the Cost of Temporary Accounting Employees

Temporary staffing for general ledger / book keeping work. Post manual checks written, post deposits, record journal entries, reconcile bank statements. Reconcile sub-ledgers to general ledger. Reconcile inter-company accounts.

Not great. The staff person understood some of the required work needed of her but did not really understand the concept of what accounts should have a debit balance compared to what accounts should have a credit balance. She was able to understand the posting of manual checks and handled the bank reconciliation after I gave her some instruction as to what a bank balance was compared to a book balance. I could not give her the task of recording journal entries unless I gave them to her with specific accounts to debit or credit. I tried with the sub-ledger accounts to the general ledger but she didn't understand.

Ask to interview the person first or ask if they were given a basic accounting test and ask to see the test results if they took it. A number of staff that came through here didn't have an accounting background but were very good receptionists. Make sure they have at least a basic understanding of accounting - regardless or not if they have an accounting degree. For one person I spoke with them over the phone and asked a couple of basic accounting questions - I wasn't interested in wasting my time or theirs.