Accountant Performance Goals Examples

It’s the time of year when some folks are completing their annual review cycles. Many are asked to come up with annual performance goals. For an accountant, particularly in industry, this can be challenging. I see folks asking on forums and groups for accountant performance goals examples, so let’s dive into some that could help you stand out for a promotion or merit raise in the next year.

What Accountant Performance Goals Are NOT

A lot of accountants view their jobs as a means to an end. In other words, accountants exist to ensure error-free accounting and financial reporting for the financials of the company. Or they exist to make sure the company doesn’t get into trouble with regulatory, legal, or tax authorities.

These statements may be true, but they don’t help when you’re asked to come up with active performance goals that will impact how you’re viewed in your job and by your company. You’ll need to turn these general concepts into actionable goals on which you can deliver.

The way these are positioned could dramatically impact your career progression, your future raises, and ultimately your job security.

Accountant Performance Goals Examples for Everyday Accounting

1: Deliver all journal entries, reconciliations, and supporting work to consistently deliver on a 5-day monthly close cycle.

2:  Complete all filings on time without any material errors and facilitate minimal findings during the annual audit.

3: Create new template for sales and use tax liability worksheet.  

Accountant Performance Goals Examples for Process Improvement & Automation

1: Create a process for collecting budget variance commentary from business line leaders to present quarterly to C-Suite management.

2: Introduce automations and re-organize the workflow of the team to reduce the monthly close process from 7 days to 4 days.

Accountant Performance Goals Examples for Liquidity & Working Capital

1: Reduce outstanding AR by 10% compared to the prior year.

2: Convert the AR process to 100% paperless and digital invoicing.

Accountant Performance Goals Examples for Regulatory Compliance

1: Bring the organization compliant with PCI security standards by the end of Q2.

2: Ensure financials are compliant with new ASC 842 lease accounting standard by end of Q2.

Brainstorm and Add Details

These are just some accountant performance goals examples to get you thinking. The best thing to do is sit down with a blank sheet of paper or a word document and start brainstorming. Start thinking about your day to day, week to week, month to month workflow, and think of the following possibilities you could turn into goals:

• Pain points that cause you and your team headaches around month-end, quarter-end, and year-end.
• Outdated processes you could automate and streamline.
• Templates or worksheets you could improve to drive greater visibility into decision making, and ultimately improve financial performance.
• Tools you could learn and introduce that could address any of the above.
• Bottlenecks, problems, or information gaps that lead to errors or audit findings.
• Areas where you could take on leadership or mentoring to improve team performance.
• New or upcoming changes in accounting standards you can implement.
• Improvements you could make to the ERP or other systems to drive efficiency.
• Continuing education, such as advancing towards the CPA, which will raise yours and therefore the team’s expertise.

Once you’ve identified multiple ideas in these areas, start putting details around them.

When I ask candidates to write out their accomplishments for a resume (or do it for them when writing finance executive resumes), I ask them to write them in the following format: Situation, Action, Result.

You can write goals in much the same way.

What is the current situation?

Which action do you need to take?

What is the desired result?

Whenever possible, quantify the result you want to achieve and put a time frame around it.

A Word of Caution

Before you present these to your manager and make them official, make sure they’re reasonably achievable. If you put 10 HUGE goals out there and then don’t achieve any of them, it won’t get you anywhere. Pick the top 4 to 5 and make them count. Anything else you can accomplish can go towards extra credit!