages the billing system to update the template, and checked the first batch of invoices after the change."
Saying you only learn what's needed for exams, or that someone else in the team handles updates.
Environment: the kind of team where you do well, with a reason.
Review notes: how you prefer to receive them and what you do with them.
Give back: how you support the rest of the team, especially at close.
"I do my best work in a team with a clear close timetable and people who are happy to explain why something is done a certain way, not just what to do. I'm comfortable working on my own once I know the process, but I like being able to ask quick questions early rather than guessing. For review notes, I prefer them written against the schedule, so I can go through each one, fix it and reply with what I changed. If the same point comes up twice, I add it to my own checklist so it doesn't come up a third time. And at close I'm happy to pick up extra reconciliations for someone who's buried, because a close only finishes when everyone's part does."
Describing review notes as criticism you tolerate, or saying you prefer to be left alone entirely.
Cash basis: record income and costs when money is received or paid.
Accrual basis: record income when earned and costs when incurred, whatever the cash timing.
Why accruals: a truer picture of performance, and required by the main reporting frameworks.
"Under the cash basis, you record income when the money comes in and expenses when the money goes out. Under the accrual basis, you record income when it's earned and expenses when they're incurred, no matter when the cash moves. So if we deliver goods in March and the customer pays in April, accrual accounting puts the sale in March. Most businesses use accruals because it matches costs with the revenue they helped earn, so the profit for a period actually reflects that period. The main reporting frameworks require it for company financial statements. Cash basis is simpler, and some very small businesses can use it for tax where local rules allow, but it can make a month look great or terrible just because of when a big payment landed."
Saying accrual accounting records things 'before they happen' or confusing it with estimating future income.
Meaning: accounts assume the business keeps operating for the foreseeable future, at least twelve months ahead.
Why it matters: it is why assets are carried at cost less depreciation, not what they would fetch in a forced sale.
Warning signs: losses, cash strain, covenant breaches, loss of key customers or funding.
Response: management assesses it, and a material uncertainty must be disclosed.
"Going concern means we prepare the accounts assuming the business will keep operating for the foreseeable future. Under IFRS that means at least twelve months from the balance sheet date, while US GAAP looks a year ahead from when the accounts are issued. That's why we carry assets at cost less depreciation and split liabilities into current and non-current. If the business were closing, we'd value things on a break-up basis instead. The warning signs I'd watch are repeated losses, operating cash flow that's negative year after year, current liabilities bigger than current assets, breaching loan covenants, paying suppliers later and later, a lender refusing to renew a facility, or losing a customer that makes up a big share of sales. If I saw those, I'd raise it with my manager, because management has to make a formal assessment, and if there's a material uncertainty it has to be disclosed in the accounts."
Defining it only as 'the company is profitable' or treating it as the auditor's problem alone.
Accrual: a cost already incurred, amount and timing fairly certain.
Provision: a present obligation from a past event, outflow probable, amount or timing uncertain but estimable.
Contingent liability: possible, not probable, or not measurable, so disclosed rather than booked.
"An accrual is a cost we've already incurred where the amount and timing are fairly certain, like goods received at month-end that haven't been invoiced. A provision is a liability where the timing or amount is uncertain. Under IFRS we book one when there's a present obligation from a past event, it's probable we'll have to pay, and we can make a reliable estimate. US GAAP has a similar test, but its bar for probable is higher. Warranty claims on products already sold are a common example: we know some will come back, so we estimate the cost. A contingent liability is where the obligation is only possible, or it's present but a payment isn't probable, or we can't measure it reliably. Say a customer has sued us and our lawyers think we'll probably win. We don't book it, but we disclose it in the notes unless the chance of paying is remote."
Treating provisions as a place to smooth profit, or booking every lawsuit as a liability.
Purchase: debit inventory or purchases, credit trade payables.
Payment: debit trade payables, credit bank.
Check: each entry balances, and the payable is cleared to zero.
