Top 7 Computer Skills For Commerce Students Required To Get A Job

Computer or IT Skills have become inevitable for commerce students. As a commerce student, you are required to master certain software and ERP tools. Are you pursuing a professional qualification like Chartered Accountancy(CA), ACCA or Certified Management Accountant(CMA)? If yes!! Then you are entering in the world of Accounts, Audit, Finance and management consulting.This article can guide you to understand those computer skills for commerce students.

Why IT skills/computer skills are required for commerce students?

In today’s world we all know everything is driven by IT, the introduction and implementation of computers in the late 1990s in India brought a significant change in the working environment within the organizations, to gain an insight into the drastic change brought by the introduction of computers.
I will strongly recommend you to strike a conversation with your parents/grandparents. This blog is going to help you to identify the 7 most important IT or software computer skills that are going to help you to enhance your technical knowledge and make you industry ready as a commerce graduate or commerce student.

What are the best computer skills for commerce students required to learn?

As far as the field of commerce is concerned all the accounting records which were maintained manually in registers were shifted to computerized accounting software and ERP systems like Tally and SAP to name a few which has no doubt made our lives easy.

Hence for commerce students along with academics it’s important to also be equipped with all the minimum desired IT skills to perform basic tasks in corporate environment, few of the must have IT skills have been listed below:

1) MS EXCEL:

MS Excel is a spread sheet program provided by MS office application and is the most common and widely used application where data can be stored in form of tables. MS Excel is one of the most valuable software (computer skills) for commerce students.

Key benefits of using MS Excel are as follows:
• It makes the task of storing large amount of data easy.
• It allows the users to use the inbuilt mathematical functions thus improving the accuracy of calculations performed.
• When data is saved in tabular form in a spread sheet analysing it becomes easier thus assisting in making quick and informed decisions.

Some important formulas and functions to be aware of in MS Excel:

• Sum and Sum If Functions
• Count and Count If Function
• Average Function
• Concatenate Function
• LEN Function
• AND Function
• Conditional Formatting
• Remove Duplicates
• Lookup Functions – V-lookup and H-lookup
• Text to column
• Pivot Tables

Sources from where you can learn and master Excel:

1) YouTube
2) LinkedIn Learning

2) MS Word:

• After Excel a must to know tool is MS Word, it is used to make documents like report, letters, etc.
• It allows you to format and edit your text in the best possible way.
• MS Word comes handy to document processes, preparing audit report etc.
• It is amongst the commonly used program worldwide.

Some features of MS Word to be known to commerce students:

• Formatting a word document.
• Converting word document to PDF.
• Adding, formatting and editing data into tables in MS Word.
• Spell Check
• Using Track Changes feature
• Adjusting Margins, orientation and alignment of the content.
• Adding Header, footer and page number to the document.
• Adding a water mark to the document.

Sources from where you can learn and master MS Word:
1) YouTube
2) LinkedIn Learning

3) MS Power Point:

MS Power Point is an easy to use tool for making attractive and professional presentations using slides.
It presents information in a creative and interactive manner by use of following elements:
• Graphs
• Pie Charts
• Tables
• Clip-Art
• Pictures
• Video

Various uses of MS Power point:
Power point presentation can be used for a wide range of purposes such as:
• For making attractive marketing presentations
• For making Catalogues and Magazines
• Creating Resumes
• Presenting Audit report
• Presenting Sales MIS
• Presenting Financials / Budgets
• Creating Educational slides for students

Sources from where you can learn and master MS Power point:
1) YouTube
2) LinkedIn Learning

Accounting Software:

Accounting software is a tool which manages and process financial data. Accountants use these programs to maintain accounts and prepare the company’s financial statements.

Types of accounting software:

Accounting software are classified based on operations performed by the business few types are as follows:
1) Billing / Invoicing / Inventory Management Software:
These soft wares take care of the billing activity and helps in inventory management.

2) ERP systems:
These soft wares are a complete package and manage operations like Planning / Budgeting and controlling, Purchases, Inventory management, Accounting, Marketing, Finance and even the HR Operations.

Benefits of Accounting Software:
• Saves time
• Cost effective
• Improves Accuracy
• Helps in various statutory compliances
• Maintains customer relationship
• Stores data

Accounting software which commerce graduates or commerce students must learn:

4) TALLY – (Transaction allowed in a linear line yard):

• It is one of the oldest and widely used accounting software; it is used by Manufacturers, Service providers, Small as well as large scale business, Auditors etc.
• It is user friendly and simple to use and has the capability of receiving data entry quickly and processing the accounting information.
• Tally also assists in better cash flow management
• Provides GST compliance related assistance
• Has the facility of generating reports which in turn helps in better decision making.

