How to Become an Accounts Executive After B.Com

You Finished B.Com — Now What?

You have your degree, your marksheet is ready, and every job portal shows "Accounts Executive – 0 to 2 years experience." Sounds perfect — until you read the job description and realise they want Tally Prime, GST knowledge, bank reconciliation, and Excel pivot tables all at once. Nobody taught you how to pull those together into something an employer actually hires for. This post gives you a 90-day plan that does exactly that.

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What Does an Accounts Executive Actually Do?

Before the roadmap, a quick reality check. An Accounts Executive at a small or mid-sized Indian company typically handles:

• Recording day-to-day transactions (journal entries, vouchers in Tally)
• Preparing and verifying invoices under GST
• Reconciling the bank statement with the company's books every month
• Filing monthly GST returns (GSTR-1, GSTR-3B) or supporting whoever does
• Assisting with month-end trial balance and basic MIS reports in Excel

The salary range for freshers in tier-2 cities sits between ₹15,000–₹22,000 per month; in metros it can touch ₹25,000–₹30,000. The role is not glamorous, but it is the single most common entry point for B.Com graduates into the finance function — and it teaches you more practical accounting in six months than two years of classroom study.

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The 90-Day Job-Readiness Roadmap

Think of the 90 days in three 30-day sprints. Each sprint builds on the last.

Sprint 1 (Days 1–30): Core Accounting + Tally Prime

Week 1–2 — Journal entries and ledger posting

Everything in accounting starts with the debit-credit rule. Revise the three golden rules (Personal, Real, Nominal) and immediately practise posting in Tally Prime — not on paper. Create a company in Tally, add ledgers, and post at least 50 vouchers covering purchases, sales, expenses, and payments. A sample entry:

Purchase of stationery for ₹2,000 cash: Dr. Stationery A/c ₹2,000 | Cr. Cash A/c ₹2,000

Week 3 — Trial balance

A trial balance is simply a list of all ledger closing balances, debit on one side, credit on the other — they must agree. In Tally, press Alt + F1 on the Balance Sheet to drill down. Practice identifying why a trial balance disagrees (hint: usually a one-sided entry or arithmetic error).

Week 4 — Bank reconciliation statement (BRS)

A BRS explains the difference between the bank balance in your books and the balance shown on the bank passbook. Common differences: cheques issued but not yet presented, deposits in transit, bank charges not yet recorded. Practice with a sample bank statement — download one from any public-domain tutorial site and reconcile it manually, then mirror it in an Excel sheet. This one task comes up in almost every fresher interview.

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Sprint 2 (Days 31–60): GST Basics + Excel

GST in 10 minutes for freshers

GST — Goods and Services Tax — is a single indirect tax collected at every stage of supply. For an Accounts Executive, the key concepts are:

Term	What it means in practice
CGST + SGST	Applied on intra-state sales (e.g., Delhi seller → Delhi buyer)
IGST	Applied on inter-state sales (e.g., Delhi seller → Mumbai buyer)
Input Tax Credit (ITC)	GST paid on purchases you can offset against GST collected on sales
GSTR-1	Monthly/quarterly return for outward supplies (sales)
GSTR-3B	Monthly summary return; ITC is claimed here under Sec 16(2)(c) CGST Act

Spend one week understanding how a tax invoice looks under Rule 46 of the CGST Rules — it must carry GSTIN, HSN/SAC code, tax breakup, and place of supply. The CBIC's official portal at cbic-gst.gov.in has free offline GSTR utilities you can download and fill in as practice.

Excel for Accounts (2 weeks)

Employers test three Excel skills almost universally:

1. VLOOKUP / XLOOKUP — matching invoice numbers across two sheets
2. Pivot Tables — summarising monthly sales by customer or GST rate
3. Basic formulas — SUMIF, COUNTIF, IF statements for ageing reports

Build one practice file: 100 fake invoices with invoice number, date, customer name, amount, and GST rate. Then create a pivot table showing total sales per customer and a VLOOKUP that pulls GST rates from a master table. Screenshot this file — it will go in your resume project.

