r/Accounting • u/dumbpeople123 • 19h ago

Advice How to improve my analytical skills.

Hey I’m an accountant II, and am used to digging in from the transaction level, and making a pivot table to see what makes up an account to perform any analysis. I would like to improve my analytical skills to be able to see from top down rather than bottom up, but am unaware of the best method to improve. Any suggestions?

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u/AlfredoCheeseSauce 18h ago

it's honestly a skill you need to build, just keep looking things over, look for variances, ask questions, reconcile a bazillion trial balances, and drill down into accounts to see what's up.

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u/FrillyPublicity 18h ago

That pivot table habit is actually a good foundation, you know your way around the raw data which a lot of folks skip

For top down thinking, maybe start by asking what the account should look like before you dig in, like what you expect to see based on the business activity that month

Then when your bottom up detail contradicts that, you already have a framework for what looks off

I used to get lost in transaction weeds for hours and never see the bigger picture, so I get it