Accounting For SMEs: How to Become a Small Business Accountant

I often receive mails from my readers requesting to know how a person can become a small business accountant or SME accountant, so this article explains all you need to know about accounting for SMEs.

SME accounting involves the systematic process of tracking, recording and analyzing the financial transactions of a small business. It converts numbers into an easy-to-explain statement about the profitability of a business.

Without wasting our valuable time, let’s go straight to the point. I will be explaining in details about how to become a small business accountant. So just take a seat, relax as you enjoy.

Although not compulsory, but having a degree in accountancy or any related courses prepares you for more complex problems in accounting. Don’t worry if you don’t have a degree because you can still become an accountant without a degree. But you have to spend extra time learning about accounting and its application.

If you decide to become a professional accountant by enrolling into any professional accountancy body without a first degree, you have to take some rudimentary courses that are exempted for people with higher degrees in accounting or any degree.

Summary of this point is that you don’t need any formal educational qualification to become a small business accountant. The most important requirement is the passion to learn the basics of accounting and business mathematics that accountants  need to know.

Accounting is a noble profession and forbids people who are not qualified to become practitioners. Though you don’t need to become a member of any professional accounting body to be a small business accountant, the most important thing is for you to have the expertise and experience. But one of the disadvantages is that there will be a limit to what you can do as an accountant if you don't belong to any professional accountancy body, one of them is that you can't endorse a financial statement or an audited financial statement.

AAT, CIMA, ICAN, ACCA or any other recognized professional accounting bodies depending on your country are some designations that you can pursue to become an SME accountant.

Working experience as an accountant with small businesses is an important requirement that employers look for when hiring a small business accountant. The kind of experience that I refer to is a formal experience or an accounting experience working as a small business accountant or trainee. You can always intern at reputable accountancy firms that are into accounting for SMEs, so you can get the experience required for growth.

You also need to be very comfortable with computers and internet, the world is now a global village and there are so many things you can do on the internet. This will enable you add real value to your clients and employer.

Accountancy has gone beyond the manual way of recording financial transactions. These days, it is done through softwares. So don't be a stone age accountant, develop yourself to be a modern accountant. Learn how to use the best small business accounting software. You can enroll for training on how to use accounting softwares, you can also learn it online through YouTube.

The best SME Accounting software include Sage, QuickBooks, Zoho, etc. You will know how to prepare ledger, cashbook, reconcile bank statements, etc. Learning to use at least two accounting softwares will give you an edge over your competitors. 

Becoming an SME accountant requires certain soft skills that are not taught in any accounting degree or professional course. These soft skills will make you excel in your career.

Your soft skills are what give you a great competitive advantage over other qualified candidates. The good thing about soft skills is that you will get them on your journey to becoming a small business accountant.

I believe that this article has answered your question on accounting for SMEs, Now you know that it doesn’t take the genius of Einstein to become a small business accountant.

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