"When the stock arrives on credit, I debit inventory, or purchases if the business uses a periodic system, and credit trade payables for the invoice amount. That shows we have an asset and we owe the supplier. A month later, when we pay, I debit trade payables and credit the bank. The liability goes away and our cash goes down by the same amount. With a perpetual inventory system, nothing touches the income statement yet, because the cost only moves to cost of sales when the stock is sold. If there's an indirect tax like VAT that the business can recover, the tax part goes to a separate recoverable tax account rather than into the cost of the stock."
On receipt of goods and invoice:
Dr Inventory (or Purchases)
Cr Trade payables
On payment:
Dr Trade payables
Cr BankPutting the purchase straight to an expense account with no payable, or mixing up which side the bank goes on.
Prepayment: paid in advance, held as an asset, released to expense month by month.
Accrual: cost incurred but not yet invoiced, recorded as an expense and a liability.
Next month: release the prepayment and reverse or clear the accrual when the invoice arrives.
"A prepayment is when we pay before we get the benefit, like a year of insurance paid in January. I debit prepayments, which is an asset, and credit the bank. Then each month I move one twelfth to the income statement, debit insurance expense and credit prepayments, so each month carries its fair share. An accrual is the opposite. We've used something, like electricity for March, but the bill hasn't come. At month-end I debit the expense and credit accruals, a liability, using a sensible estimate. Next month I reverse that accrual, and when the real invoice is posted through payables, the two net off in April, leaving only any small difference between the estimate and the real bill. Both entries exist so costs land in the period they belong to."
Expensing the whole prepaid amount in the month it was paid, or never mentioning what happens to the accrual next month.
Short answer: no, it only proves debits equal credits.
Error types: omission, commission, principle, original entry, complete reversal, compensating.
How to catch them: reconciliations, reviews of account movements and supporting documents.
"No, a balanced trial balance only proves that total debits equal total credits. Plenty of errors keep it balanced. An error of omission is when a transaction isn't recorded at all. An error of commission is the right type of account but the wrong one, like posting to the wrong customer. An error of principle is the wrong kind of account, like treating a new machine as a repairs expense. An error of original entry is when the wrong amount goes on both sides. A complete reversal is when the debit and credit are swapped. And compensating errors are two mistakes that cancel each other out. That's why I don't stop at the trial balance. I reconcile the balance sheet accounts, look at unusual movements against last month and budget, and check big items back to documents."
Saying a balanced trial balance means the accounts are correct.
Clues: look at the size of the difference first.
Search: recent manual journals, imports and control accounts against sub-ledgers.
If time runs out: a documented suspense entry with approval, cleared as soon as possible.
"First I'd check it's a real imbalance and not a formula or a missed row in the spreadsheet, because accounting systems normally won't post an unbalanced journal, so the problem is often in the export or a manual file. Then I'd look hard at the difference itself. If it's divisible by nine, I'd look for transposed digits. If it's exactly twice some amount, something was probably posted on the wrong side. If it matches a single amount, something was probably posted on one side only. Next I'd check the manual journals and imports from the last few days, and compare control accounts with their sub-ledgers. If I truly couldn't find it in time, I'd tell my manager, agree to hold it in a suspense account with a clear note, and clear it in the first days of next month."
Posting the difference to a random expense account to make it balance and saying nothing.
Match: tick the cash book against the bank statement line by line.
Update the books: post items only on the bank, like charges, interest and direct debits.
Timing items: list uncleared payments and deposits in transit to explain the rest.
Review: follow up anything old or unexplained.
"I start with the cash book balance and the bank statement balance at the same date, then match the transactions on both. Items on the bank statement but not in our books, like bank charges, interest, direct debits or a customer's direct payment, need entries in our books, so I post those first. What's left is usually timing: payments we've recorded that haven't cleared the bank yet, and deposits we've recorded that the bank hasn't credited. I list those on the reconciliation so the adjusted cash book balance equals the bank balance after the timing items. The last step is the one people skip. I look at the age of every reconciling item. A payment that still hasn't cleared after a couple of months needs chasing, and anything I can't explain goes to my manager, not into a plug."
Balancing the reconciliation with an unexplained adjustment, or not knowing which items need a journal entry.
