Management Accountant interview questions and answers
These Management Accountant interview questions will help you look for important skills in candidates. Adjust them to fit your position and company.
Management Accountant Interview Questions
Management accountants support critical decisions by preparing financial data for internal use. They usually have a bachelor’s degree in accounting or finance, although they come occasionally from other backgrounds. If you’re looking for experience, professional credentials are a good way to screen resumes.
Management accountants should be have deep accounting knowledge, especially cost accounting. Assess this during the interview or through an accounting test. Industry-specific knowledge (such as lean manufacturing) may be an important factor so think whether you should give it some weight.
Candidates need to see the big picture and know what information managers need. Discussing their past experience will give you insight on how they made contributions and what kind of projects they worked on. You can also ask them their opinion about one of your company’s projects. They should demonstrate some knowledge of your company and be able to come up with smart answers. See also how they rank in vital soft skills like critical thinking, presentation, teamwork and leadership.
Operational and Situational questions
- What does a credit mean for the accounting equation?
- Where and how would you use discounted cash flow (DCF)?
- If a manager asked you to help them decide if an investment is a good idea, how would you go about it?
- Imagine you are asked to find a way to reduce a specific cost. Where would you start and how would you make a decision?
- What information do you need for different types of forecasting?
- What would you do if you had to present a report to a non-financial audience?
Role-specific questions
- What’s your experience with cost-accounting? Financial accounting?
- Talk about your experience in budgeting
- Do you have a specialty area?
- How do you maintain attention to detail?
- What do you do to enhance your knowledge?
- How would you rate your skills in Excel on a scale from 1 to 10?
- What do you know about six sigma?
Behavioral questions
- Give me an example of a time you helped reduce costs
- Tell me about a time you played an important role in an important decision
- Recall a time you prevented senior management from making a bad decision with help from financial data
- Give me an example of a time you explained financial information to a non-financial person
- What project are you most proud of?
- Tell me about a time you thought of a new process to promote efficiency
- Have you ever faced an ethical dilemma in your job? How did you approach it?