5+ Best Accounts Payable Interview Questions & Answers

accounts payable interview questions

We’ve compiled the absolute best accounts payable interview questions and answers to help you on your future job interviews. An accounts payable clerk controls the general bookkeeping of a company. This means the expenses, receiving, processing and verifying invoices. All of these things would be classified under an accounting type of position or in the finance department.

Some of the jobs that you may experience while hired as an accounts payable clerk would be reconciling invoices, reconciling the general balance sheet of the business, reporting sales taxes, maintaining historical records based on expenses and invoices, take part in educational opportunities as it relates to the accounting industry and paying employees for their labors.

In order to qualify for this position you should have a general knowledge of tracking expenses, being able to handle complex business balance sheets in terms of debits/credits, have a firm understanding of data entry, vendor relationships, general math skills and excel experience.

Accounts Payable Interview Questions & Answers

1. What is a debit on an account?

A debit on an account is when the transaction is taking away from our available balance. Inversely if we are receiving money, that would not be a debit on the account.

2. What is a credit on an account?

A credit on an account is when the transaction is increasing our available balance. This is when we are getting paid when we are being reimbursed or when we have made money by interacting with our customers or clients. Credits are good!

3. What happens if you aren’t able to reconcile an expense?

If an expense isn’t able to be reconciled it needs to be brought to the attention of the person who submitted the expense. There may be some information missing, like a receipt, which can be found through simple investigation or through other resources to reconcile.

4. What is Excel?

Excel is a common Microsoft tool for using spreadsheets. spreadsheets are the most common way for accounting to be kept. As the business grows, so too will our accounting spreadsheets.

5. How do you calculate sales taxes?

Sales taxes should be calculated on a state level for which the transaction took place. Each state provides their state sales tax percentages which can be found in public record for that fiscal year. Calculations of sales taxes should be made frequently and the sales taxes should be prepared often to prevent any penalties or fines.

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author: patrick algrim
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