accountant
Key facts
Are you detail-oriented and enjoy analyzing data to provide financial insights? As an accountant, you'll play a vital role in ensuring financial accuracy and advising businesses on key financial decisions.
Accountants are financial experts who meticulously examine financial records and provide strategic advice. Your work involves scrutinizing financial statements, budgets, and business plans to identify errors or potential fraud. You'll also leverage your expertise to offer guidance on financial forecasting, risk analysis, and tax compliance, ensuring businesses operate efficiently and within legal frameworks.
- • Reviewing and analyzing financial statements, budgets, and reports.
- • Identifying and resolving discrepancies or irregularities in financial data.
- • Preparing tax returns and providing tax-related advice based on current legislation.
Where this occupation is in demand
Reported labour shortages and surpluses, by year. Published for occupation groups, not for individual job titles.
Deeper colour: reported the same way in more consecutive years.
Figures cover Business and administration professionals — 134 jobs including this one.
In shortage: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany and 8 more.
Longest-running shortage: Belgium, 3 years.
Where it is regulated, your qualification would need formal recognition before you could practise.
Select a place on the map to see its figures.
About this source›
Source: ELA/EURES labour shortages and surpluses. Readings are published at occupation-group level, and cover Europe. Editions differ in annex layout and country coverage, so a change between years does not always mean the labour market changed. Countries in grey were not reported, which is not the same as being in balance.
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Could accountant fit you?
Answer three quick questions. This is not a full assessment — it is a teaser to help you decide whether to compare your profile.
Do you enjoy tasks that require Attention to Detail?
Do you enjoy tasks that require Integrity?
Do you enjoy tasks that require Analytical Thinking?
Future Outlook for accountant
The outlook for accountant reflects a balanced mix of automation exposure and durable, human-led work.
How are these scores calculated?
The Resilience Score (0–100) estimates how structurally protected this occupation is from automation and AI disruption, based on task-level analysis. Higher scores mean more human-judgment-intensive tasks. AI Exposure shows the estimated percentage of task hours that current AI capabilities could affect. These are model-derived structural indicators, not predictions about individual job security.
How could accountant change as AI adoption grows?
Several task areas may shift toward AI-assisted workflows, so reskilling becomes more important.
Illustrative scenario based on task automatability — not a forecast. Values are rounded the further ahead you look.
How could accountant change as AI adoption grows?
Several task areas may shift toward AI-assisted workflows, so reskilling becomes more important.
Illustrative scenario based on task automatability — not a forecast. Values are rounded the further ahead you look.
How AI may change this role
Deterministic, model-based interpretation of current role signals — not a guarantee of replacement.
What still depends on people
- follow the statutory obligations
- perform balance sheet operations
- explain accounting records
Where AI may become a co-pilot
- interpret financial statements
- identify accounting errors
- analyse financial performance of a company
Tasks most exposed to automation
- check accounting records
- prepare financial statements
- prepare trial accounting balances
Vital Signs & AI Vectors
AI Exposure Vectors
0-100%Exposure to AI-assisted analysis, pattern recognition, and predictive modelling tasks
Exposure to workflow automation, decision-support software, and process digitisation
Exposure to content generation, creative augmentation, and large language model tools
Exposure to physical automation, robotics, and sensor-driven task displacement
Technical Details
NexFuture v3.0 estimates automation exposure natively from ESCO essential-skill groups, weighted by skill mass and calibrated against expert anchors. Scores are probabilistic estimates, not guarantees. See the NexFuture Methodology White Paper for full details.
Measures automation exposure. It does not measure pay, demand, or how many jobs exist near you.
What people in this role usually do
Management & Entrepreneurship
A typical day as a accountant
09 09:00 · Morning check accounting records
10 10:30 · Mid-morning analyse financial performance of a company
12 12:00 · Midday attach accounting certificates to accounting transactions
14 14:00 · Afternoon calculate tax
15 15:30 · Late afternoon ensure compliance with accounting conventions
17 17:00 · Wrap-up draft accounting procedures
Task order is illustrative. Individual days vary.
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accounting department processes
The different processes, duties, jargon, role in an organisation, and other specificities of the accounting department within an organisation such as bookkeeping, invoices, recording, and taxing.
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commercial law
The legal regulations that govern a specific commercial activity.