Starting point: the account, the size of the gap and how long it had been there.
Method: how you broke the problem into smaller pieces.
Outcome: what caused it, what you corrected and what stopped it coming back.
"The hardest one was an intercompany account between two of our entities that hadn't agreed for most of a year. Each side blamed the other. I started by getting both ledgers for the full year and reconciling month by month, which showed most of the gap started in one quarter. Within that quarter, I matched invoice by invoice and found two causes. One entity was booking recharges in the month they were raised and the other in the month they were received, which was just timing. The bigger cause was a batch of recharges booked in one entity and never booked in the other at all. We posted the missing entries with both controllers signing off, agreed a single cut-off rule, and I set up a monthly intercompany confirmation so it couldn't drift again."
Solving it by posting the difference to a sundry account without finding the cause.
Three documents: purchase order, goods received note, supplier invoice.
What is matched: item, quantity and price across all three.
What it stops: paying for goods not ordered, not received, overpriced or billed twice.
"A three-way match compares three documents before an invoice is approved for payment: the purchase order, which says what we agreed to buy and at what price; the goods received note, which says what actually arrived; and the supplier's invoice, which says what they're charging. If the items, quantities and prices line up, the invoice can go through. If they don't, it's held until someone resolves the difference. It stops us paying for things nobody ordered, things that never arrived, prices above what was agreed, and invoices that have already been paid. Most systems allow a small tolerance so tiny rounding differences don't block everything. For services there's often no delivery note, so it becomes a two-way match with the budget holder confirming the work was done."
Treating an approved invoice as enough on its own, or not knowing what a goods received note is.
Understand: find out why the invoice is unpaid, such as a dispute or cash trouble.
Agree a plan: work with sales on how and when to chase, and apply the credit policy.
Account: review the balance for impairment if payment looks doubtful.
"I'd start by asking sales why, because there's usually a reason. Maybe there's a dispute over a delivery, or they're negotiating a new contract and don't want to spoil it. If it's a dispute, the fix is to resolve it, not to ignore the invoice. Either way, I can't just leave a big balance sitting there, because it's cash we're owed and a real credit risk. So I'd suggest a joint approach: sales makes a friendly call first, and if nothing happens by an agreed date, we follow the normal credit process, which may mean putting new orders on hold. I'd also flag it to my manager and look at whether the balance needs an impairment allowance at month-end, because if payment is doubtful, the balance sheet shouldn't pretend otherwise."
Either doing exactly what sales says with no follow-up, or chasing aggressively without talking to sales first.
Straight-line: cost less residual value, spread evenly over the useful life.
Reducing balance: a fixed rate applied to the carrying amount, so charges fall each year.
Choosing: match the pattern in which the asset's benefit is consumed.
"Straight-line takes the cost, less the expected residual value, and spreads it evenly across the useful life, so the charge is the same every year. Reducing balance applies a fixed rate to the carrying amount, which is cost less depreciation so far, so the charge is biggest in year one and gets smaller each year. The choice should follow how the asset actually gives its benefit. Buildings, furniture or a machine that works at a steady pace suit straight-line. Vehicles or IT equipment that lose value and usefulness quickly in the early years suit reducing balance. Whichever one we use, it should be applied consistently to similar assets. And the depreciation in the books isn't necessarily what the tax rules allow, so the tax computation often uses a different figure."
Saying the method is chosen to make profit look better, or forgetting residual value in straight-line.
FIFO: the oldest costs go to cost of sales first, so closing stock holds the latest prices.
Weighted average: each unit carries the average cost of what is on hand.
Rising prices: FIFO gives lower cost of sales, higher profit and higher closing stock.
Floor: stock is held at the lower of cost and net realisable value.
"FIFO assumes the first units bought are the first ones sold. So cost of sales uses the older costs, and the stock left at the end is valued at the most recent prices. Weighted average blends everything, so each unit sold carries the average cost of what's on hand. When purchase prices are rising, FIFO pushes the cheaper, older costs into cost of sales, so cost of sales is lower, profit is higher and closing stock is higher than under weighted average. Weighted average smooths that out. Whichever method we use, stock can't sit above what we could sell it for, so it's held at the lower of cost and net realisable value. Some frameworks also allow LIFO, but IFRS doesn't, so I'd always check which rules the business reports under."
