Accountant Role

Table of contents

The paper focused on single greatest change agent facing accounting in the next 15 years which is technology. Emerging trends in technology will fundamentally alter the way in which both business and accounting will be conducted. The measurement and reporting of business transactions, long considered a core competency of accountants, will be challenged by the information economy, forcing accountants to justify their role in business. The foundations of the profession will be eroded by the opposing demands of emerging services and established values. The prospects for accountants have never looked better: There is a growing demand for the provision and analysis of information in the new economy. But the value chain that accountants used to dominate, that between the firm and the long-term shareholder, is now on the margins of a wider environment marked by day traders, continuous media coverage, and rapid equity shifts.

Accountants/Financial Managers have yet to come up with a strategy, much less products, for how they will take a larger share of this marketplace. While continuous reporting and assurance are promising, there is no guarantee that the market will grant accountants a monopoly on these products; their legally protected role as auditors might actually be an artificial barrier to tackling competitive threats head on. It makes little difference to the emerging global economy whether its information processing needs are carried out by professionals called “accountants” or someone else. But that choice will clearly determine the future of the profession.

Relevance of Accounting in 2015

Central to the future of accounting is the continuing relevance of accounting measurement for corporate management and firm valuation. The balance sheet and income statement are ceasing to function as relevant measures of a business as underlying processes undergo profound changes.

Profound Changes

In the paper written about thirteen (13) years ago, Alles et al enumerated the changes in the field of accounting which some have already taken place and some are now unfolding right before our very eyes:

  • Many companies only own research and development (R&D) and outsource distribution and manufacturing.
  • Physical possession of inventory becomes meaningless where supply chain management is key.
  • Businesses have adopted unorthodox ownership structures emphasizing alliance, tracking stocks, profit sharing agreements, and opportunistic joint ventures.
  • Intellectual property is a primary source of a firm’s market valuation, but traditional assessment methods understate its value.

But above all these profound changes in the accounting field, the biggest goes to new technologies:

  • Information capture technology
  • Access and monitoring technology
  • Storage
  • Telecommunications and inter-networking
  • Pervasive computing
  • XML standards
  • Automatic workpapers
  • System monitoring architecture
  • Automatic inventory tracking disclosure

Broader and deeper financial statements, with drill downs and user based presentation, will push the limits of the current standards and acceptable practices. Financial Managers, as well as accountants and auditors, will have to get used to this environment and adapt their practices to a new world.

As the spread of the Internet revolutionizes access to information and spawns electronic commerce, it is bound to profoundly change accounting information systems and professional practices in auditing, financial reporting, management accounting, tax accounting, forensic accounting and business intelligence and counter intelligence. Many of these developments will be affected by future legal changes relating to electronic transactions, on-line contracts, and intellectual property rights. Accountants and/or Financial Managers, being information providers, are natural agents and users for information technologies. In an environment of continuous contact with customers, electronic care, and continuously changing costs and benefits, new roles and activities are emerging.

In a computer environment that will link many processes, intelligent agents performing many functions, deskbound and distributed, monitoring features will emerge to facilitate accounting practice and enable online auditing. Risks and exposures, particularly of intrusion and viruses, will present new challenges to accountants.

Future Challenges of the Accounting/Auditing/Financial Profession

With these changes already unfolded in the accountancy profession, the question is: Is the accounting profession attempting to “reinvent” itself, or what? As a future Financial Adviser, I agree with those who believe that the accounting profession should take the initiative to expand its role despite of these many changes mentioned above or to be flexible under any circumstance.

Even with the economic downfall or so-called “recession” in the United States of America, Europe and other parts of the world, I agree that the accountancy/financial profession will continue to be in demand whether there is economic growth or downturn aside. A Hongkong-based accountancy firm believed that Accountants/Financial Advisers in good and bad times, will have roles to play. One should not think that if the economy is down, there’s no more need for financial managers/accountants. Generally, there is a need for more accountants because of more onerous and more complex standards; and also in the longer term as economies will grow.

With economies around the world suffering from the global downturn, the role of the qualified accountant has huge importance. Qualified accountants/financial managers have key roles to play in steering organizations through the current turmoil, enabling them to manage risks and take decisions effectively, while influencing strategic plans to drive future business growth. In short, they can play a major part in ensuring the causes of today’s problems are not repeated tomorrow.

