Do accounting jobs involve a lot of talking on the phone and emailing customers/vendors?

[maximuz]

Hi guys,

I was always under the impression that accounting jobs such as accounts payable/accounts receivables involve mainly a lot of computer data entry and analysis in accounting software programs and other programs like Excel and less on the phone. However recently, I've had a temp job where all I did was contact a list of customers throughout the entire day. IT WAS BORING! I was expecting more computer work like using the accounting software and data entry analysis. And I also had an interview for an accounts payable job position that also said that I will be on the phone with vendors and emailing people often. This threw me in a weird space because all this time I was expecting accounting jobs to be more about computer work than talking on the phone a lot. Is this really how accounting jobs are or I'm I missing something here? Please reply.

 

[Cindy Ellis]

Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable positions are not so much accounting positions as they are troubleshooting positions. If you think of the ideal process, if all bills and payments were correct and matched up, and if all customers paid within the scheduled time, there wouldn't be a need for these positions.
Accounts payable representatives handle the interactions between the company and its suppliers who want to get paid. Accounts receivable representatives handle the interactions between the company and its customers whose payments are late. If both the customer and supplier are businesses, then you have an accounts receivable representative on one end talking to the accounts payable representative on the other end.

 

[maximuz]

Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable positions are not so much accounting positions as they are troubleshooting positions. If you think of the ideal process, if all bills and payments were correct and matched up, and if all customers paid within the scheduled time, there wouldn't be a need for these positions.
Accounts payable representatives handle the interactions between the company and its suppliers who want to get paid. Accounts receivable representatives handle the interactions between the company and its customers whose payments are late. If both the customer and supplier are businesses, then you have an accounts receivable representative on one end talking to the accounts payable representative on the other end.

I see your point and it makes sense. So does this mean that the majority of the work involves phone calling and emailing than using accounting software to enter bills, customer lists, vendor lists, reconciliation, etc.

 

[maximuz]

Can someone answer my question?

 

[Cindy Ellis]

The short answer: it depends.

The longer answer:
As with any job title, the specific responsibilities vary from company to company, and are affected by the size of the company. In a very small company, the same person may be responsible for both accounts payable and accounts receivable, and would have responsibility for all of the activities on your list, in addition to communication with customers and/or vendors. In a big corporation, there would be several people in an Accounts Receivable department, for example, each responsible for their part of the overall activities. In that case, one person might be responsible for customer communication, and someone else might be responsible for ensuring that customer payments are credited properly, etc.. The tasks of entering bills, customer lists, and vendor lists could be delegated to a data entry clerk. The use of Excel for these tasks is probably also related to the size of the company, although even the small companies I've worked for have used accounting software packages (not Excel) for accounts receivable and payable.

One last thought:
You mentioned that your job was temporary. In my experience temps get the work that nobody else wants to do. If nobody wants to call customers who are delinquent on their bills, then that's what is going to get delegated to the temp.

Cindy

 

[ChrisOswald]

Well, it depends on the position in the department. The managers and analysts won't be on the phone with customers/vendors all that much, and quite likely (in my experience) be all that familiar with the database system being used, but they will be using Excel, access, etc. for analysis/workflow management/an excuse to browse the web during work hours.

Associates will be on the phone quite a bit, either tracking down payments or being tracked down for payments, but when they do make contact a large amount of the payments info will be sent via Excel workbooks and pdf images. This info will eventually need to be updated to a database system of some sort (assuming you're not working at a really small company that does their book keeping with actual books), so there will be use of systems throughout the day, but not for very long periods of time.

There generally are some data entry/computer use intensive positions within larger AR/AP departments, and even in smaller departments the managers generally will let the work gravitate towards people with the greatest aptitude and interest in the type of work.

Of course, if you're looking at a job description that includes the phrase "Call center", you will be spending 99% of your time on the phone...

Word of caution: I've only worked an office job for 1 company, but the departments are fairly large and I've worked the AR, AP, Credit (which in this company fills a lot of the standard AR functions), and billing departments, but this seems to be pretty much how it works across all of them. Not that companies ever develop individual corporate cultures, of course.

 

[xenou]

One last thought:
You mentioned that your job was temporary. In my experience temps get the work that nobody else wants to do. If nobody wants to call customers who are delinquent on their bills, then that's what is going to get delegated to the temp.

Yep!

I'm by no means an authority but in my experience in two workplaces AP/AR can include a bit of interfacing with Vendors/Suppliers via phone or email to handle questions and resolve disputes. I once worked as a temp and it was indeed a lot of resolving unpaid and disputed invoices with much time invested contacting vendors. Once all was back in ship-shape order, there was rarely a need to dial numbers. If you run a tight ship and work in a small or medium sized firm, you might spend 5% of your time resolving disputes and collecting unpaid invoices. Some firms might on the other hand need someone to do this full time!

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