Accounting Internship Responsibilities
An accounting intern performs various duties, depending on the company's size, the industry, regulatory requirements and corporate staffing needs. An accounting intern is generally a college junior or senior majoring in accounting, finance, auditing or investment analysis. Accounting internships are available at certified public accountant, or CPA, firms or private companies.
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Bookkeeping
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An accounting intern records a firm's transactions by debiting and crediting financial accounts, such as asset, liability, expense, revenue and equity. She credits and debits accounts by making journal entries in corporate ledgers, or accounting books. An intern debits an asset or expense account to increase its balance, and he credits the account to reduce its amount. The opposite is true for revenue, liability and equity accounts. Assets include cash, inventories, machines and equipment. Liabilities are debts, such as bonds payable, or long-term debt, and salaries or accounts payable, or short-term debt. Revenue items are sales, while expenses represent costs incurred in selling goods or providing services. Equity accounts relate to corporate owners' investments.
Preparing Ledger Reports
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An accounting intern works under the leadership of a senior professional to record transactions, and he issues periodic ledger reports, or financial statements, for a business unit or corporate segment. A senior accountant reviews an intern's work, and she ensures that financial reports are accurate, complete and conform to generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. Complete financial statements include statement of financial position (or balance sheet), statement of profit and loss (or P&L), statement of cash flows and statement of retained earnings (also known as statement of shareholders' equity).
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Tax Compliance
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An accounting intern who works in a corporate tax department reviews the company's sales tax reports, and he ensures they are correct, complete and prepared in accordance with state, local and Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, rules and regulations. An accounting intern also supports senior fiscal accountants during monthly accounting close processes as well as quarterly and annual regulatory filing procedures. He also partners with tax compliance officers to ensure that employees abide by fiscal laws and regulations when performing their duties.
Financial Audit Support
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An accounting intern works under the direction of a senior financial auditor to review internal controls and procedures in corporate accounting and financial reporting systems. She applies generally accepted auditing standards, or GAAS, to ensure that those controls are functional and adequate. (A control is a set of directives that senior management puts into place to prevent operating losses resulting from fraud, technological malfunction and employee carelessness or error.) An accounting intern also may help a segment manager complete a "risk and control self-assessment," or RCSA, report and rank risks as "high," "medium" and "low" based on loss expectation.
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References
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