On the other hand, when the economy is booming, there is also a corresponding demand of qualified accountants given more resources, more businesses, more wealth to manage. In conclusion, the predictions/statements of Alles et. al in their article: “Accounting in 2015” are already realities of today. In the modern world, basic accounting, auditing and accounts preparation skills are increasingly taken for granted. On top of these, qualified accountants need to demonstrate complex business and managerial skills.

They need analytical ability and an understanding of the interconnectedness of risk across complicated entities. They also need the ability to communicate with peers and external stakeholders so that they can understand the future vision for the business, as well as clearly understand its past performance. Business success depends on the ability to make sound decisions in a risky, uncertain world. Qualified accountants can help management teams to make those decisions, based on information drawn from accurate data and informed by broad business knowledge.

These may be tough times for all organizations around the world, but they are also potentially exciting and enabling times for qualified accountants who have the opportunity to step up and take the lead in driving future business success. Rapid changes in the future even after 2015 in the accounting environment and the obligation to maintain technical competence confirm the need for accountants to continuously embark on further education to remain technically proficient and relevant.

Thus, whatever the future will bring, the role of the accountants/financial managers will evolve in the future to encompass new challenges such as global economic uncertainty and volatility, fluctuating energy prices, and turbulent currency markets, along with a shift in economic power.

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The Academic Standards of Schools Today

College or technical schools are supposed to be the gateway to higher paying careers, but most are not all that they are cracked up to be. The standards and goals that society wants met are continually not being met by the students today. Also, many higher learning facilities lack the funds to provide positive learning environments for students. For these reasons and many more are keeping the students of today from benefiting fully from schools. Society today has to make some new choices for the students of tomorrow, choices that will carry them into the next millennium.

Society can either “lower standards so that everybody “passes” in a way that looses all meaning in the real world” or ” raise standards and then meet them” (Barber 479). I personally believe in raising our expectations and doing whatever is needed to meet them. Our countries standards are among the lowest in the world and ” at the same moment as we are transferring our responsibilities to the shoulders of the next generation, we are blaming them for our own generation”s most conspicuous failures” (Barber 472).

Every election year the candidates use something about education as one of their platforms, but few ever carry through with them once they are elected. Most education bills die in congress in some shape or another and the ones that actually make it through congress, are usually ineffective because they have been changed and modified to the point of ineffectiveness. Also, many of the learning facilities today lack the funding to provide adequate, positive learning environments for students.

Underpaid teachers and professors who ” make less than accountants architects, doctors, lawyers, engineers, judges, health professionals, auidiors, and surveyors” and thus many student disregard teachers as role models. If people see someone who can score touchdowns or dunk a basketball making millions while their teachers are scraping bottom to survive, then how can an educator possibly motivate them to learn (Barber 470). Many people chase after their “dreams” of money instead of seeing the reality of learning.

Although society today rates an education as one of their top priorities, they still allow learning facilities to become broken and run down. Like animals, children and adults file into buildings with bad floors, horrible plumbing, leaky roofs and ceilings, and pack into desk, usually 35+ per educator. Today the government spends $35,000 a year to keep someone behind bars and only a fraction of that to keep them in school (Barber 475).

Tuition, room, and board at most colleges now come to at least $7,000, not counting books and fees. This might seem to suggest that the colleges are getting rich. But they are equally battered by inflation. Tuition covers only 60 percent of what it cost to educate a student, and ordinarily the remainder comes from what colleges receive in endowments, grants, and gifts” (Bird 498). Its about time we started to provide more money.

Funding more for education wont solve every problem but no problem can even begin to be solved without it. The so-called higher learning facilities of today are selling students short when it comes to their education. Properly funding the education system and setting new standards for the future is an important part of education reform. Education reform for the US is a vital part of insuring the future for students and bringing them up to the standards set by other countries.

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Satyam – the Enron of India

INTRODUCTION The case study ‘Satyam – the Enron of India’ looks at Satyam Computer Services Limited and its involvement in corporate fraud leading to one of India’s largest white-collar crimes. The Satyam scandal marks as one of India’s biggest corporate scandals where its stakeholders were continually fed misleading financial information from its late chairman Ramalinga Raju. This once promising, global IT company provided its services for some of the largest companies in Australia and the United States, such as Telstra, Suncorp and Qantas, to mention a few.

