The primary role of a staff accountant is to help the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and the senior accountants of the company to maintain the financial records of a business. Typically, he or she is an entry level or one of the lower level positions in the accounting or finance department. A person in this position does everything from administrative work to finance and accounting duties that relates to the financial aspects of a business or company.
The specific duties and responsibilities of a staff accountant can and does vary from company to company. Generally, he or she is responsible for managing the fixed assets and depreciation schedules of any assets the company owns. This information is shared with and provided to both the senior accountants and the CFO.
Another one of the responsibilities of a staff accountant is to run the purchasing and invoicing system the company uses for the sale and payment of its products and/or services. He or she also typically pays invoices by processing and mailing out the checks after the senior accountant above them or the CFO has signed the check and approved the invoice payment.
In most companies, the accountant would also deal with the company payroll. This includes managing employee time cards, vacation days, personal days and sick days. In addition to tracking and collecting this information from the individual employees, the staff accountant configures payroll numbers minus taxes, social security and any other deductions the employee has coming out of their check.
A staff accountant may be required to maintain and print out reports and financial statements for upper management. Some of these financial statements include cash flow statements, the balance sheet and the income statement. All of these reports and statements help the accountant to show upper management where the company’s financial situation stands.
These accountants are also responsible for ensuring the company makes all of its tax payments on time. Staff accountants can work for private or public companies, state or federal government agencies or other types of organizations.
While this accounting position is typically an entry-level position into the finance or accounting department of a company, most companies require staff accountants to have a college degree in accounting or finance. Some companies will allow employees to supplement previous experience in bookkeeping or accounting in lieu of a college degree.
