Accounting Assistant For A Scouting Group
Career review from a person working in the job
How I Got The Job
My Education: high school diploma Rob Roy Beauty Sciences Academy computer & accounting classes, Digital Equipment Corp.
My Prior Experience: I worked for eight years at Digital Equipment Corporation as an administrative and accounting clerk.
My Job Profile
My Company: I work for a Girl Scout council that covers central and western Massachusetts and provides programs and services to young girls.
Job/Career Overview: - Accounts Payable (pay the bills). Monitor bills from vendors and research problems when needed.
- Close out and balance the store cash drawer and sales daily.
- Go to the bank to make deposits.
- Create spreadsheets and reconcile troop product sales and membership dues.
- Monitor and maintain troop banking account records. Interact with banks and troop leaders in helping troop leaders set up and maintain troop accounts.
- Recount store inventory once a year. Edit the store inventory system with updates.
- Prepare tax statements showing how much money we have paid to vendors once a year.
- Take customer service phone calls and answer general questions on banking and Girl Scouts.
- Assist auditors when they come in once a year to check our records.
- Maintain vendor files.
- Help move and distribute cases of cookies from storage to troops.
- Maintain the office petty cash box.
More Insights: People may think accounting is boring, but there is satisfaction in balancing out and successful problem solving!
Love It? Hate It?
I rate this career 8 out of 10.
What I Love or Hate
I love the people and Girl Scouting. I was a scout as a girl, and still am! Sometimes I have the chance to volunteer at a Girl Scout event, and I enjoy the children. They remind me of why we do what we do!
I hate tax time and audit time. I like doing my job, but having someone come in and look over my shoulder for a week checking over a year's worth of work is not pleasant. Cookie sale time is a HUGE sale. We have more than 15,000 girls selling cookies, and all of the tracking of bank deposits and cases of cookies is a huge undertaking.
My Career Tips
Get up-to-date training on Excel spreadsheets, or any other kind of accounting software to be used at your place of employment. Take classes to get an understanding of basic accounting. Take customer service training. Have good typing and basic computer skills.