The following case study analysis looks at the failure of Satyam Computer Services Limited due to fierce competition and the need to impress stakeholders, along with inaccurate, misleading accounting statements, unethical behaviour and poor leadership. PART 1: Management issues in the Satyam case study From reviewing the case, the management issues in the case study are unethical behaviour and poor leadership. As there was no approval needed form shareholders it gave Raju and his brother the ability to make all managerial decisions.

The lack of leadership and abuse of power let independent directors and audit committee feel intimidated enough to trust in the managerial decisions without question. The need for power and money led to negligence of fiduciary duties and inaccurate deceptive accounting on Raju’s behalf. Raju’s total disregard for managerial ethics just to make short term figures to impress Satyam’s stakeholders resulted in a complete lack of corporate social responsibility.

Raju’s greed led to the manipulation of financial records to show increased earnings, payment of salaries to ‘ghost staff’, diversion of funds to purchase property in family member names and fabricated profits¬¬¬¬. It is believed PricewaterhouseCooper failed to perform its role correctly and therefore this failure to follow fiduciary responsibilities lead to Raju’s manipulation of the businesses statements and cash flow was go undetected. PART 2: Why the issues are problematic? In the first instance we examine the unethical behaviour and the conflict of interest with family members in high company roles.

Since the company was founded and owned by Raju himself, the chairman, and his brother occupying the role of managing director, which gave them and overwhelming majority and a psychological advantage into the decision making of the company. This advantage is how the company books were able to be cooked and inflated profits by selling inflated stakes for went undetected for so long. Without the approval of from the shareholder the directors were able to use company funds to be diverted into family real estate investments.

Raju’s expectations for power and ambitious corporate growth also contributed to the fraud. Whist there is no right or wrong way to behave due to Raju’s lack of moral leadership Satyam’s stakeholders, clients and employees were also greatly affected by the demise. Rationalisation and justification lead to negative emotions which could have caused Raju to act emotionally and unethically without any regard for his stakeholders. The damage to the credibility of the company forced the cancellation of projects which in turn lead to the employee’s loss of wages, jobs and self esteem.

The mistrust would have had clients question accountability and would have sought business with Satyums competitors. Shareholders would have lost money in the form of investments. Deceptive reporting practices and complete lack of transparency in the finances damaged the company’s future credibility. As PricewaterhouseCooper failed to detect the discrepancies I believe they also hold some accountability in the downfall of the company. As the falsifying of Satyam’s books would lower its stock values, which inturn would lead lower profits and less investors.

However to leave the auditor out of the equation would be a mistake. As a result of negligence with both PricewaterhouseCooper and Raju, the outsourcing company suffered a massive blow in trust and leave further investment in the company questionable. However whilst the scandal put pressure on the Indian government and other Indian outsourcing, this type of scandal wouldn’t be limited to just India as a culture, as It comes down having a good global manager that exercises good ethical behaviour.

As all mangers are human it’s the ability of mangers to be self disciplined and handle pressure to provide total quality management. PART 3: Recommendations. In Satyam’s case the need to merge or sell the company would be the first step to restore some faith in the company. What happened with Satyam served as a reminder that a universal, quality corporate governance mechanism is needed to ensure future companies don’t follow in Raju’s footsteps. Complete transparencies in finances would also avoid any temptation for unethical behaviour along with more deterring punishments for frauds of this scale.

This would ensure higher loyalty and trust from stakeholders. Henri Fayol’s contribution to management thinking would be a great concept to start with, his five principles; I. Planning – Establishing objectives and goals. Recognising obstacles, these can be internal or external, and how to control them. Forming, implementing and following up of plans. II. Organising – Identification, classification, coordination III. Commanding – The delegation of duties to correct workers, successful leadership. IV.

Coordinating – Make decisions and ensure all information is shared and to monitor the works involved. V. Controlling – Monitoring and making sure all things are running according to plan. Employee performance reviews Whilst policing manager personality traits would be a perfect solution the reality of policing this is near impossible therefore management accountability and responsibility would be a good start. Having a universal Code of Ethical Conduct and setting out universal teachings or courses in global ethics may also provide a solution.