Getting the rising-price effect backwards, or not mentioning the net realisable value test.
Recount: recount the largest variances by item first.
Look for record errors: cut-off, unposted receipts or dispatches, units of measure, stock at other sites.
Adjust and fix: an approved adjustment for real losses, then the root cause and controls.
"I wouldn't adjust the books straight away, because a lot of count differences turn out to be recording problems, not missing stock. I'd sort the variances by value and recount the biggest items first. Then I'd check cut-off around the count date: goods dispatched but not yet invoiced, deliveries received but not booked in, and returns sitting in a corner. I'd look for unit-of-measure mistakes, like boxes counted against a system that tracks single items, and for stock at another site or in transit. Whatever is left after that is likely a genuine loss. I'd post an approved adjustment, reducing inventory and charging the loss to cost of sales or a stock loss account, with the count sheets attached. Then I'd look at why it happened, whether theft, damage or poor booking, and tighten the control that failed."
Posting the full difference as a write-off straight away without recounting or checking cut-off.
Cut-off: sales and receipts of goods captured in the right month, then the sub-ledgers closed.
Journals to trial balance: accruals, prepayments, depreciation and payroll posted to the ledger, which rolls up into the trial balance.
Reconcile and review: balance sheet reconciliations and a variance review before reports and sign-off.
Year-end extras: stock count, fixed asset review, provisions, the tax charge and the audit file.
"I think of it as getting everything in, checking it, then reporting it. First is cut-off: every sale invoiced and every delivery received logged in the right month, then payables and receivables closed so nothing else slips in. Next come the standard journals, like accruals, prepayment releases, depreciation and payroll. Everything posts to the general ledger, and the ledger balances roll up into the trial balance. Then I reconcile the balance sheet accounts, like the bank and the control accounts against their sub-ledgers, and review the income statement against last month and budget for anything odd. Once that's clean, the reports go out with commentary and the period gets locked. Year-end adds more on top: a physical stock count, a review of fixed assets for disposals and impairment, a fresh look at provisions and bad debts, the tax charge, and a tidy file ready for the auditors."
Listing tasks in no order, or sending out reports before the balance sheet accounts are reconciled.
Situation: what the error was and how you found it.
Action: who you told, how you sized it and how you corrected it.
Prevention: the check you added so it wouldn't happen again.
"At my last company I was reviewing the expense lines against budget a few days after close, and one cost centre's utilities were double what I expected. I traced it and found I'd posted an accrual for the quarter's bill and then the actual invoice had come in and been posted without my accrual being reversed. The month was already closed, so I told my manager straight away, with the amount and which reports it affected. It wasn't material, so we agreed to correct it in the current month with a clear journal description, and I let the budget holder know why their costs would drop. Afterwards I set every accrual I post to auto-reverse in the system, and I added a check to my close list comparing accruals to invoices received."
Claiming you've never made a mistake, or describing fixing it quietly without telling anyone.
Problem: what was slow or error-prone, with a rough measure.
Changes: two or three concrete steps you made.
Result: how you knew it worked, and what stayed the same for quality.
"When I joined my last team, the close took about eight working days, mostly because everything waited until the books were locked. I made three changes. First, a shared close calendar with an owner and a due day for every task, so nobody was guessing. Second, I moved prepayment releases and recurring accruals to standard templates and recurring journals set up before month-end, so they posted on day one. Third, I started doing bank and payables reconciliations weekly instead of only at month-end, so there was very little left to investigate at close. Within three months we were closing in five days. Just as important, the number of post-close corrections went down, because reviewers had time to actually review instead of rushing."
An answer where the only change was the team working late, or no measure of before and after.
Disagreement: what they challenged and why they thought it was wrong.
Check: how you re-checked your own work first.
Explain: how you walked them through it in their terms, and the outcome.
