Questions to Ask in Accounting Interview
For a candidate who is already interested in the role and now wants to know what the ledger actually looks like. Every question here is about the work: how long the close takes, what it runs on, who reviews what, how revenue is recognised, and what the last audit turned up. Nothing here covers hours, pay or the people, which sit on the companion list about the department itself.
The questions
Open any question for the note
How long does the month-end close take now, and how long do you want it to take?
Why ask it
Two numbers and the gap between them describe the department. A fifteen day close with no target means nobody upstream is pushing for better; a five day target on a twelve day close means you are being hired to fix it.
What ERP are you on, and when did you last change systems?
Why ask it
A migration in the last eighteen months means unreconciled history and workarounds you will inherit. A system untouched for fifteen years means custom reports and one person who understands them.
Which parts of the close are still done in spreadsheets?
Why ask it
Every department has some. The question is whether they can name them, because the ones nobody can name are the ones with no review and no backup owner.
How many entities and currencies would I be consolidating?
Why ask it
Entity count is the best single predictor of how complicated your month looks. Intercompany eliminations and translation are where the hours go, and they rarely appear in job postings.
Who prepares the reconciliations, and who reviews them?
Why ask it
If preparer and reviewer are the same person, there is no segregation of duties and you may be walking into an audit finding. Listen for whether review means signing or actually checking.
Which schedules would land on my desk in the first week of a close?
Why ask it
Turns an abstract job description into a list. If they cannot produce one, the role's scope has not been decided and it will expand into whatever is left over.
How does this role split between reporting and analysis?
Why ask it
Postings promise business partnering and deliver reconciliations. Ask for the split as a percentage, then ask who does the analysis today, which is the answer that gives it away.
Do you report under GAAP or IFRS, and is there any other reporting basis in play?
Why ask it
Statutory accounts, tax basis, and covenant reporting often coexist, each with its own deadline. Multiple bases mean multiple closes, which is a workload question rather than a technical one.
Are you audited, reviewed, or neither, and who signs it?
Why ask it
An audit imposes a rhythm and a documentation standard on your year. No audit sounds easier and usually means the controls are informal and you are the only check on the numbers.
What came up in the last audit, and what is still open?
Why ask it
Adjusting entries and management letter points are the most honest description of a department's weaknesses you will get. Reluctance to answer is itself a finding worth weighing.
How is revenue recognized here, and how much judgment sits in it?
Why ask it
Multi-element contracts, milestones, and variable consideration are where restatements start. You want to know whether the policy is documented or lives in someone's head.
Who owns the tax provision, and how much of it is done in house?
Why ask it
If the answer is that the auditors or an outside firm handle it, deadlines land on you as data requests at the worst possible moment. If it is in house, ask who reviews it.
What is the approval chain for a journal entry, and does the system enforce it?
Why ask it
Policy on paper and controls in software are different things. Entries that can be posted without a second pair of eyes tell you both the control environment and how exposed you would personally be.
How does accounting find out about a new contract or a new vendor?
Why ask it
The gap between the business signing something and finance hearing about it causes most late adjustments. Answers involving a shared inbox or someone mentioning it in passing are a warning.
How close has the forecast been to actuals over the past year?
Why ask it
Chronic variance means either the business cannot predict itself or the numbers are being managed. Either way you will spend your time explaining differences rather than reporting results.
Where does the department lose the most time to rework?
Why ask it
Asks for the bottleneck without asking anyone to admit fault. A specific answer means someone has looked; a general answer about volume means nobody has.
If I had to pick up someone else's work, what state is the documentation in?
Why ask it
Determines how bad it gets when a colleague leaves or takes leave in close week. It also tells you the standard you will be held to for your own files.
How does this team handle it when the numbers don't support what the business wants to report?
Why ask it
The most important question in the set and the one candidates skip. You want a concrete example of pushback, not a statement about integrity, because every department says it has integrity.
What is on the improvement list that nobody has had time to start?
Why ask it
Names the work you would actually be given once the close is stable. It also shows whether the department is behind by choice or through understaffing.
What would you want fixed first if I started tomorrow?
Why ask it
Ends on their priority in their words, which is the standard your first review will be written against. If it does not match the job posting, believe this answer.
Talking about the work in an accounting interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Preparation that pays off
Read the filings if they are public
For a listed company, the annual report gives you the auditor, the segments, the revenue policy, and any disclosed control weaknesses. Quoting one line from it turns a generic interview into a specific conversation.
Work out what the close probably looks like
Company size, entity count, and industry let you guess at complexity. Going in with a hypothesis and asking them to correct it produces better answers than open questions do.
Have your own examples ready in numbers
Days to close, number of accounts reconciled, entities consolidated, size of the entries you were trusted with. Accountants judge accountants by scale, and vague claims about improving processes do not survive follow up.
Answers worth paying attention to
- A close that takes longer than two weeks with no plan to shorten it.
- Preparer and reviewer being the same person on material reconciliations.
- Nobody able to say what the last audit turned up.
- A key spreadsheet that only one person understands.
- Journal entries that can be posted without a second approval.
- An improvement list that has not changed in two years.
What goes wrong
Only asking about systems
Naming software is easy and tells you little. What matters is who does the work in that software, who reviews it, and what still happens outside it.
Not asking about the audit
Candidates worry it sounds impolite. It is a standard question and the answer predicts how many of your evenings the first quarter will take.
Asking only technical questions
You still need to know who you report to and what the hours are during close. A department can be technically clean and unpleasant to work in.