By obtaining a better understanding of cultural diversity, understanding the abilities, vales and personality types of different cultures ultimately it is up to the manager to be fully accountable. REFERENCE LIST Schermerhorn, Davidson, Poole, Simon, Woods, Chau, 2011, Management Foundations and Applications http://www. mahindrasatyam. com/investors/documents/Annual-Repor-for-the-year-2011-12. pdf http://www. vrl-financial-news. com/accounting/intl-accounting-bulletin/issues/iab-2009/iab441/satyam-scandal-where-to-from. aspx http://www. telegraph. co. uk/finance/4161198/Satyam-accounting-scandal-could-be-Indias-Enron. html

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Broader Role, Wider Career Opportunities

Today’s accountant is as much a business executive as a technician. The whole nature of the work done by the accounting profession has undergone some significant changes in recent years, and the changes continue. There has been a dramatic expansion in the body of accounting knowledge over the last decade. Significant increases in official accounting and auditing pronouncements and the proliferations of new tax laws are two factors that have expanded the knowledge base that professional practice in accounting requires (Jenkins et. al., 2005).

In business, accountants now fulfill a wide spectrum of needs from internal auditor to chief financial officer, and from vice president of finance to chief executive officer. The financial information that professional accountants provide is the lifeblood of business and society.

Because its impact is far-reaching, the accounting profession opens vast career possibilities. There are plenty of choices when it comes to the area that accounting professionals want to work in, like public accountancy (in where managerial accounting belongs), private accountancy, careers in government, owning a business, overseas opportunities and opportunities in other industries.

Those in public practice may audit the financial statements of a large Fortune 500 company or advise a small business on a range of subjects vital to the company’s survival and growth. They may also serve as personal financial planners, as tax preparers and advisers, and as management and computer consultants. Accountants also play significant roles in every level of government, from local councils and state government departments to government bodies and departments.

Responsibilities of a Managerial Accountant

Coombs et. al. (2005, p. 4) stated that “management accounting may be described as the determination, presentation, interpretation and application of financial and quantitative information to the internal management of an organization at all levels”.  Simply put, management accounting is the accounting system for the planning, control and decision making activities of an organization. However, it must be noted that the data produced by the function that is management accounting is just a singular element of the process of decision making.

In parallel with the broadening role of the accounting profession in practice, the scope of management accounting has also moved beyond traditional textbook notions, which portrayed management accounting as part of the formal hierarchical planning and control system of the organization. There is a significant shift in the management accountant’s role from the ‘bad guy’ or ‘cost enforcer’ to the ‘knowledgeable friend’ of business operations able to provide valuable support. Management accounting now also includes the responsibility for the preparation of financial reports for non-management groups such as regulatory agencies and tax authorities.

Another primary task of the management accountant is to show economic realities, and coupled with this, it is important that the changing value of money is reflected in the information provided to management. Noreen and Garrison (2002) also noted that more recent management accounting research has begun to explore the much broader role of management accounting and management accountants in the organization. The management accountant of today plays a crucial responsibility in the improvement of business programs.

This function stresses a set of skills which should be developed over time: (1) proficiency in the design of systems; (2) know-how in the management of change; (3) the aptitude to relate stratagem to general business objectives; and (4) improved functional capability. Such roles for the management accountant are crucial for the organization as it helps to integrate the various business activities and functions of the business. As the management accounting system is an integral part of a management information system, the skills and role of the management accountant are dynamically adapting to the demands of the current times. Also read My Dream Job Accountant Essay

WORKS CITED

Coombs, H., Hobbs, D., Jenkins, D. ; Jenkins, E. (2005). Managerial Accounting: Principles and Applications. London: Sage, Ltd.

Jenkins, G., Sawyers, R. ; Jackson, S. (2005). Managerial Accounting: Focus on Decision Making. Ohio: Thomson South-Western

Noreen, E. ; Garrison, R. (2002). Managerial Accounting. New York: Irwin McGraw-Hill.

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Impairment test

T he changing role of the process of management accounting have great implications to the world of practice. Before that we should first look into the issue of its evolution. The industrial revolution in the early 19th century resulted in the emergence of a factory system that create a new demand for accounting information & this dramatically change the production process. Johnson & Kaplan suggest that emergence & rapid growth of railways in the mid-19th century was the major driving force in the development of management accounting system (MAS).

