Staff Accountant Test

What is a staff accountant skills test?

The staff accountant job skills test is an evaluation of the skills and competencies that a candidate needs to be successful in a role as a staff accountant.

This test is usually used early in the recruitment process as a pre-employment assessment that focuses on the application of knowledge and experience as well as the so-called ‘soft skills’ that are an essential part of the success of any applicant - with a particular focus on those aptitudes that will be used daily in the role.

For the applicant, the staff accountant skills test is simply received in an email link, and they complete the assessment in their own time. Every candidate has the same opportunity to demonstrate their skills by answering the questions correctly.

For the recruitment team, the test can be administered to a large number of candidates at the same time, and the immediately available results will simply show which candidates have performed the best - making it a data-driven way to select the right candidates to take further into the recruitment process.

What are the benefits of using the staff accountant skills test for pre-screening?

A staff accountant is usually a middle-weight position, working under senior accountants - and in most cases, the recruitment team will use certain qualifications (ACA/ACCA) as a prerequisite, which makes the paper sift process easier.

However, once the resumes and application forms have been filtered, assessing candidates on their application of knowledge and their other skills and attributes is not easy - not even in an interview. With a large candidate pool of similarly qualified candidates, the staff accountant job skills test will be an excellent tool to ensure that only the best performers are taken further in the process.

While staff accountants might not have seniority in the finance department, they do need to have certain skills to be successful. They will be responsible for completing reports, doing bookkeeping, and in some cases creating budgets and preparing documents for external audits.

Staff accountants need to be able to demonstrate that they are both numerate and literate, with excellent attention to detail and an analytical mind. They need to work effectively as part of a team and be able to communicate effectively in both writing and verbally. Staff accountants might have responsibility for things like making payments, recording transactions, and entering data, so they also need to have excellent organization and time management skills.

The staff accountant test gives all applicants the same opportunity to show that they have a high level of required skills. The multiple-choice questions are asked of every candidate, which means that the results of the assessment are unbiased; there is no chance of personal preferences coloring the results. The data is easy to understand, with the highest-scoring candidates being the ones that have shown they have the right skills for the role.

The staff accountant skills test might be useful for roles like Accounting Technician as well - and for the recruitment team, it is a simple and effective way to reduce costs in the hiring process, making it cheaper and more efficient. Using the staff accountant test will ensure that all the candidates chosen to move forward in the process are qualified and skilled, which in turn reduces the risk of a bad hire.