General Accountant
93% skill overlap
Your role
Group Reporting Accountant
Full profileYour role
- L3 salary
- Not published yet
- Upcoming dated changes
- 2 changes ahead
What the role does
A group reporting accountant prepares the consolidated financial statements of a group of companies. The role collects reporting packages from subsidiaries, checks them against group accounting policies, eliminates intercompany balances and transactions, handles currency translation and non-controlling interests, and prepares consolidated figures, notes and management packs under IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards). It works with entity accountants, controllers, tax and external auditors, and often uses consolidation modules in SAP or similar systems.
Read a day in the life
A day in the life
Outside the reporting cycle the accountant reviews group accounting policies, answers questions from subsidiaries and works on system or process improvements. When the quarter closes, the rhythm changes. First, subsidiaries submit their reporting packages. The accountant checks that each package is complete, that balances agree with the ledgers and that intercompany positions match with the counterparty entities. Differences are chased with entity teams until resolved. Then the consolidation runs: currency translation at closing and average rates, eliminations of intercompany balances, revenues and dividends, and adjustments for acquisitions or disposals. The accountant analyses group figures against the prior period and forecast and prepares commentary for the group financial controller. Later in the cycle come the disclosure notes, such as segment reporting or financial instruments, and the audit requests. Deadlines are tight, so checklists, review steps and clear evidence matter.
Levels
- L1 Starting out
- L2 Independent
- L3 Senior or specialist
- L4 Leads a team or an area
- L5 Leads the function
Full level descriptions and job titles
The EFO level names are the common scale; job titles differ between employers.
| Level | What the work looks like | Typical years | Typical job titles |
|---|---|---|---|
| L1 Starting out | Checks subsidiary packages and intercompany matching, prepares consolidation schedules and learns group policies, consolidation rules and the reporting system under supervision. | 0-2 | Banks: Analyst, Junior Analyst, Associate (asset servicing), Trainee, GraduateAsset servicers: Junior, Specialist (entry), Officer |
| L2 Independent | Owns consolidation for a set of entities or a reporting area, prepares notes and commentary, answers subsidiary questions and trains new team members. | 2-5 | Banks: Analyst / Senior Analyst, AssociateAsset servicers: Specialist, Senior Specialist, Senior Officer |
| L3 Senior or specialist | Handles complex consolidation topics such as acquisitions, hedge accounting or new standards, improves the consolidation process and controls, and represents group reporting in projects. | 5-9 | Banks: Senior Associate, AVP, Assistant ManagerAsset servicers: Senior Specialist, Expert, Team Lead (small team) |
| L4 Leads a team or an area | Leads a group reporting team, owns the consolidation calendar, controls and audit relationship for the group accounts, and is the escalation point for reporting issues. | 8-14 | Banks: VP, Manager, Senior ManagerAsset servicers: Team Lead, Manager, Head of Section |
| L5 Leads the function | Accountable for group financial reporting, sets accounting policies and reporting standards across entities, and signs off consolidated statements with the chief financial officer and auditors. | 12+ | Banks: Director, Executive Director, Managing Director, Head of functionAsset servicers: Head of Department, Director |
Skills
Where the skill weights come from
Each role lists its skills with a tier and a weight. The weights of one role add up to 100 percent.
Source: the EFO role catalogue, built from the ESCO classification and reviewed by the editors.
The percentage is the skill's share of the role; the bars are drawn relative to the anchor skill, which is shown full.
Critical
- Period-end close and reconciliationsWeight 13.6%Relevant to you
- Accounting fundamentals (double entry)Weight 9.1%Relevant to you
- International accounting standards (IFRS)Weight 9.1%Relevant to you
- SAP enterprise systemsWeight 9.1%Relevant to you
- Group consolidationWeight 9.1%Relevant to you
Important and supporting skills 16
Important
- Revenue recognitionWeight 4.6%Relevant to you
- Advanced Microsoft ExcelWeight 4.6%Relevant to you
- Management reporting and commentaryWeight 4.6%Relevant to you
- Attention to detailWeight 4.6%Relevant to you
- Working to tight deadlinesWeight 4.6%Relevant to you
- Organisation and prioritisationWeight 4.6%Relevant to you
- Control mindset (what could go wrong)Weight 4.6%Relevant to you
- Statutory accounts and local GAAP conversionWeight 4.6%Relevant to you
Supporting
- Financial statement analysis and ratiosWeight 2.3%Relevant to you
- Working capital managementWeight 2.3%Relevant to you
- Corporate taxationWeight 2.3%Relevant to you
- Professional written communicationWeight 2.3%Relevant to you
- Collaboration and teamworkWeight 2.3%Relevant to you
Useful
- Data preparation tools (Alteryx, Power Query)Weight 0.8%Relevant to you
- Querying data with SQLWeight 0.8%Relevant to you
- Internal controls and risk oversightWeight 0.8%Relevant to you
Processes
The work the role takes part in.
What each process covers
- Financial reporting and accountingMain
- ReconciliationsMain
- Planning, budgeting and controllingSupporting
Where the role concentrates
How AI is changing the role
Intercompany matching, data collection from entities, variance commentary and parts of note preparation are increasingly automated in consolidation software, and generative AI can draft first versions of commentary.
Read the full assessment
Intercompany matching, data collection from entities, variance commentary and parts of note preparation are increasingly automated in consolidation software, and generative AI can draft first versions of commentary. The World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2025 expects routine accounting roles to decline while analytical thinking grows in value. Value moves to interpreting standards for complex transactions, judging accounting positions, reviewing automated outputs and explaining results to management and auditors. Group accountants who understand data flows across entities and systems are best placed.
Dated changes for this role
Salary snapshot
Salary figures are not published yet
The L3 salary range for this role, with its sources, will appear here when the salaries section opens.
Certifications
- ACCA Qualification
- CIMA CGMA
- CFA Program Level I
- ACA Chartered Accountant
Concepts to know
- CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive)
- Month-end close (period-end close)
- ACCA
- Account reconciliation (balance sheet reconciliation)
- Audit opinion
- Chart of accounts (CoA)
- Consolidation (group accounts)
- Deferred tax
All 23 concepts
- ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards)
- External audit (statutory audit)
- FINREP (Financial Reporting)
- Foreign currency translation (IAS 21)
- General ledger (GL)
- IAS 32 Financial Instruments: Presentation
- IAS 37 Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets
- Intercompany netting
- Intercompany reconciliation
- Journal entry
- Pillar 3 disclosures
- Pillar Two (global minimum tax)
- Statutory accounts (annual financial statements)
- Supply chain finance (reverse factoring)
- Transfer pricing
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Do this job? Suggest a correction
Sources
Consolidation (group accounts)Consolidation combines the financial statements of a parent and the entities it controls into one set of group accounts, as if they were a single economic entity. Intercompany balances and transactions are eliminated, and non-controlling interests are shown separately. IFRS 10 defines control.
Forecast (rolling forecast)A forecast is the latest estimate of results for the rest of the period, updated as actuals come in. A rolling forecast always looks a fixed number of months ahead, for example 12 or 18, and is often driven by volumes, prices and headcount assumptions.
Generative AIGenerative AI is a family of AI models that produce new content (text, code, images, audio) in response to a prompt, by learning patterns from very large datasets. In finance it is used for drafting, summarising documents, coding help and customer service assistants.