Accountant

What does an accountant do?

An accountant records, checks and reports an organisation's financial transactions.

The job covers the general ledger, month-end close, financial statements, GST and corporate tax work. Many accountants also oversee a small team of accounts executives.

In a Singapore company, the accountant sits in the finance team and usually reports to a finance manager or financial controller. Smaller firms may have one accountant who handles everything from payables to tax filing.

You work with the finance manager, accounts executives, external auditors and tax agents. You also deal with department heads who need figures, and with suppliers and customers on payment queries.

What the work involves

• Post and review journal entries, accruals and allocations in the accounting system.
• Run the month-end close: reconcile accounts, check balances and produce management accounts.
• Prepare financial statements and disclosure notes under Singapore reporting standards.
• Compute GST returns and support corporate tax filings in line with Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) requirements.
• Answer auditor queries, explain variances and fix issues found in audits.
• Manage payables and receivables data, and help with budgets and forecasts.

What you might build in your first months

These are our examples of work a new accountant might be given in the first months.

Every employer is different.

Pay in Singapore

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Skills an accountant needs

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How to become an accountant in Singapore

These are the main routes into accounting in Singapore.

Check each official page for current intakes and entry rules.

Accountant courses and funding in Singapore

These schemes help pay for accounting courses in Singapore.

Check the official pages for current rules before you sign up.

Where the jobs are

Accountants work in companies across all sectors, in accounting firms and in public agencies.

These official facts relate to accounting work in Singapore.

• The SkillsFuture Skills Framework places the accountant role in the Accountancy sector, in the Financial Accounting track. SkillsFuture
• Non-listed companies file an annual return with ACRA within seven months after the financial year end. Listed companies file within five months. ACRA
• Companies file Estimated Chargeable Income with IRAS within 3 months from the end of the financial year, unless an exception applies. IRAS
• Independent statutory audits are carried out by public accountants registered with ACRA. ACRA

Rules and frameworks in Singapore

These are the main Singapore rules and standards that accounting work touches.

Check the regulator's own page for the current version.

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Accountant job description

An accountant runs day-to-day accounting for an organisation's Singapore entity.

The role covers the ledger, the monthly close and financial statements. It often includes guiding a small team, supporting audits and keeping the company in line with accounting standards, GST and corporate tax rules.

Responsibilities

• Prepare monthly, quarterly and annual financial statements and management accounts.
• Lead the month-end close and keep a close checklist and timetable.
• Review journal entries, accruals, prepayments and fixed asset records.
• Reconcile bank, intercompany, payables and receivables accounts.
• Prepare GST returns and corporate tax computations, and work with tax agents.
• Support internal and external audits and respond to findings.
• Supervise accounts executives and review their work.
• Apply internal controls to reduce errors and fraud risk.
• Prepare consolidation schedules for group reporting if the company has subsidiaries.
• Help with budgets, forecasts and cash and working capital reports.

Requirements

• Degree or diploma in accountancy, accounting and finance, or a related field.
• Typically 2 to 5 years of accounting experience, often with an audit or corporate finance background.
• Working knowledge of SFRS(I) or FRS, and of Singapore GST and corporate tax rules.
• Hands-on use of accounting software such as Xero or QuickBooks, or an ERP such as SAP or NetSuite.
• Strong Excel skills, including lookups, pivot tables and reconciliations.
• Progress towards a professional qualification, such as Chartered Accountant of Singapore, is often preferred.

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Accountant career path

Most accountants start as accounts executives and move up through accountant and finance manager roles towards financial controller.

Moving up usually needs wider reporting, tax and team-leading skills.

1. Accounts executive

   Entry

   You handle transactions, reconciliations and filing, working under an accountant or finance manager.

2. Accountant / senior accounts executive

   Mid · SkillsFuture title

   You run the ledger and month-end close, prepare financial statements and lead a small team.

3. Finance manager

   Senior

   You manage the whole finance team, own reporting and audit results, and advise management on budgets and controls.

4. Financial controller

   Lead

   You own accounting, reporting, tax and controls for the organisation and report to the finance head or the board.

Steps marked "SkillsFuture title" follow the career pathway in the SkillsFuture Skills Framework. The others are titles commonly used in Singapore.

Related jobs and their pay

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Accountant interview questions

We wrote these questions from the skills this job needs. They are not an official question bank.

