Accounts Assistant Job Description

An Accounts Assistant supports the finance department by keeping the day-to-day accounting accurate: processing purchase and sales invoices, preparing supplier payments, reconciling the bank, handling expenses and petty cash and helping with month-end, VAT and the audit. It is usually an entry-level or early-career role, but the quality of that work flows straight into the management accounts, the VAT return and the year-end statutory accounts. Our explainer on what an Accounts Assistant does covers the role and career route in more depth.

This page gives you a complete Accounts Assistant job description you can copy and edit for a job advert, an internal role profile or a recruitment brief. Below the template you will find the KPIs to set, how the role varies between businesses, a pay guide, common mistakes in writing the specification and where an Accounts Assistant career leads. For a narrower ledger role, see the Sales Ledger Clerk job description or the Purchase Ledger Clerk job description.

Accounts Assistant Job Description Template

Job Title: Accounts Assistant | Location: [Insert location and hybrid pattern] | Job Type: [Full-Time / Part-Time] | Department: Finance / Accounting | Reports To: [Finance Manager / Financial Controller] | Salary: [Insert — see the pay guide below]

Edit the bracketed fields, delete duties that do not apply and add the systems, volumes and sector detail that matter in your business.

Job Summary

The Accounts Assistant is responsible for supporting the finance department and making sure accounting operations run smoothly. The role involves maintaining accurate financial records, processing invoices and payments, managing petty cash and expenses, and helping with month-end and year-end tasks. The ideal candidate will be detail-oriented, organised and able to manage multiple financial tasks efficiently to deadline.

Key Responsibilities

• Invoice Processing: Process purchase invoices, matching them to purchase orders and delivery records and coding them accurately to the relevant nominal codes and departments.
• Supplier Payments: Help prepare payment runs, making sure suppliers are paid accurately and on time, and follow the verification process for any change to supplier bank details.
• Sales Ledger: Raise sales invoices and credit notes, allocate customer receipts and chase overdue accounts as needed.
• Bank Reconciliations: Perform daily and monthly bank reconciliations, making sure all transactions are recorded accurately and unreconciled items are investigated.
• Petty Cash Management: Handle petty cash requests and reconcile petty cash regularly.
• Expense Claims: Process employee expense claims, checking receipts and compliance with company policy.
• Financial Record Keeping: Maintain accurate, up-to-date financial records and file documents for easy retrieval and audit.
• Month-End Support: Help with month-end closing, including journals, prepayments, accruals and balance sheet reconciliations.
• VAT Returns: Help prepare VAT returns, checking VAT coding on transactions and supporting submission under Making Tax Digital.
• Payroll Support: [Where relevant] collate starters, leavers and changes for payroll and post payroll journals.
• Ad Hoc Reporting: Provide financial reports and analysis as requested by the finance team or management.
• Assistance with Audits: Support the finance team during internal and external audits by providing documentation and answering queries.
• General Administrative Duties: Answer finance queries, manage correspondence and support the wider finance team.

Key Requirements

• Education: AAT qualification or working towards an accounting qualification (such as AAT, ACCA or CIMA) is preferred. GCSEs (or equivalent) in Maths and English.
• Experience: One to two years in a finance or accounting role is preferred but not essential for entry-level positions.
• Skills: Strong attention to detail and a high level of accuracy; a basic understanding of double entry and financial processes; proficiency in accounting software such as Sage, Xero or QuickBooks and in Microsoft Excel; good organisational skills; strong communication skills and the ability to work well in a team.
• Personal Attributes: Proactive and willing to learn; able to work under pressure and meet deadlines; discreet and able to handle confidential financial information with integrity.

Benefits

• Salary of [insert].
• Study support for professional accounting qualifications (such as AAT, ACCA or CIMA).
• [Pension scheme, health insurance, holiday entitlement and other benefits].
• Opportunities for career growth within the finance department.
• A friendly and supportive working environment.

How to Apply

Please send your CV and a short covering letter explaining your experience, the accounting software you have used and any qualifications you hold or are studying for, to [insert contact] by [insert closing date].