Commerce Graduates must have knowledge of following functions in Tally:
• Recording journal entries pertaining to sales and purchases along with the GST related entries.
• Recording TDS entries.
• Invoice booking.
• Recording Purchase orders and passing Purchase entries.
• Performing Bank Reconciliation.
• Extracting various reports useful for decision making like Debtors and Creditors ageing report, Sales and Purchases report, Inventory statements etc.
• Performing the activity of Ledger scrutiny.

5) SAP – (Systems Applications and Products):

• SAP is Enterprise Resource Planning software; it integrates all the main functions of the organisation processes.
• It consists of various components specific for each organizational process referred to as “Modules”
• Successful integration of SAP ensures smooth flow of information between the different SAP modules.
• SAP modules can be divided into two types:
1) Functional Module
2) Technical Module

Following are the Functional SAP Modules:
• Human Resource Management (SAP HRM), also known as Human Resource (HR)
• Production Planning (SAP PP)
• Material Management (SAP MM)
• Financial Supply Chain Management (SAP FSCM)
• Sales and Distribution (SAP SD)
• Project System (SAP PS)
• Financial Accounting and Controlling (SAP FICO)
• Plant Maintenance (SAP PM)
• Quality Management (SA)
Following are the Technical SAP Modules:
• SAP Basis
• SAP Security
• Advanced Business Application Programming (SAP ABAP)
• High Performance Analytic Appliance (SAP HANA)
• SAP Net Weaver
• Information Systems Management (SAP IS)
• Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM Technical module)
• Exchange Infrastructure (SAP XI)
• SAP Solution Manager
It is recommended that out of the above mentioned modules commerce graduates can consider gaining basic knowledge of below modules as per there areas of interest.

Sources from where you can learn the basics of these SAP Modules:
1) YouTube
2) LinkedIn Learning

6) Microsoft Outlook:

Microsoft outlook is the preferred emailing platform when it comes to corporates, it is used to send and receive emails, it also provides access to contact details like telephone numbers, email id, calendar and task management features.
It also has the ability to send automatic replies, recall a email if unread by the receiver, following are the suggested features to have a knowledge of before you begin your corporate journey:
Calendar sharing: To know about the availability of the colleague, users can share their calendar and accordingly plan on scheduling meetings.
Scheduling Emails: Users can type and save the mails which they have to send ahead of time and schedule them to be sent in future.
New mail alerts: Incoming e-mails notifications come on users display notifying them that they have received a new email.
Segregate messages into separate folders: Separate folders can be set up to route similar kinds of messages in a particular folder.
Reminder for an unattached file: If a user mentions of an attachment in the E-mail and forgets to attach it then outlook will remind the user with a pop up.

Sources from where you can learn about Microsoft Outlook:
1) YouTube
2) LinkedIn Learning

7) Micro soft Power Bi:

Micro soft Power Bi is a data visualization tool that converts data from different data sources to interactive dashboards.

Reasons why power Bi is required:
Capable of handling large volume of data and from various sources: Power Bi is capable of handling large volume of data from various sources it allows users to source data from Excel, CSV, Jason, pdf, oracle, web, SQL etc.
Makes data visually attractive and appealing: Power Bi makes the data visually appealing by transforming the data into interactive dashboards, thus helping to aid better analysis of data and decision making.
Components of Power Bi: Power Bi consists of the following components:
Power Bi Desktop: Power Bi desktop is a development tool for power query, power view and power pivot, power bi desktop makes everything available under one umbrella.
Power Query: Power query is used for data cleansing and data transformation, it enables refining of data so that the same can be used for analyzing.
Power Pivot: Power pivot is a data modelling tool that allows creating data model, creates calculations and establishes relationships.

Sources from where you can learn about Micro soft Power Bi:
1) YouTube
2) LinkedIn Learning

Conclusion:

Thus we can conclude that taking into consideration the IT environment in which commerce graduates or CA or ACCA or CMA are expected to work and start their corporate journey, it would be beneficial to have the above mentioned IT skills in your skills arsenal.

Apart from that if you are in 12th commerce you can devote a little time of your month to learn these IT skills. These software skills are considered as most essential accounting skills that employers seek.

Also Read: Common Audit Interview Questions You Must Prepare Before the interview