By 1920, sophisticated systems to record & analyze variances from standard had been implemented & articulated in the literature. In the early decades of the 20th century giant vertically integrated & multi-divisional organizations emerged out & it was that time when new management techniques like budgetary planning & control systems, ROI were devised to measure the success of the division & the entire organization.

The management accounting system in service organizations evolved at a later stage compare to manufacturing organizations. In a nutshell, we can summarize the evolution in the followings – 1880 – 1925 : Most of the product-costing & internal accounting procedures used in this century were developed 1925 : Emphasis of inventory costing for external reporting 1950s/60s : Effort to improve the managerial usefulness of traditional cost systems 1980s/90s : Significant efforts have been made to radically change the nature & practice of management accounting.

Overall, these traditional management accounting practices such as cost variance analysis & profit-based performance measures, focus on concerns internal to the organization & are financially-oriented. In 1987, Johnson & Kaplan through the book “Relevance lost: The rise and fall of management accounting” concluded that the lack of management accounting innovation in recent decades & the failure to respond to its changing environment resulted in a situation in the mid 1980s where firms were using 30 year old management accounting systems that were obsolete & no longer relevant to today’s competitive ; manufacturing environment.

Since the 1980s, the growth of privatization, deregulation, international businesses, global competition ; new information ; production technology has changed the world of management accounting. These changes have special implications for transitional ; newly industrialized or emerging economies. Consequently, this emergence ; need due to the rapid changes have emerged in the introduction of new management tools combining both financial ; non-financial information ; taking an explicit strategic focus. These are ‘valued-based’ management accounting methods ; take an explicit strategic focus such as just-in-time (JIT), flexible manufacturing systems (FMS), computer-integrated manufacture (CIM), total quality management (TQM), time-based management (TBM), business process re-engineering (BPR), while activity-based cost management (ABCM), life-cycle accounting (LCA), ; balanced scorecard (BSC) are examples of new MASs.

Future Management Accounting

On an organisational level, in future greater emphasis will be put on core competencies, emphasis on customer ; supplier relationships, downsizing, outsourcing, flatter organisational structures ; team work (Barbera, 1996a; Binnersley, 1997; Burns et al, 1999). Sharma (1998) claims that in the future, management accounting will develop in areas involving “a broad spectrum of cross-functional disciplines” such as:

Performance Management (eg developing key financial and non-financial indicators, Asset Management eg. managing a product through its life cycle,Business Control Management eg corporate governance and internal control frameworks, Environmental Management eg accounting for the environment, Financial Management ,eg activity based management, Intellectual Capital Management eg measuring and managing employee satisfaction,Information Management eg implementing and generating value from e-commerce and EDI, Quality Management eg implementing TQM within and organisation and managing quality improvements, and  Strategic Management eg value chain analysis for assessing competitive advantage.

Peter Booth in his article “The future of management accounting” states that “The area of greatest changes in the management accounting discipline will be the types of practices and their underlying normative framework(s) that form ‘management accounting’ in the next millennium.” He has given some directions which are: The accounting quantitative base of current management accounting will merge with other general management control issues ; knowledge. The focus of this management control discipline will be more on facilitating managements’ actions rather than the controlling & evaluating of them that is the present focus. The more knowledge work that involves creativity in the use of information systems will still be done within the firm.  The new ‘management control’ discipline will be based around a new customer-focused framework (Armitage et al., 1994).

A generic framework for looking at the value of what a firm does, relative to others, which is independent of how a firm is actually structured ( Under a value chain orientation, the key performance metrics will be those that link & coordinate activities as to how value is to be delivered to customers under the firm’s strategy. Under a customer-focused value chain framework, the focus of the new MAS will be on supporting continuous improvement ; process re-engineering. The customer focused framework is the types of measurement systems which will put greater emphasis on non-financial information.

Today’s environment is characterized as dynamic, uncertain, competitive, turbulent, information and technology based, globalized. In such a situation, the need of Management Accounting has grown in proportion to the management technique developments. So, future emphasis of Management Accounting will be very much on the areas which are non-traditional and these can be categorized in the following broad areas – Creativity, Quality, Value Creation, Employee Skill, Technical Know-How, Team Work, Non-Financial Information, Activity, Customer Relation, Information Management.