"A sales manager at my last company was unhappy because his department's costs were well over budget one month. He was sure we'd posted someone else's costs to his team. Before arguing, I pulled the detail behind the number and checked each large item. One invoice really was coded to the wrong cost centre, so I told him that and fixed it the same day. The rest was an accrual for a trade show his team had attended, where the invoice hadn't arrived yet. I explained it without jargon: the event happened this month, so the cost belongs to this month, even though the bill will come later. Once he saw the event name and the quote behind it, he was fine. I started sending him a short list of his accruals each month so it wouldn't surprise him again."
Insisting you were right without checking, or changing a correct number just to keep someone happy.
Gather: purchase orders, contracts, timesheets, goods-received reports and past months.
Estimate: book a sensible, documented accrual and flag it.
Follow up: true it up when the invoice arrives, and fix the process for next time.
"First I'd try to get the information directly, with a quick call to the budget holder rather than another email, because a two-minute answer beats an estimate. If they can't give me a number in time, I'd build one from what I have: the contract rate or purchase order, any timesheets or delivery records, and what the contractor billed in similar months. I'd post the accrual with a note saying how I estimated it, set it to reverse next month and tell my manager it's an estimate. When the real invoice comes in, I'd compare it to the accrual and look into any big difference. Then I'd fix the root cause by agreeing a simple cut-off deadline with that department, so they send me their open work two days before close."
Leaving the cost out because there's no invoice yet, or posting a number with no basis and no note.
Sales: output tax charged to customers is a liability to the tax authority.
Purchases: recoverable input tax paid to suppliers is an asset or a reduction of that liability.
Return: the net of output less input is paid or reclaimed, and the control account is reconciled to the return.
"When we sell, we charge the customer tax on top of the price. I debit receivables with the full amount, credit revenue with the net amount, and credit the output tax account, because we owe that to the tax authority. When we buy something where the tax is recoverable, I debit the expense or asset with the net amount, debit input tax, and credit payables with the full amount. At the end of the return period, output tax less input tax is what we pay, or what we reclaim if input is bigger. Before filing, I reconcile the tax control account to the return and to the sales and purchase reports, so they all agree. The rates, what's recoverable and the filing deadlines depend on the country, so I always work from the local rules and the business's own tax registration."
Recording output tax as revenue, or not knowing the control account has to be reconciled before filing.
Principle: split authorising, recording, handling assets and reconciling between people.
Small team: assign the riskiest duties to different people first, especially payments and supplier changes.
Compensating controls: reviews, dual bank approval, system logs and owner sign-off where full splits are impossible.
"Segregation of duties means no single person can start a transaction, approve it, record it and then check it, because that's how errors and fraud go unnoticed. In a three-person team you can't split everything, so I'd focus on the riskiest flow, which is paying money out. One person sets up suppliers and enters invoices, a second approves the payment run and releases it in the bank, and the third does the bank reconciliation. Any change to a supplier's bank details needs a second person to approve it. Where the split can't be clean, I'd add compensating controls: dual authorisation on the bank for anything above a set limit, a monthly review of the supplier master change log, and the finance manager or owner reviewing and signing the bank reconciliation and the payment run."
Saying segregation of duties can't work in a small team, so there's no point trying.
Preparation: schedules tied to the trial balance, reconciliations and supporting documents.
During fieldwork: how you tracked and answered requests.
Result: how it went, and what you'd do differently next year.
"Last year-end I was the main contact for the payables and accruals sections of our audit. Before fieldwork I prepared a schedule for each balance that tied to the trial balance, with the reconciliation behind it and the key invoices and contracts saved in one folder. The auditors asked for a sample of invoices to check back to purchase orders and payments, a list of payments made after year-end to test for unrecorded liabilities, and support for our larger accruals. I kept a tracker of every request with a date and owner, so nothing got lost, and answered most within a day. They found one accrual we'd estimated too high, which we adjusted. Next time I'd prepare the post-year-end payments list before they ask, because that was the request that took longest."
Treating auditors as opponents, or describing handing over documents with no reconciliation to the books.
