The Soft Skills Required to be a Successful Accountant

Read about the soft skills required in accountancy.

You could have a brilliant accountant on your team, they can calculate any sum before you have the time to blink, and their knowledge of complex tax laws is so vast you sometimes wish you could borrow their brain – and yet they don’t always get the results you’d expect.

Why is that? It might be because they don’t have the soft skills required to get the job done.

Soft skills are personal attributes that describe how you interact with others. These are the skills you need to be really great at a job, beyond the qualifications and knowledge you’d normally expect a particular industry to need. We thought we’d go over some of the vital soft skills needed to become an accounting success.

 

Communication skills

Explaining complex stuff to clients can be easier said than done, especially when spreadsheets and numbers are second nature to you. It’s your job to simplify jargon to people who may have zero experience with accounts, while also reassuring them and building a relationship of trust.

You’ll need to communicate well using a range of methods, this will usually be in person, over the phone or via email. Email is the most common way accountants speak with their clients, so you’ll need to make sure you can explain jargon or anything technical over email, in a way that isn’t too clunky, is easy to read, and all whilst being friendly and professional.

This is a big part of the job, and if you’re good at it you’ll go far in your career.

 

Organisation

You’ll have various clients who require different levels of service. Some may have larger accounts than others, but all of them need to be treated with the same standards of excellent care. If you can keep your client list organised, and your meetings, notes and any other paperwork stored in a way that works for you, it’ll make your job much easier, and give you the time to brush up on those soft skills.

 

Good tech knowledge

Or the ability to pick up new tech easily…

There is nothing worse than tech slowing you down and hindering your performance. Getting to grips with accountancy software and the ability to work across a variety of platforms is essential. It also allows you to offer more support to your clients if they ever need help, for example if they want to move data from one booking software to another.

If this is something you struggle with, there’s always online courses to help you get to grips with certain software, and no employer will expect you to know everything on your first day. So don’t panic, even though this is a must, there’s always a way around it!

 

Problem Solving

Like any aspect of life, problems can sometimes crop up when you’re working. Some expected, and others not so much. And it’s those ones that make your head hurt and palms sweaty (but let’s not break out into Eminem).

This is where you need to apply logic and offer different solutions to resolve the issue, and this will depend on a variety of things such as your client, or how big the issue is.

Problem solving skills develop and get much better with experience, but training can help. Problem solving effectively takes intelligence, critical thinking, and creativity.

There are lots of ways you can work on these skills, such as employer-led skills sessions, joining your student union, or volunteering with one of over 400 local charities UCL are partnered with.

Learn more about how you can do this by checking out the skills hub here.

 

Enthusiasm for learning 

All great accountants are enthusiastic about what they do. The more you put yourself forward for things such as qualifications and courses, the more you’re going to grow in your career – which is so exciting. This is great for your employer, but also your clients. When they see how important they are to you, and your desire to help them grow their business and achieve their goals, the better the relationship, with a much higher chance of it being long-lasting.

 

How important are soft skills?

Soft skills are super important, in fact one report found soft skills were the most desired qualifications for 91% of management jobs, 86% of business-operation jobs and 81% of engineering jobs.

So, we’d highly recommend brushing up on those soft skills, while thinking about your accountancy qualifications. If you do find yourself needing to brush up on any soft skills, there are plenty of online courses to help you too – we wish you the best of luck in your accounting career!

 

Article written by Rachel Johnston - Content Marketing Executive of The Accountancy Partnership – Providing online accountancy services nationwide for a low, fixed monthly fee.