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Sprint 3 (Days 61–90): Resume Project + Job Applications

Build one evidence project

Instead of listing skills, show them. Create a folder (Google Drive is fine) containing:

• Tally company data export (screenshot of trial balance and P&L)
• Excel reconciliation file with a BRS for a fictional company "Sharma Trading Pvt Ltd"
• A sample GST tax invoice you created in Word or Excel, correctly formatted per Rule 46
• A one-page "Business Summary Report" for Sharma Trading for the month of April — revenue, key expenses, net profit, GST liability

Put the Drive link on your resume under Projects. This is the single biggest differentiator between two freshers with the same degree.

Fresher resume — what to include

• Objective: One line, specific ("Seeking an Accounts Executive role where I can apply Tally Prime, GST compliance, and Excel skills to support the finance team")
• Education: B.Com with percentage, college, year
• Skills: Tally Prime, MS Excel (VLOOKUP, Pivot Tables), GST compliance, BRS, Journal entries
• Project: Sharma Trading Pvt Ltd — link to Drive folder
• Internship (if any): Even a 1-month CA office stint counts

Where to apply

• Naukri.com and LinkedIn — search "Accounts Executive fresher" filtered by your city
• Local CA firms — post on CA office notice boards or message CA professionals on LinkedIn directly
• SME manufacturing and trading companies — they hire accounts staff frequently and care far more about Tally and GST than about CGPA

If you want a structured path that covers all of this with live mentors and placement support, look at the SuperAccountant cohort programme — it is designed specifically for B.Com and M.Com graduates who want to enter the workforce in under 45 days.

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Common Accounts Executive Interview Questions for Freshers

Interviewers at SMEs are pragmatic. Expect these:

1. "Pass the journal entry for a credit purchase of ₹50,000 with 18% GST." Dr. Purchases A/c ₹50,000 | Dr. Input IGST A/c ₹9,000 | Cr. Creditor A/c ₹59,000

2. "What is the due date for GSTR-3B for a monthly filer?" 20th of the following month (as per the current CBIC notification schedule — verify on cbic-gst.gov.in before your interview as dates can change by state-wise staggering).

3. "Show me how you would do a bank reconciliation." Walk them through: book balance → add/deduct timing differences → arrive at passbook balance.

4. "What is Input Tax Credit?" ITC is the credit a registered taxpayer can claim for GST paid on inputs, subject to the conditions in Sec 16 of the CGST Act 2017.

5. "Which Tally shortcut opens the ledger creation screen?" Alt + C from within a voucher, or Gateway → Accounts Info → Ledgers → Create.

Practice these out loud. Saying them once is worth reading them five times.

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Skills Checklist Before You Apply

Use this as your go/no-go checklist before sending out the first application:

• Can post 20 varied journal entries in Tally Prime without referring to notes
• Can prepare a trial balance from a given set of ledger balances
• Can reconcile a bank statement with 5–6 timing differences
• Know the difference between CGST+SGST and IGST — and when each applies
• Can create a pivot table and use VLOOKUP in Excel
• Resume project folder is live and the Drive link works
• Resume is one page, has a project section, and lists specific software skills
• Have practised the five interview questions above at least twice verbally

Tick all eight → start applying. Missing two or three → spend another week on those gaps before mass-applying (quality over quantity at the fresher stage really does matter).

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One More Thing: Keep Learning After You Land the Role

Your first three months on the job will teach you more than this entire roadmap. Pay attention to how your senior handles month-end closing, how the company files its GSTR-1, and what the auditor asks for. Ask questions. Volunteer for the boring reconciliation work — boring work is where the learning hides.

Once you are stable in the role, the natural next steps are TDS/TCS basics (Sec 194C, 194J of the Income Tax Act 1961 are the two you will see most as a fresher), then moving toward accounts finalisation and Ind AS basics if you want to grow toward a Senior Accounts Executive or Finance Executive title.

Check out the free resources and job listings at SuperAccountant to stay updated on what employers in your city are actually asking for right now.

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If you're not sure where to start, take SuperAccountant's free 10-minute quiz at https://app.superaccountant.in/en/quiz?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=cta&utm_campaign=students — it places you at the exact phase of our curriculum that matches your current level, so you stop revising what you already know.