What Are the Duties of an Accounting Supervisor?

A sample accounting report

An accounting supervisor is responsible for the financial tracking functions of a company or organization. Using computer software, hand-written ledgers or a combination of both, an accounting department tracks every financial transaction a company makes, either incoming or outgoing. An accounting supervisor oversees such an accounting department.

Function

An accounting supervisor's responsibility is to oversee the accounting department. The supervisor's management style will determine how much of the financial accounting process is her direct duty, versus the duties of the various accounting clerks in the department. The overall function of an accounting department is to track the financial transactions of a company in order to create accurate financial reports.

Payments

Payments are an essential duty of an accounting supervisor, or the supervisor's department. A company or organization obtains goods or services from various vendors. Vendor payments must be sent regularly and in a timely manner to maintain a healthy supply relationship. Any payments must then be booked and tracked as expenses, costs of goods sold or another account that the accounting supervisor deems appropriate.

Deposits

As clients pay their bills, the accounting supervisor and department must receive and post the payments against their liability accounts. Booking check payments, wire transfers, cash deposits and credit card transactions create the income columns for a company's general ledger.

Accounts

An accounting supervisor must oversee all bank accounts, credit card accounts, lines of credit or money market accounts owned by the company. Any transactions in or out of these accounts must be recorded, booked and properly documented by the accounting supervisor in order to provide an accurate financial picture.

General Ledgers

An accounting supervisor must determine the appropriate general ledger account for any given transaction. For example, a payment to a supplier may be booked to the cost of goods sold ledger, while a utility bill payment may be booked to an expense account. The choice of general ledger account can affect the overall tax liability and profitability for a company. The general ledger decisions are, therefore, the most essential and important duty of an accounting supervisor.

Reconciliation

An accounting supervisor must reconcile or oversee the reconciliation of all company accounts and ledgers. With modern accounting software, most reconciliations are done by simply comparing the entries made in the computer program with the transactions that appear on an account statement. The reconciliation goal is to make sure that your accounting records show the same bottom line balance and transactions as an account statement.

References

• AccountingCoach: Accounting Basics