From the course: Job Interview Tips for Accountants

How to approach this question

From the course: Job Interview Tips for Accountants

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How to approach this question

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- This is a great question, because it's assessing your technical skills while attempting to see how you'd handle a possible ethical or illegal situation. The interviewer is evaluating a couple of things: your technical skills dealing with the transaction and how to handle the ethical issue. So, first, focus on process and ethics. This is an opportunity to demonstrate your technical skills about what's capitalized or expensed, as well as how you'd approach unethical or illegal situations. As you know, some accounting transactions aren't always clear as how they should be handled. Improper accounting can violate various accounting and tax rules, so assure the interviewer that your role is to protect the company ethically and legally. Then go on to describe technical accounting issues. Technical issues are related to long-term assets we usually refer to as property, plant and equipment. Explain that these items are usually capitalized over their useful life, fully expensing them within the purchase period is unethical and possibly in violation of tax rules. Finally, address the underlying issue. Give the manager the benefit of the doubt and offer scenarios that could explain the error, including honest oversight. But since the manager is an accountant, he or she should know better. Explain that you'd evaluate whether there's a need for further investigation based on the manager's answers. State that it's your professional responsibility to advise appropriate superiors as to the manager's conduct, providing appropriate evidence. Your intent is to ensure the company conducts itself ethically avoiding financial or legal liabilities. And that your goal is to protect the company's reputation.

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