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depreciation
The accounting method of dividing the value of an asset over its useful life for the allocation of cost per fiscal year and in parallel to decrease the value of the asset from the accounts of the company.
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financial department processes
The different processes, duties, jargon, role in an organisation, and other specificities of the financial department within an organisation. Understanding of financial statements, investments, disclosing policies, etc.
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film production process
The various development stages of making a film, such as scriptwriting, financing, shooting, editing, and distribution.
- accounting entries
- accounting techniques
- bookkeeping regulations
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interpret financial statements
Read, understand, and interpret the key lines and indicators in financial statements. Extract the most important information from financial statements depending on the needs and integrate this information in the development of the department's plans.
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identify accounting errors
Trace accounts, revise the accuracy of the records, and determine the faults in order to solve them.
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analyse financial performance of a company
Analyse the performance of the company in financial matters in order to identify improvement actions that could increase profit, based on accounts, records, financial statements and external information of the market.
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check accounting records
Revise the accounting records of the quarter and year and ensure that the accounting information reflects with accuracy the financial transactions of the company.
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prepare financial statements
Collect, entry, and prepare the set of financial records disclosing the financial position of a company at the end of a certain period or accounting year. The financial statements consisting of five parts which are the statement of financial position, the statement of comprehensive income, the statement of changes in equity (SOCE), the statement of cash flows and notes.
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prepare trial accounting balances
Ensure that all transactions are recorded in the books of the company and totalise all the debits and the credits of the accounts to find out balance in the accounts.
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prepare tax returns forms
Totalise all the deductible tax collected during the quarter or fiscal year in order to fill tax return forms and claim it back to the governmental authorities for declaring taxation liability. Keep the documents and records supporting the transaction.
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calculate tax
Calculate the taxes which have to be paid by an individual or organisation, or paid back by a governmental institution, compliant with specific legislation.
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perform balance sheet operations
Make up a balance sheet displaying an overview of the organisation's current financial situation. Take into account income and expenses; fixed assets such as buildings and land; intangible assets such as trademarks and patents.
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manage accounts
Manage the accounts and financial activities of an organisation, supervising that all the documents are correctly maintained, that all the information and calculations are correct, and that proper decisions are being made.
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follow the statutory obligations
Understand, abide by, and apply the statutory obligations of the company in the daily performance of the job.
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draft accounting procedures
Lay down standard methods and guidelines to regulate bookkeeping and accounting operations, including determining the bookkeeping system used to record financial transactions.
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explain accounting records
Provide additional explanation and disclosure to staff, vendors, auditors, and to any other instance about the way accounts were recorded and treated in the financial records.
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ensure compliance with accounting conventions
Exercise accounting management and abidance by generally accepted accounting conventions such as recording transactions at the current price, quantifying goods, separating personal accounts of managers from those of the company, making effective the transfer of legal ownership of assets in its realisation time, and ensuring the principle of materiality.
Skill DNA
Work personality traits and values that define this role
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Where does accountant fit?
Similarity scores based on skill overlap from ESCO data.
Frequently asked questions
- What skills are most important for an accountant?
- Strong analytical skills, attention to detail, and a solid understanding of accounting principles are essential. Proficiency in accounting software and excellent communication skills are also highly valued.
- Can I work as an accountant in private practice?
- Yes, while many accountants are employed by businesses or organizations, it's also common to establish a private practice, offering accounting and tax services to individual clients or small businesses.
- What kind of education is required to become an accountant?
- Typically, a bachelor's degree in accounting or a related field is required. Further professional qualifications may be beneficial, depending on the specific role and jurisdiction.
- Accountant — is there a shortage in Europe?
- Yes. In the 2025 ELA/EURES edition, a shortage was reported in 12 of the 15 European countries that assessed this occupation group: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany and 8 more. Belgium has reported one for 3 consecutive years. These assessments are published per occupation group rather than per job title.
- Accountant — what does it pay in the United States?
- $81,680 a year at the median, as of 2025-05. State medians run from $43,530 to $111,530. Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is a United States figure and not a projection for Europe.
- Accountant — is it a regulated profession?
- It is listed as a regulated profession in 21 European countries: Malta, Hungary, Sweden, Luxembourg and 17 more. The lowest qualification level required among them is EQF 5. Where a profession is regulated, a qualification earned elsewhere has to be formally recognised before you can practise. Source: EU Regulated Professions Database.