Key Performance Indicators

Setting a few measurable targets makes the role easier to manage and fairer to appraise. Typical KPIs for an Accounts Assistant include: purchase invoices processed within [X] days of receipt; bank reconciliations completed daily or weekly with no unexplained items older than [X] days; supplier payment runs on schedule with no duplicate or erroneous payments; month-end tasks delivered by the agreed day of the close timetable; and expense claims processed within [X] days. If the month-end close regularly runs late, our guide to optimising the month-end close explains where transactional processing usually holds it up.

How the Role Varies Between Businesses

In a small business the Accounts Assistant may be the only finance employee below an external accountant, covering both ledgers, payroll input and VAT; in that case the role overlaps heavily with a bookkeeper, and the job description should say so. In a mid-sized business with a Finance Manager or Financial Controller, the role is usually more defined, focused on purchase ledger, bank and month-end support, with a separate credit controller or payroll function. In an accountancy practice an Accounts Assistant prepares client bookkeeping, VAT returns and draft accounts rather than supporting one in-house team.

Be clear which version you are hiring for. A candidate who has spent two years on a high-volume purchase ledger is a different hire from one who has run the books of a small company end to end, and our guide to part-qualified, newly qualified and experienced candidates explains how experience levels translate into the next steps up.

Accounts Assistant Pay Guide

Pay depends on location, experience, qualifications and the breadth of the role. As a cautious guide, entry-level full-time roles generally start in the mid £20,000s, close to the National Living Wage, while experienced or AAT-qualified Accounts Assistants typically earn into the high £20,000s and low £30,000s, with London and the South East at the upper end. Study support is often as important to candidates as base pay. Check current local adverts before setting a salary, and see our accountancy salary guides for the qualified roles the career leads to.

Common Mistakes in an Accounts Assistant Job Description

• Asking for a qualified accountant’s skills at entry-level pay. Statutory accounts preparation, management accounts ownership and tax computations belong to qualified roles.
• Listing every task in the department. A long, unprioritised list puts off good candidates. Lead with the three or four duties that take most of the week.
• Leaving out the systems. Name the accounting software and any expense, payment or purchase-to-pay tools; experienced candidates search by them.
• No mention of study support. Ambitious candidates want to know whether you will support AAT or a chartered qualification.

Qualifications and Career Path

The AAT qualifications are the usual starting point, and many employers fund them through study support packages. After AAT, many Accounts Assistants move on to ACCA or CIMA, progressing through assistant accountant to a qualified role such as management accountant or financial accountant. Our guide to accountancy career paths maps the options, and the Management Accountant job description shows what the first qualified role usually involves.

VAT knowledge is a useful differentiator early on. HMRC’s VAT guide (Notice 700) is the reference most Accounts Assistants use, and familiarity with it marks out candidates ready for more responsibility.

For Employers: Where the Role Fits

An Accounts Assistant usually reports to a Finance Manager or Financial Controller, who reviews their reconciliations, approves payment runs and owns the numbers in the management accounts. The Finance Manager job description and Financial Controller job description set out what those roles own. If your Accounts Assistant is producing the management accounts unsupervised, or month-end depends entirely on them, the gap is usually qualified oversight; our guide on how to build a finance team explains the structure that fixes it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does an Accounts Assistant do?

Processes invoices and payments, reconciles the bank, handles expenses and petty cash, and supports month-end, VAT and the audit.

Do you need AAT to be an Accounts Assistant?

Not always. Many entry-level roles ask only for GCSEs and good Excel skills, but AAT (or studying towards it) is preferred and helps with progression.

What is the difference between an Accounts Assistant and an Assistant Accountant?

The titles are often used interchangeably. Where both exist, an Assistant Accountant is usually more senior, preparing journals, reconciliations and parts of the management accounts.

Does Accountancy Capital recruit Accounts Assistants?

No. We focus on qualified finance roles from around £50,000. Browse our job descriptions library for other roles, or call 0204 553 8893 to discuss a qualified hire.