The accounting teams manage financials for one or more entities. Their responsibilities are very much like those of accountants in all industries. In publishing, there is one unique type of accountant, though: the “author accountant”. Author accountants manage author contracts, keep track of royalties accrued and pay authors any amounts due.
Education and skills:
A two-year accounting degree, chartered accounting degree or business school degree. Candidates need not have worked in publishing before.
Key roles:
- Director of Accounting
- Accounting manager
- Author / customer / supplier / subsidiary / general accountant
- Cash flow accountant
- Accounting assistant
Behind the scenes: responsibilities of a financial controller
Financial controllers work with the editorial teams and authors to turn contractual information from author contracts into accounting data.
- Verify contract clauses and convert them to accounting, financial and fiscal data
- Save author contracts in accounting systems
- Record sales and financial data in the relevant accounting software
- Monitor royalty payments