1. Walk me through the steps of your month-end close.

   What a good answer covers

   • Cut-off checks and posting of accruals, prepayments and depreciation
   • Bank, payables, receivables and intercompany reconciliations
   • Review of the trial balance and unusual movements
   • Sign-off timeline and checklist, with owners for each step
   • Ways you have shortened the close

2. How does SFRS(I) relate to IFRS, and when might a Singapore company use the simpler framework for small entities?

   What a good answer covers

   • SFRS(I) is Singapore's version of IFRS and is aligned with it
   • Which framework applies is set by the relevant Act and the ASC Statement of Applicability
   • A simplified framework exists for eligible small entities
   • Eligibility depends on size and company type, so check the current rules
   • The choice affects disclosures and measurement

3. Your company pays annual insurance in advance in March. What entries do you post, and how does the balance change by December?

   What a good answer covers

   • Debit prepayment and credit cash at payment
   • Monthly release from the prepayment to insurance expense
   • Balance sheet shows the unused portion at year-end
   • Mention of accrual basis and matching
   • Checks that the schedule agrees with the ledger

4. How do you reconcile intercompany balances before consolidating group accounts?

   What a good answer covers

   • Agree balances and currencies with each entity
   • Match invoices and cut-off differences
   • Investigate unmatched items and correct them in the right entity
   • Eliminate intercompany balances and profit on consolidation
   • Keep a schedule for the auditors

5. How do you decide whether GST on a supplier invoice can be claimed as input tax?

   What a good answer covers

   • Check for a valid tax invoice in the company's name
   • Confirm the purchase is for making taxable supplies
   • Know that some expense types are blocked from claims
   • Use the correct tax code in the system
   • Check current IRAS guidance when unsure

6. How do you get from accounting profit to chargeable income for corporate tax?

   What a good answer covers

   • Add back non-deductible expenses and book depreciation
   • Deduct capital allowances in place of depreciation
   • Remove non-taxable income
   • Apply losses and allowances brought forward where allowed
   • Document the computation for the tax agent and IRAS

7. You receive a 20,000-line ledger export. How do you use Excel to find duplicates and mismatches against the bank statement?

   What a good answer covers

   • Clean the data and standardise dates and references
   • Use lookup functions to match ledger lines to bank lines
   • Flag duplicates with COUNTIF or conditional formatting
   • Use a pivot table to summarise differences
   • Keep the original data untouched and document the steps

8. In SAP FICO or NetSuite, how would you trace a trial balance figure back to the source transactions?

   What a good answer covers

   • Drill down from the account balance to line items
   • Check document numbers, posting dates and users
   • Compare with sub-ledgers such as payables or receivables
   • Check manual journals for support
   • Note any report you built to repeat this check

1. On day three of the close, the trial balance is out of balance. What do you do?

   What a good answer covers

   • Find the size of the difference and when it first appeared
   • Check recent journals, imports and interfaces
   • Test for transposition errors or half-posted entries
   • Fix the entry with a documented correction
   • Tell your manager if the close deadline is at risk

2. The external auditor questions a large revenue variance against last year. How do you respond?

   What a good answer covers

   • Pull the data behind the variance before replying
   • Split it into price, volume and one-off items
   • Give contracts and invoices as support
   • Admit errors found and propose a fix
   • Record the response and any control change

3. A colleague wants to paste a vendor ledger into ChatGPT to draft an explanation of variances. What do you advise?

   What a good answer covers

   • Check the company's AI and data policy first
   • Remove names, bank details and other confidential data
   • Use summarised figures or fictitious samples
   • Verify any AI output against the books
   • Keep accountability with the accountant

1. Tell me about a time you had to deliver accounts under a tight deadline.

   What a good answer covers

   • A specific situation and the deadline
   • How you ranked tasks and shared work
   • How you kept accuracy while moving fast
   • Result and what you changed afterwards

2. A senior manager asks you to book revenue earlier to hit a target. What do you do?

   What a good answer covers

   • Explain the revenue recognition rule that applies
   • Refuse to post an entry you cannot support
   • Offer a legitimate alternative, such as better forecasting
   • Escalate to the finance head or audit committee if pressed
   • Show awareness of professional ethics

1. You find a GST error in a return already filed with IRAS. What steps do you take?

   What a good answer covers

   • Work out the size and cause of the error
   • Tell your manager or tax agent promptly
   • Check IRAS guidance on correcting returns and voluntary disclosure
   • Fix the process or control that caused it
   • Keep a record of the correction

2. How do you handle employee and vendor personal data in accounting files under the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA)?

   What a good answer covers

   • Collect and keep only the data you need
   • Restrict access to payroll and bank details
   • Protect files with passwords and secure storage
   • Keep and dispose of records under company policy and legal needs
   • Know who the data protection officer is and report breaches to them

Common questions about an accountant job

Sources