How to Hire an Accountant: Tally, GST and Interview Questions That Work

"Accountant" covers very different jobs in Indian businesses. A trading firm with 200 invoices a month needs someone fast and accurate with vouchers and stock. A services company may care more about TDS, GST on services and receivables follow-up. A growing startup may need someone who can prepare MIS reports and handle auditors.

Write down the five tasks this person will do every week. That list decides the experience level, the software you test and the salary you offer.

• Junior accountant / accounts assistant: voucher entry, bank entries, petty cash, filing bills, supporting a senior or the CA.
• Accounts executive: purchase and sales entries, GST data preparation, vendor and customer ledgers, payment follow-ups.
• Senior accountant: bank and ledger reconciliation, GST and TDS returns, monthly closing, MIS, coordination with statutory and internal auditors.
• Accounts manager: cash-flow planning, budgets, controls, team supervision and banking relationships.

Vague posts like "Accountant required, Tally knowledge" attract hundreds of applications and very few fits. Be specific about the software, volume of work and compliance tasks. Candidates who cannot do the work will often filter themselves out.

If writing the post feels slow, you can post a job on BetterJobs from a one-line description and let the in-house AI draft the job description, which you then edit with your specifics. The post goes live on BetterJobs and Google Jobs.

• Sample line: "You will handle 150–200 sales and purchase entries a month in Tally Prime, prepare GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B data, and reconcile two bank accounts every week."
• Sample line: "B.Com required. 2–4 years in a trading or manufacturing firm preferred. Working knowledge of TDS deduction and Form 26AS is a plus."
• State the location, office timings, Saturday working, and the salary range so candidates can decide quickly.
• Mention the notice period you can wait for. Many experienced accountants serve 30 days, and some serve longer.

Accountants are one of the most commonly available white-collar profiles in India, so the challenge is usually filtering, not finding. B.Com and M.Com graduates, CA Inter candidates, and people who have worked under a CA firm are all good pools.

Candidates who have spent two or three years at a CA firm often have broad exposure to GST, TDS and audit work across clients. Candidates from a single company may know one industry deeply. Choose based on what your business needs.

If you want to approach people directly, a resume database lets you search by skills such as Tally, GST and TDS and contact candidates who have not yet seen your post. Applicants on BetterJobs come with verified mobile numbers, which saves time chasing wrong contacts.

The single best predictor of a good accountant is watching them do the work. Set up a test company in Tally or share an Excel sheet, and give a short, realistic set of tasks. Keep it the same for every candidate so you can compare fairly.

Do not judge only speed. Watch whether they check narration, pick the right ledgers, and notice when something looks wrong. A careful accountant who asks "Is this invoice inter-state?" is worth more than a fast one who guesses.

1. 1Pass five vouchers: one sales invoice with GST, one inter-state purchase, one expense with TDS, one bank payment and one contra entry.
2. 2Ask the candidate to create any missing ledgers with the correct groups and GST details.
3. 3Give a short bank statement and a cash book with three deliberate mismatches, and ask for a bank reconciliation.
4. 4Ask them to explain, in two minutes, what goes into GSTR-1 versus GSTR-3B.
5. 5Ask how they would treat a vendor invoice that does not appear in the GSTR-2B statement.
6. 6Review the work together and ask why they made each choice.

Ask questions about situations they have handled, not definitions they can memorise. Good accountants answer with specific steps, timelines and the people they had to coordinate with.

Listen for how they talk about mistakes. Every accountant has found an error in a ledger at some point. The good ones explain how they traced it and what control they put in place afterwards.

• "Walk me through your month-end closing. What do you do on the first three working days of the month?"
• "Tell me about a time your books did not match the bank. How did you find the difference?"
• "How do you handle input tax credit when a supplier has not filed their return?"
• "What TDS sections have you deducted under regularly, and how do you track deposit due dates?"
• "What reports do you prepare for the owner or management every month?"
• "How do you keep a backup of company data, and who has access to it?"

Accountant pay varies widely by city, industry and responsibility, so treat any figures as rough guides. A junior accountant in a smaller city may be offered somewhere around ₹12,000–₹20,000 a month, while an experienced senior accountant in Mumbai, Bengaluru or Gurugram handling full compliance may expect a much higher figure. Check what similar roles in your area are offering before you fix the range.

Factors that push pay up include GST and TDS return filing experience, handling audits, MIS and Excel skills, and familiarity with ERPs beyond Tally. Remember to plan for PF and ESI where applicable: EPF is generally 12% of basic plus DA from both employer and employee, subject to wage ceiling rules, and ESI applies to employees earning up to ₹21,000 a month. Rules change under the new Labour Codes, so confirm the current position with your CA or the official notifications.

An accountant will have access to your bank accounts, vendor payments and sensitive data. Trust checks are not optional. Always speak to at least one previous employer, ideally the person they reported to.

Be careful with candidates who cannot explain basic entries they claim to have done for years, who are vague about why they left previous jobs, or who suggest shortcuts on tax compliance in the interview.

• Verify degree certificates and relieving letters from the last one or two employers.
• Ask previous employers specifically about accuracy, honesty and handling of cash.
• Set up maker-checker controls from day one: the accountant prepares payments, an owner or manager approves them.
• Give access to net banking with limits and separate login IDs, never shared passwords.

Good accountants leave when the books are chaotic, the owner keeps changing instructions, or they get blamed for problems they inherited. In the first week, share the last audited balance sheet, the CA's contact, a list of pending compliance and the chart of accounts.

Agree on a monthly calendar: when GST data is due to the CA, when salaries are processed, when MIS reaches you. A clear calendar removes most of the friction between owners and accounts teams, and it gives a new hire a fair way to show results in the first 90 days.