Principle: the cost belongs to the period the goods or services were received, whatever the invoice date.
Response: say no calmly, explain why, and offer an honest alternative.
Escalate: if the pressure continues, raise it through the proper channel and keep a record.
"I'd stay calm and not treat it as an accusation, because sometimes people don't realise what they're asking. I'd explain that holding the invoice doesn't change anything, because the service was received this month, so the cost belongs to this month, and if the invoice didn't go through I'd have to accrue it anyway. Leaving it out would misstate the results, and it would just move the problem into next month. Then I'd offer something useful: a clear note in the monthly commentary explaining why costs are higher, so the result makes sense to whoever reads it. If my manager still insisted, I'd raise it with the financial controller or through whatever reporting route the company has, and I'd keep a short note of what was asked. I'd rather have an awkward conversation than sign off numbers I know are wrong."
Agreeing to hold it because the manager is senior, or refusing in a way that accuses them of fraud outright.
Pause: don't change anything based on the email alone.
Verify: call the supplier on a number already on file, not the one in the email.
Control: a documented change with a second approver, and hold the payment if in doubt.
"I wouldn't change anything from the email alone, because fake bank-change requests are one of the most common ways businesses lose money, and the email can look genuine or even come from the supplier's real account if it's been hacked. I'd call the supplier on a phone number we already have on file, not one from the email, and speak to someone I can confirm. If they confirm, I'd follow our change process: a written request on file, the change entered by one person and approved by another, and ideally a small check that the new account is genuine. If I couldn't verify it before the payment run, I'd hold that supplier's payment and tell them why. If anything looked off, I'd report it to my manager and IT, since other suppliers might be targeted too."
Updating the details straight away because the email looked real or the payment was urgent.
Key: match on something reliable, like amount plus reference or date.
Functions: COUNTIFS on amount plus reference, run from both sides, and SUMIFS to total what is left.
Review: flag missing and duplicate items, and summarise with a pivot table.
"I'd put both exports in the same workbook as tables, clean up the amount signs and dates so they're consistent, then match on something reliable, usually the amount plus a reference. For each ledger line I'd use COUNTIFS against the bank sheet to see how many bank lines have the same amount and reference. Zero means it's missing from the bank, one is a clean match, and more than one means a possible duplicate I need to look at. I run the same check from the bank side, so bank lines missing from the ledger and ledger duplicates show up too. Then SUMIFS totals the unmatched items on each side so I can see they explain the difference between the two balances. I finish with a pivot table of the unmatched items by type, so my reviewer can see the whole picture without redoing my work."
Ledger!F2 =COUNTIFS(Bank!$C$2:$C$2000, C2, Bank!$D$2:$D$2000, D2)
Ledger!G2 =IF(F2=0, "Missing in bank", IF(F2>1, "Check duplicate", "Matched"))
Bank!F2 =COUNTIFS(Ledger!$C$2:$C$2000, C2, Ledger!$D$2:$D$2000, D2)
Bank!G2 =IF(F2=0, "Missing in ledger", IF(F2>1, "Check duplicate", "Matched"))
Unmatched =SUMIFS(Ledger!$C$2:$C$2000, Ledger!$G$2:$G$2000, "Missing in bank")Describing only manual ticking and scrolling, with no way for a reviewer to check the result.
Situation: the old and new setup, and your part in the move.
Checks: the trial balance and the open items tied out between old and new.
Result: what the checks found, and how you got up to speed on the system.
"At my last company we moved from an old desktop package to a cloud accounting system at the start of a financial year. My part was the opening balances and the open items. Before go-live, I ran the closing trial balance from the old system and checked that the opening balances in the new one agreed line by line. Then I checked the detail, not just the totals. The unpaid supplier invoices and customer balances had to match the old ageing reports, because that's what people pay and chase from. That found a few customer credit notes that hadn't come across, so the customer detail didn't add up to the control account. We fixed it before any statements went out. To learn the system, I did my own monthly tasks in the test version first, so by the first real close I wasn't guessing."
Saying the software provider handled the move so there was nothing for finance to check.
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