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Bookkeepers vs Professional Accountants

Many bookkeepers in our world today define themselves as accountants, but what is the difference between a Professional Accountant and a Bookkeeper? This essay aims discuss and examine the relationship between each of the occupations, examine the differences that sets the two occupations apart and then explore what makes an accountant a professional in today’s world. Comments made by third parties will be looked at in depth in order to reach a fair conclusion.

Bookkeepers today have an important but restricted role in the business world. Their main role is to record the financial transactions of a business. As a bookkeeper, you will be employed to sustain all the ledger accounts, and maintain all the other documents up to the trial balance. The dictionary of Economics & Business by Christine Ammer & Dean S Ammer defines bookkeeping as, “keeping the financial records (books) of a business or other economic unit, recording all transactions in which it engages”.

This evidence clearly states that a bookkeeper is subjected to only recording the transactions until the accounting period has finished and the trial balance produced, and is then subsequently handed over to a more qualified member of staff to produce reports or statements.

In the present time, accountants have a more complex role in the business world. As an accountant, you must posses all the skills of a bookkeeper, but in addition to that, an accountant must be able to use the information provided by the bookkeeper to produce and communicate clear statements and reports. The Oxford Dictionary of Business & Management states that “wherever accountants work, their responsibilities centre on the collating, recording and communicating of financial information and the preparation of analysis for decision making purposes”. By this comment, we are able to see the complexity of an accountants role in business and understand the services they provide.

You may be thinking that an accountant is just a more advanced bookkeeper, but there are many other differences. In order to become an accountant, you require formal qualifications. The typical entry route into being an accountant is to study a relevant subject for 4 years at university and then undertake a training vacancy with an accounting firm. On the other hand, bookkeepers require no formal qualifications in order to begin training. This is because accountants provide a range of services whereas bookkeepers provide only one service and there is a mechanical-like nature to the way they do their job.

As an accountant, one skill that is compulsory is communication; whether it be researching what the clients business does before providing services to them, finding out about the client’s needs or presenting the financial reports of an accounting period, a high percentage of your role would involve communicating with others. Communication in bookkeeping is not required as it is an office based job where producing the ledgers and other documents such as the cashbook and trial balance are the only tasks that are carried out.

The difficulty of the each occupation is reflected in each jobs average salary. The average chartered accountant earns £70,000 per year, whereas the average pay of a bookkeeper is £20,000 per year. This provides a clear comparison of the relationship between each of the occupations and each salary emulates the difficulty of the role entailed.

Accounting is a very important aspect of any business organisation, but there are many different roles in which accountants are engaged in. Among the most common financial services accounting firms offer are accounting, taxation and investment. Due to what they offer are professional services, it is essential for accounting firms to identify all factors and issues that would significantly impact their profitability and their reputation.

The Times states that the main role within accounting is “the creation of financial records of business transactions, flows of finance, the process of creating wealth in an organisation, and the financial position of a business at a particular moment in time.” , an excellent description of a Financial Accountant! However, if you are a qualified accountant, there are many different sectors in which you can enter into.

Directions.gov.uk shows the many different roles within the accounting profession, these include; “tax accountancy, external audit, internal audit, corporate finance and management accountancy”. Each role differs greatly from another however all are classed under the profession of Accounting.

There are many varieties of personalities within accounting which makes it hard to generalise, but there are fundamental personal & professional qualities that are essential for success within the profession. To begin with, ACCA paper F1 2008 (p94) states the 5 personal qualities as; “Reliability, Responsibility, Timeliness, Courtesy and Respect”. These are very important as accountants work with people from all walks of life and it is essential that they gain the trust of their client . To be a reliable accountant, you would have to ensure that your work was up to professional standards and completed before deadlines.

To be a responsible in the profession, you must take ownership of your own work and take fault if anything happens to it. Timeliness speaks for itself as it requires excellent time keeping whether it be showing up on time for work or meeting deadlines. The final personal qualities are to have courtesy and respect for others, being well mannered is essential in the profession as it portrays the reputation of accountants. On the other hand, ACCA paper F1 2008 (p94) states the four professional qualities of an accountant as; “Independence, Scepticism, Accountability and Social Responsibility”.

