Our colleague at the Malkų Įlankos Terminal, Mantas Bambalas, is a senior accountant and has been performing his duties responsibly for more than 11 years.
- It is said that the chief accountant is the second person in a company after the manager. Why is this position so important?
I wouldn't single out any profession, they are all important in their own way. However, while the absence of a person in several professions can easily be compensated for, the disappearance of an accountant, as I like to joke, is noticed by everyone quite quickly, because there is a lot of work to do daily: drawing up reports, invoicing, monitoring, and analyzing the financial indicators, and many other tasks. And then there is the interest in the frequent changes in legislation, dealing with public authorities and helping colleagues.
- What are the most important functions of your job as a senior accountant?
As a Chief Accountant, I have an internal goal that I must go beyond the immediate functions of the job and be able to add value to the company. After all, technical input of data or reports into systems does not bring tangible value. It is safe to say that the time is not far off when these tasks will be easily performed by computers controlled by artificial intelligence. I believe that value is created from high competence, i.e. the ability to interpret, to spot things that need to be improved, to advise and otherwise contribute to helping the manager to make the right decisions that lead to the company's success and growth.
- There is a stereotype in society that the job of an accountant is rather boring. Is this true or a myth?
I would like to draw a parallel here with the saying that there are no unprofitable specialties’, only unprofitable people. It is the same in the work of an accountant. Some routine is unavoidable, but I go to work every day as an adventure, because I don't know which muse will visit me in the morning. And then there are the various unplanned tasks or worries that suddenly demand your full attention and, often, your whole working day. Therefore, in my experience, I can safely say that this statement is a myth for me, and, at the same time, I would like to encourage young men not to shy away from this field of work.
- Are individual qualities and competences important in this job?
I am convinced that today's accountant not only needs to have knowledge of accounting and technology, but also the ability to think creatively, communicate and, most importantly, to always be curious. Finally, the willingness and ability to be part of a team, to be responsible and to be able to look in the same direction as the company's management and to work together to achieve the best results. After all, we can make thousands of entries without making mistakes, but we only have to "dry" our functions and wait for the end of the working day. However, I am a person who gives all my strength and heart to my work, it is natural for me and very often after a day's work I feel a great satisfaction both with my work and with the organization I am in.
- What is the secret of your professional success?
The key to my professional success is my personal qualities: integrity, responsibility, commitment to the organization. Combining these qualities with curiosity, competences, and a desire to improve, we get what every employer expects from his employees. But, as they say, there is no limit to perfection, so I plan to continue to grow in my current job and to be even more useful to the organization.
- You are an extraordinary senior accountant, with part of your working day in the terminal and part of it on the farm. Is it easy to change activities?
I jokingly say that I haven't yet decided which I like better: people's reaction to me being an accountant, or the fact that an accountant knows how to drive a combine harvester and how to repair any kind of agricultural machinery. Seriously, this kind of self-realization between two different fields does not bother me. On the contrary, the two complement each other. If I value office work for the mental challenge, personal development, and teamwork, then farming is my real hobby. In addition, farm work brings out many ideas and themes that, if it were not for the work at the terminal, might have remained on the sidelines. Because I must do all the farm work myself, I have had to learn how the business and processes work, the joy of good decisions and the consequences of bad ones.