“I have been in the industry for 30 years, and I have had an incredible experience being a CPA. The diversity of what our profession offers in terms of depth and breadth of opportunities is tremendous, we don’t do a good job telling that story and actually showing the younger generation what a career could look like for them, what advancement could look like for them, what personal growth could look like for them,” says Sue Coffey, the CEO of American Institure of CPAs in an interview with The Street.
Sue further says that the first 5 years in an individual’s professional journey play a huge role in determining how they perceive the profession. This means the way they are being treated, the fairness in pay, the work hours, and how they feel, play an important role in determining their future of the talent in the accounting industry.
As we constantly strive to address the challenges that have been causing a severe accounting talent shortage in the US, accounting leaders, firm owners, and recruiters have a role to play. Setting the expectations right and ensuring that your future employees are aligned with the wider goals of the organization and relatively smaller goals of the job title has a huge role to play in ensuring you attract and retain the top talent.
Why a Clear Job Description Matters
Whether it is for your internal teams or your clients, accountants are needed everywhere. Their roles touch upon a major part of every business. Whether it is about balancing the books, maintaining cleanup, managing payroll functions, preparing for the tax season, maintaining compliance, or supporting the leaders in financial forecasting and decision making, accounting roles always carry high stakes. When responsibilities are vague or overlapping, they can lead to delays, errors, and even financial and reputational damage.
A well-defined job description can help address several important aspects:
- Clarity of role and scope:
→ Everyone knows exactly what they’re responsible for—no overlaps, no confusion. - Improved team collaboration
→ When the roles are defined, especially within a team, it is easier to reduce the bottlenecks while ensuring a smooth cross-functional teamwork. - Measurable accountability
→ When you have set parameters that define success, it is easier to track progress and hold team members accountable. - Better performance management
→ Managers and leaders can provide focused feedback and growth plans based on the set expectations. - Streamlined onboarding and training
→ New hires get up to speed faster with a roadmap of what they’ll be doing and how success is measured.
How Do Clear Job Descriptions Ensure Accountability?
In a field like Accounting, it is not uncommon to make errors. A Gartner report suggests that 18% of accountants make financial errors at least daily, and one-third of them make financial errors every week and about 59% of accountants make several errors per month.
However, the most important part is that your team members should feel accountable. Whether it is a small or a larger team, when no one takes ownership and feels accountable, it is easy to lose focus on what is important. Overlapping jobs make the tasks even more difficult.
A clear job description can help inculcate a sense of accountability in many ways:
-
They Create Ownership from Day One
When a new member joins the team (in any position), a clear JD helps them understand their deliverables, the software and tools they are expected to use, and the outcomes they will deliver. This leaves no room for confusion on whether they own client reconciliations, monthly closings, or compliance reporting. This prevents tasks from falling through the cracks and encourages proactive performance. This also saves a lot of time on the leaders’ part, having to chase the gaps.
-
They Align with Firm Goals and Department KPIs
An effective JD doesn’t just list tasks. It bridges the gap between individual and organizational goals. For example, if your firm is aiming for faster client turnaround or higher audit accuracy, those priorities should reflect in the roles you are hiring and their KPIs.
-
They Minimize Conflict and Overlap
This is especially relevant for accounting firms with bigger teams. During tax season or audit season, there is a tendency to overlap tasks. While you might think this makes task completion faster, it does exactly the opposite. It leads to confusion and inefficiencies. A clear JD draws the line between people responsible for individual tasks. This prevents duplication and negligence.
-
They Provide a Baseline for Performance Reviews
Your best performers leave when they feel neglected and undervalued. Taking credit for another individual’s task is a common affair. A clear JD helps avoid that. Performance evaluation becomes difficult because there are no set benchmarks. A good JD is a contract between the employee and employer. It makes performance assessment easy and fair, ensuring proper raises, appreciations, and promotions.
-
They Improve Retention Through Role Clarity
You can’t expect employees to perform when they are unaware of what is expected of them. When they know what is expected and feel supported in their journeys, they tend to stay longer. Accounting is a high-pressure field, and vague or unrealistic job scopes will lead to high attrition rates.
-
They Strengthen Offshore Team Integration
While offshoring has a lot of benefits, without set parameters, the success of this model goes for a toss. A right JD becomes the only source of reality for your offshore teams to align with expectations, workflows, and communication structures. It allows you to check for compatibility or workflow gaps early on.
Top Elements Every JD Should Possess
To build clarity and accountability in your Job Descriptions, here are some key elements that you cannot miss out on:
Job Title: Sets the tone for responsibility and ensures alignment with organizational hierarchy and expectations.
Role Summary: Provides a high-level understanding of what the role exists to achieve, guiding focus and ownership.
Key Responsibilities: Outlines specific tasks and deliverables the person will be held accountable for.
Required Skills & Tools: Clarifies the capabilities needed to perform effectively and be accountable from day one.
KPIs or Success Metrics: Defines how success will be measured, leaving no room for ambiguity in performance reviews.
Reporting Line: Establishes who the role answers to, reinforcing accountability through clear supervision.
Company Overview: Aligns the individual’s responsibilities with broader company goals and values for mission-based accountability.
Compensation & Benefits: Ties rewards to responsibilities, reinforcing the link between performance and recognition.
DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE JD TEMPLATE PACK HERE
Common JD Mistakes That Undermine Accountability
Avoid these pitfalls that defeat the purpose of using JDs to drive accountability:
- Too generic: “Responsible for financial reporting” doesn’t help anyone understand scope or timelines.
- Overloaded roles: One JD covering 3 different job functions creates confusion and burnout.
- Lack of KPIs: Without measurable outcomes, there’s no benchmark for good performance.
- No process clarity: Missing process steps or tool guidelines can lead to major misalignment, especially when you deal with offshore teams.
- One-time documentation: If JDs are never updated, they become irrelevant and unhelpful.
Need Help Filling an Accounting Role?
Writing the perfect job description is only half the battle. The next challenge? Finding someone who’s qualified and available.
That’s where Finsmart Accounting can help.
Hire full-time, remote Accounting professionals, across different levels, who are pre-vetted, trained, and ready to plug into your team—without the stress of local recruitment. With Finsmart, you get:
- Pre-screened talent
- Fluent English and accounting software skills
- Trained in international accounting standards
- Fully remote and ready to work your time zone
- Teams that are ready to be deployed from day 1
With our Embedded outsourcing model, you no longer have to wait to train the teams. They seamlessly settle into your teams. To get started, all we need is:
- We begin by understanding your firm—its structure, team, clients, scope of work, and daily accounting needs.
- Next, we align on the tech stack—whether it’s your accounting software, project management tools, data protection systems, and communication tools.
- We then map your existing accounting processes to identify the scope of improvements and clarify expectations.
- We implement our proven 14-step offshoring workflow, designed to deliver speed, security, and scalability.
- Finally, we assign a Team Leader and an Account Manager to handle all your accounting problems thereon.
Ready to get started? Book a discovery call:
Book a free discovery call to explore your options.
Maanoj is Co-founder & Director of Growth Strategy & Alliance at Finsmart Accounting. He is an Outsourcing Expert, a People Champion, and a Dynamic Leader with strong Business Strategy and Scaling-up experience. He has incubated businesses, sold & exited ventures; helped build strong enterprises in very diversified verticals like Fintech, HR & Consulting spaces in various CXO capacities over the last 20 years.
