Prepare for Your Assessment in Accountancy & Finance

The Finance Industry is comprised of companies providing financial services to commercial and retail clients. In this sector, money is transferred from those who have excess funds to those who lack them. Companies that give financial services may specialize in insurance, securities trading, investing, lending and securities issuance. These services are usually provided to individuals, various businesses, governmental agencies and nonprofit organizations.  Many of the financial companies generate revenue from mortgages and loans and, therefore, thrive when interest rates are low.  

In all countries, the financial sector is the most important for their economy. In the United Kingdom, the financial sector comprises the largest part of the FTSE 100. At London Stock Exchange, at the Financial Times Stock Exchange, there are such famous financial services companies and banks as Lloyds Banking Group, London Stock Exchange Group, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Schroders, HSBC, Barclays, Standard Chartered, Hargreaves Lansdown, Standard Life Aberdeen. Several of the larger financial services companies use a series of challenging assessment tests for their recruitment purposes, such as the Macquarie psychometric assessment, which JobTestPrep can help you prepare for. The FTSE 100 also includes several insurance companies such as Aviva, Direct Line Group, Old Mutual and Prudential plc, among others. 

However, the Financial Industry is not limited to financial services, banking and insurance. Accountants, tax filing services, currency exchange, wire transfer, credit card machine services and debt resolution services are also incorporated in this sector.

The sectors included in the Financial Industry are distinguished from each other primarily by the services they provide.

Companies comprising the Banking Industry collect deposits and loan money to individuals and businesses. They provide retail banking to individuals or commercial and corporate banking services to businesses and institutions. Yet many banks give both services. Santander Group, the world’s ninth-largest bank with a revenue of $ 108.8, provide both retail and commercial and corporate banking services.

Stocks, bonds and other securities are traded at capital markets, vital to the UK economy. More than £4 trillion of capital in the UK is invested in capital markets through pension funds, insurance policies and people’s private savings. Capital markets make productive investments and help companies and individuals manage their risks. They also serve as an additional source of funding to bank’s landing.

Consumer finance companies lend money to individual clients. The FLA, for example, is one of the UK’s consumer finance companies. It is the main trade association for the UK consumer credit and motor finance sectors. The largest company of this kind in Europe, the FLA provides on average £90 billion to consumers to support their purchases ranging from cars to household goods. The purchases supported by the FLA account for more than a third of the total consumer credits written in the United Kingdom. The performance of consumer finance companies is usually affected by the world’s general economic condition. When economic conditions deteriorate, people tend to miss or be late with payments, which inevitably make companies’ bad debt exposure grow.

Insurance companies – Aviva, Legal & General, Old Mutual and RSA Insurance Group in the United Kingdom – allow consumers to measure risks. There are different types of insurance in which insurance companies can specialize. The most popular among them are life and health insurances along with retirement products and services. Insurance companies also insure people’s and businesses’ properties such as cars and houses.

Accountancy involves recording, classifying and reporting on business transaction for businesses. Accountants give feedback to a company’s managers about its financial status and activities. Recording, classifying and reporting on business transactions means the following:

Recording – This procedure concerns transactions processed repeatedly. Among them are issuing of customers’ invoices, paying supplier’s invoices, recording cash receipts from customers and paying employees. The recording also deals with one-time transactions that are usually kept in the accounting records. Making this type of transactions is the responsibility of fixed asset and tax accountants.  

Classifying – Monetary information collected by accountants is carefully classified. The summary document of various accounting records is called the general ledger. It consists of several accounts. Each of these accounts contains information about a specific type of transaction, among which are product sales, depreciation expense and debt, to name only a few of them. Accountants manage general ledges and subledgers, each month altering the ending balances in the former ones with adjusting entries to record those expenses that have been made but are still unrecorded.

Reporting – This procedure is more complex than recording and classifying. It is, therefore, divided into smaller areas of specialization: financial accounting and management accounting:

• Financial Accounting is concerned with the accumulation of business transactions into financial statements. Accountants present these documents using certain rules in accountancy, referred to as accounting frameworks, the most famous of which are GAAP and IFRS. As a rule, general ledger accountant, controller, and chief financial officer specialize in financial accounting.
• Management accounting is concerned with improving the profitability of a business. Accountants look for ways to do so and present their findings to managers. Accountants’ reports are derived from the main system of accounts or found with activity-based costing systems. The structure of these reports is tailored to the needs of every individual business. Management accounting is the area of specialization of cost accountant and financial analysts.

The most important quality accountants should possess is to love numbers. You should be good at mathematics and numerical reasoning. A degree in accountancy, mathematics, or economics will surely open doors to your employment as an accountant. In case you do not have a degree in any financial-related subject, you can join one of the existing training programs where you will be able to develop the right set of skills and knowledge necessary for employment in accountancy.

To probe for these skills, accountancy firms often use pre-employment assessment tests and job simulations.

Apart from the position of the accountant, you can find other job opportunities in the Financial Sector. If you are looking for a managerial position, you can work in one of the three broad categories: corporate controller, internal audit, and corporate treasury.

The Corporate Controller – This person is responsible for budgeting of the company, which involves counting of revenues and spending.  If you are employed as a controller, you will supervise the access to corporate funds and approve the company’s expenditures. As a rule, becoming the Corporate Controller is easier if you have work experience in accounting and auditing. But not every firm will require this from their Corporate Controllers. A degree in the financial field may be sufficient.

The Internal Audit – This professional helps companies’ reach their goals, by inspecting and verifying the accuracy of their operational and financial records. They also evaluate the company’s risk management and its governance processes. Another responsibility of the Internal Audit is to identify areas which will benefit form innovative improvements. Internal audits are also always engaged in advisory activity adjusting themselves to the strategic needs of the company for which they work.

The Corporate Treasurer – This professional manages risk and cash, especially those related to interest rates and FX risks. Supplied with sophisticated technological tools, Corporate Treasurers perform credit monitoring analysis, formerly executed exclusively by credit departments within banks. They also calculate CVA and DVA and choose the party with which to trade.

Follow the links in the table below to learn more about the application and selection process of some known firms, including the Big Four accounting firms.

 If you have any questions or want to know more about our services, please feel free to contact our customer success team. We look forward to helping you out on your application journey. 

To pursue a career in the Financial Sector successfully, you need to pass your pre-employment assessment with flying colours. JobTestPrep is willing to help you realize your career plans. We have created the high-quality PrepPack™ that, in addition to close test simulations, contains answer keys and detailed study guides. With them, you can track your progress while preparing for your upcoming examination and identifying those areas where your knowledge is deficient. Having located your weaknesses, you will be able to redouble your efforts, learn harder, and come to your test fully prepared. This is not all, however. To assist you also with your interviews, we have added to our PrepPack™ our well-written interview materials containing answers to the most frequently asked questions and useful tips on how to conduct yourself attractively face-to-face with your interviewers. If you practise with our resources, your interviewers will prefer you over other candidates vying with you for the same position. Purchase our materials and become employed for your applied position in the Finance Industry.