In order to be a professional accountant, you must be independent and go about your work diligently providing your professional services to clients. The work you provide must also be unbiased and have a fair and neutral view. ACCA paper F1 (P94) defines scepticism as “you should question information given to you so that you form your own opinion regarding its quality and reliability”. This means that you should question whether or not the data you have been given is true and you must not accept information and assume it is correct as it may have been forged. A vital part of an accountant is their ability understand recognise that they are accountable for their own actions.

As accountants deliver their services with an interest to the wider public, it is imperative that they have a high degree of social responsibility, this means that if you know someone is doing wrong you must report it. Not all people are gifted with these essential qualities at birth and so it is important that they work hard to acquire them as each is important to being a successful accountant. Professionalism is a major aspect of accounting today. It is defined as (L2 Notes By Paddy McAnena & Angela Dunlop) “a dedication to a certain type of work that requires a high level of skill with a commitment to the public interest.”

It also states that “professionals exercise judgement through knowledge, skills and expertise”. There are six main bodies operating within the United Kingdom; Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI), Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA). The accounting profession has been dragged down badly by the media over the past few years which make professionalism in accounting today essential.

As a professional, you must adhere to the principles (L2 Notes By Paddy McAnena & Angela Dunlop); “Integrity, Objectivity, Professional Competence and Due Care, Confidentiality and Professional Behaviour”. Each of these represent professional behaviour, the ACCA rulebook define Integrity as “Members should be straightforward and honest in all professional and business relationships”. Objectivity represents the fairness and unbiased nature of work, ICAS states that “a Professional Accountant should not allow bias, conflicts of interest or undue influence of others to override professional or business judgements”.

Professional Competence and Due Care demonstrates that you should not take on work that you are out of date with. Confidentiality provides privacy and trust for the client, CIMA states that “You should not disclose professional information unless you have specific permission or a legal or professional duty to do so”. In order to avoid brining the profession into disrepute, all professional accountants must demonstrate professional behaviour.

The ACCA rule book describes professional behaviour as “Members should comply with relevant laws and regulations and should avoid any action that discredits the profession”. If the reputation of accounting is to rise, each and every principle must be demonstrated by every accountant in order to gain the trust and respect of the wider public and media once again.

Ethics and morality are about right and wrong behaviour. ACCA Paper F1 2008 (p88) defines ethics as “a set of moral principles to guide behaviour”. Ethics in accounting are rules, and without rules, there would be anarchy. An example of the chaos that could be caused by not following the code of ethics would be the Enron scandal which occurred in 2001 which led to the bankruptcy of the Enron Corporation. When Jeff Skilling was appointed CEO, he hired a team of executives that, through accounting loopholes and poor financial reporting, hid billions of dollars from failed deals and projects. They misled Enrons board of directors and led Enron to file for bankruptcy in December 2001.

Shareholders lost over 10 billion dollars and Enrons 63.4 billion dollar assets made it the largest corporate bankruptcy in US history. After the Enron scandal had taken place, the accounting reputation was hit hard in that the trust and respect of accountants had effectively been lost worldwide. Nowadays, ten years later, accountants are suffering from the effects of the Enron scandal. Essentially, all accountants within the profession must adhere to the principles in order to avoid such scandals happening again. It is vital that accountants comply with these rules, failure to do so may result in losing their job.

The code of conduct for each of the main accounting bodies are very similar as they emphasise the importance of serving the public interest and all follow the same 5 fundamental principles. However, as accountants contribute greatly to the wider public interest it is important that their main focus, contribution to economic activity, is not affected by this. All accounting bodies have the same conceptual framework in dealing with anything that could threaten an accountant’s compliance with the fundamental framework.

In conclusion, this essay has clearly identified the differences between a Bookkeeper and a Professional Accountant. The relationship between the two are similar in that to be an Accountant must have all the skills of a bookkeeper however Accountants must also serve the wider public and also create financial reports and statements of a business. Accountants in today’s world must also comply with the many rules and regulations in order to avoid any more accounting scandals which bring the profession into disrepute, and hopefully in the near future the profession can gain the trust of the wider public and media once again.

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Career Exploration

My ultimate value is my family. My vision for my own self is to live happily with my family in the future. I love to spend my spare time with them. Hanging around with friends and family make me feel well. I love to play on computer. I also love to play with the magical numbers. I like surfing on the internet, exploring new things, reading articles related with health, life, and economic events such as the stock market, financial companies, investment corporations, etc.

