•  Maintaining regular books of accounts: This includes writing up of accounts and preparation of financial statements. It encompasses a wide area ranging from simple book keeping to complex financial analysis.

•  Developing and maintaining accounting and related internal control systems: Here under this area includes a variety of activities beginning from designing of the basic vouchers upto the stage of presentation of financial statements. Internal controls systems in areas of day-to-day operation like handling of petty cash, payment authorisations and disbursements, issue of material, acceptances from customers, etc. comes under this service. Some of the other areas include methods of delegation of power, planning of work, operational controls, etc. It also covers the reporting methodology within and outside the organisation. The period of reporting, format of reports, etc. are structured and its use is followed up. Internal control systems covers almost all areas of activities of the organisation like recruitment/HR, basic operation of business, customer handling, legal compliances, etc. The basic objective of the internal control systems is to have a control of management over all aspects of the business without looking into the day to day operations and with a least interference in the routine workflow.

•  Finance administration : This area cover planning the cash flow and administration of financial position as a forward looking strategic management function. While planning for future the probity and certainty of historical reporting is be maintained.

•  Developing and maintaining MIS: Basically for internal reporting MIS needs to be developed considering the different kind of activities undertaken by the organisation. A detailed analysis of the basic and allied activities of the organisation is necessary for developing the MIS. Once developed and implemented the MIS needs to be updated periodically in order the cope up with the changing business scenario.

•  Preparing Final Accounts and attending to statutory Auditors: Once the day to day data entry work is over, special efforts are needed to finalise the accounts at period end for presenting it to various internal and external parties. In case of various entities before presenting the final accounts to any external party the accounts needs to be audited by an independent auditor. This work is a separate year end activity for the account assistants who handle the basic day to day accounts. Hence it is undertaken as a separate task requiring specialised knowledge and skill in the field of accountancy.

•  Payroll Processing: Basically a month end activity, payroll processing calls for special expertise in the area of the organisation's pay packages, loan scheme, advance settlement procedures, etc. It requires special attention to taxation of individuals, and handling of voluminous employee data of the organisation.

•  Calculation and payment of TDS on Employee Salaries and issuing TDS Certificates: The income tax on salaries of each individual employee needs to be calculated separately. The monthly TDS deductions varies in case of each individual employee and also it changes from month to month. The calculation of expected tax liability at the beginning on the basis of employee declarations changes as the actual figures are submitted by the employee as the financial year progresses. Individual attention is necessary to each case for submissions made by the employees. Also the TDS has to be paid to the credit of the Central Government within 7 days from date of payment or credit of the salary to the employees' account. At the year end the TDS Certificates are to be prepared and are to be issued to each employee which also requires handling of voluminous data.

•  Statutory Payments and filing TDS & Income Tax, Service Tax Returns, etc: The statutory payments and filing of returns has to be executed on the time schedule given by the respective laws. It covers calculation of the amount to be paid to the government, filing up of challans and actual payment in respect of profession tax, TDS, Sales tax, service tax, etc. Once the regular payments are made a periodical return has to be filed with the respective government department for assessment by the legal authorities.

•  Reviewing and updating internal control system: Once the internal control system is implemented it requires periodical review to assess its usefulness in its existing state to the organisation. Here the internal control system itself is under review and a decision is to be taken about its disposal, modification, etc. It covers the loopholes detected in the existing system and developes alternatives or additional procedures to negate the shortcomings of the existing systems.

•  Preparing Annual Budget & periodical MIS Reports: Annual budgets are to be prepared at the beginning of the financial year based on past years experience and the management plans for the year ahead. It requires consultation and co-ordination of almost all the departmental heads of the organisation to reach at an acceptable budget plan. It helps to set targets for employees for the coming periods. Periodical MIS reporting asks for catching of necessary data from the accounting and other internal and external records, processing it and presenting it to the different levels of management according to the information needs of each level. This calls for special skills to understand the information needs of respective management cader and the proper presentation of the information at the right time.

•  Month end activities like preparing Bank Reconciliation, Creditors/Debtors reconciliation, group company account reconciliation, etc: These kind of month end activities call for attention of a person other than the account assistant or the accountant who handles the day to day accounts. It works as the internal control over the functioning of the accountant.