Accountant and bookkeeper job description templates

The same job goes by different names. Use the title candidates in your market search for, and put the other in the ad if you hire across borders.

What the role is for: Keeps a portfolio of client ledgers accurate and up to date, so the accountants can rely on them and clients always know where they stand.

What you will do:

• Process and reconcile bank feeds, receipts and payables for a portfolio of [number] clients.
• Run payroll for [number] clients and handle the related filings in [your country].
• Prepare [GST / BAS / VAT / sales tax] workpapers for review by [role].
• Close each client’s month to the firm’s month-end checklist by [working day].
• Answer client questions about their books, and pass anything that needs advice to [role].
• Keep job notes and status current in [practice management software].

What you will bring:

• [Years] of bookkeeping experience, ideally in a firm. [Registration, e.g. BAS agent, AAT, certified bookkeeper] if the role needs it.
• Confident in [Xero / QuickBooks / MYOB / Sage] and a spreadsheet.
• Careful with detail, and honest when something does not reconcile.
• Clear written English for client emails.

What good looks like at 90 days:

• Owns [number] client files end to end, with month-end done by the target day.
• Reconciliations on their files are clean at review, with no repeat corrections.
• Knows the firm’s checklists, systems and who to ask.

What the role is for: Prepares compliance work for small business and individual clients to a standard a senior can review quickly, and learns the advisory side of the firm.

What you will do:

• Prepare financial statements and tax returns for [individuals, sole traders, companies, trusts, partnerships].
• Prepare [GST / BAS / VAT / sales tax] returns and workpapers.
• Draft responses to [tax authority] correspondence for review.
• Raise the questions a file throws up, with a suggested answer, before the review.
• Record time or job progress in [practice management software] every day.
• [Use the firm’s approved AI tools under its AI policy, and check what they produce.]

What you will bring:

• [Degree or qualification], working towards [CA / CPA / ACCA / chartered status] or ready to start.
• [Years] of experience in public practice, or a graduate ready to learn it.
• Comfortable with [your software] and quick to pick up new tools.
• Asks when unsure, and writes down the answer for next time.

What good looks like at 90 days:

• Prepares [type] returns that pass review with minor points only.
• Runs [number] jobs at once without anything going quiet.
• Has met [number] clients on calls with a senior or manager.

What the role is for: Runs a portfolio of compliance and advisory work, reviews the accountants’ files, and is the first person most clients talk to.

What you will do:

• Manage a portfolio of [number] clients: plan the year, meet deadlines, and keep each client informed.
• Review work prepared by accountants and bookkeepers, and coach them on what you find.
• Prepare and present year-end results and plain-English advice to clients.
• Spot work outside the engagement letter and raise it before it is done.
• Handle [tax authority] queries and reviews for your clients.
• Help improve the firm’s checklists and workflows.

What you will bring:

• [CA / CPA / ACCA / chartered or equivalent], or close to it.
• [Years] in public practice, including reviewing others’ work.
• Confident explaining numbers to business owners.
• Organised: you keep a portfolio moving without being chased.

What good looks like at 90 days:

• Has taken over [number] clients and met each of them.
• Reviews turned round within [days], with clear notes.
• Has flagged at least one piece of out-of-scope work and helped price it.

What the role is for: Owns a book of client relationships, from the engagement letter to the advice, and makes sure the work gets done on time and at a profit.

What you will do:

• Lead [number] client relationships, including annual reviews and planning meetings.
• Scope and price new work using the firm’s pricing method, and keep engagement letters current.
• Allocate and review the team’s work on your clients, and hold the deadlines.
• Watch work in progress, write-offs and debtors on your portfolio every month.
• Grow the right clients: find advisory needs and introduce the right people in the firm.
• Develop the people who work on your clients.

What you will bring:

• [Qualification] and [years] in public practice, with experience leading client relationships.
• Comfortable talking about fees and scope with clients.
• A record of developing more junior staff.
• Commercial: you know which work makes the firm money and which does not.

What good looks like at 90 days:

• Has met every client in the portfolio and agreed the year’s plan with each.
• Work in progress and debtors on the portfolio are reviewed every month.
• Each team member on the portfolio knows their priorities for the quarter.

What the role is for: Runs the business of the firm so the owners and accountants can spend their time on clients: systems, billing, people and the calendar.

What you will do:

• Own the practice management system: jobs, deadlines, templates and reports.
• Run billing and collections, and report work in progress, debtors and write-offs to the owners each month.
• Coordinate recruitment, onboarding and leave, and keep the team’s records.
• Look after IT, software subscriptions, data security and the firm’s AI policy, with outside help where needed.
• Keep compliance calendars: tax agent or practising registrations, professional indemnity insurance, AML and CPD records.
• Improve how the firm works, one process at a time.

What you will bring:

• [Years] running operations in a professional services firm, ideally accounting.
• Strong with [practice management software] and spreadsheets.
• Discreet with client, staff and firm information.
• Calm with deadlines, and willing to chase people politely.

What good looks like at 90 days:

• Monthly owners’ report in place: work in progress, debtors, write-offs and capacity.
• Every job in the practice management system has an owner and a due date.
• One process documented and improved, chosen with the owners.

Ask every candidate for a role the same questions, and score each answer against the 90-day outcomes before you discuss them.

• Tell me about a reconciliation or return that did not add up. What did you do, and what did you tell the reviewer?
• Walk me through how you keep [number] jobs moving at once. What do you look at first on a Monday?
• A client asks for something outside what we agreed to do. What do you say, and to whom?
• Tell me about a piece of review feedback you disagreed with. What happened?
• How do you use AI tools in your work today, and what do you check before you rely on them?
• What would you want to have done by day 90 here?

• The purpose line says what the role is for in one sentence.
• Every duty is something the person will do in their first year.
• Pay range, location and hours are in the ad. Check whether your state, city or country requires the range.
• The wording describes the work, not the person: no age, gender or background words such as "young", "energetic" or "native speaker" unless the job genuinely needs a language.
• Required qualifications are really required. Move the rest to nice to have.
• Who reviews applications, and by when, is agreed.

This template is a starting point, not legal advice. Your obligations depend on where you practise, your professional body and your clients; take advice on anything you are unsure of.