I think being a citizen of a country, we should somewhat at different aspects of life to better know how well or bad the economy of our country is experiencing. My goal is to become a businessperson. I believe doing business is an important way to improve the economy of a nation. I did a research on two different careers. However, they are sort of having a relation with each other. Both of them are in the business field – accounting and financial analyzing.

Accounting is basically a service activity. Its purpose is to provide quantitative information that principally used by the managers, investors, tax authorities, and other decision makers to make the financial decisions within companies, organizations, and public agencies. Accounting is also widely known as the “language of business.” An accountant measures, communicates, and interprets financial activities. They prepare financial statements or reports for individuals, businesses, government agencies, or other non-profit organizations.

They use the accounting systems to categorize the expenses and income to the typical groups. They also keep tract of the money received or paid out to see if the transactions are accurate and complete. Accountants are familiar with the computer operation. They use the computers, accounting software, calculators to prepare the financial statements and carry out the statistical interpretation. They require to make many various reports such as assets and liabilities, loss and profit, or other financial documents.

Some other tasks they may do is to design accounting systems, financial forms, and instruction manuals for the firm’s accounting and bookkeeping workers to use. They give advice to the companies upon the investment, tax strategies, and risk management. They sometimes can train some other lesser skilled employees. Public accountants work for pubic accounting companies. They usually work for the offices, and they would use the computers as the reference and calculations.

In financial analysis, analysts use the financial data to monitor and evaluate a firm’s financial position, to plan the future financing, and to reallocate the size of the company and its rate of growth. Financial analysis involves examination of the historical data to achieve the information about the current and future the financial health of the company. They may work in the forecasting and profit analysis. They, like the accountants, prepare the reports. They prepare budget report, work in cost and general account. They analyze the changes in production and service to determine the effects on costs.

They work on the graphs. They use statistic to compare the standard costs to the actual costs. They also study the significances of alternative ways of investing money in a particular field. They usually work for the large financial institutions. Particularly, they work for the either financial or operational departments of the companies. They work in banks, corporations, insurance companies, government agencies, and stock brokerages.

They make recommendations regarding the buying or selling of stocks or bonds. In the large corporations, they evaluate the impact of establishing a new plant on the company’s profit position. Many financial analysts specialize in determining the values of securities, such as bonds and stocks. Also read My Dream Job Accountant Essay

Any careers out there in the job market are required some levels and knowledge of high education such as four-year college degree, or even higher in achieving a master degree in the business industry. Accounting is not exceptional. Almost two- or four-year schools or universities offer Accounting programs to students. Principally, a bachelor’s degree id required if you wanted to become an Accountant. However, when you completed some certain college-level courses and obtained well-enough experiences and skills, you can be promoted from the Accounting Clerk positions although they are a few.

To prepare for the major, you should have started in high school. It always is a good and smart choice to seek for your high-school counselor to ask information about this career. The courses you take may vary depending on your career goals. Some high schools can be recommended are English Composition, Economics, Psychology, Computer Science, Accounting, Advanced Mathematics, etc. In college, you have to fulfill required classes in order to transfer to the four-year university if you are studying at the community colleges, or to graduate if you are attending the universities. Those classes are Accounting, Economics, Business Law, Insurance, Money and Banking, use of Accounting software, Business Finance, Business Statistic, etc. Nevertheless, to become a professional Accountant, you have to pass the Certified Public Accountant examination.

The employers always prefer the applicants with CPA certification when it comes to a job interview. To qualify for a certain position, accountants certainly have to have several years of experiences. For instance, junior staff positions must have one to three years experiences. Senior staff positions’ experiences ranged from three to six years. Appearance and customer skills are the most important elements for a successful a licensed Accountant.

To make the work smoother and easier, a professional Accountant should expertise in computer, accounting software, spreadsheets, and data processing techniques. They should have the proficient knowledge of business mathematics as well.

The financial analysts, also called securities or investment analysts must have a college education .the employers usually look for people with a degree in Business Administration. There are undergraduate courses you have to take in universities in order to participating in this major. Those courses are Finance, Economics, Statistics, Accounting, Mathematics, Calculus, Engineering, marketing, Computer Science, and Law. Employers do not generally require a specific field of study, but degrees in finance, business, accounting, economics, mathematics, or law make the best preparation for a career as an analyst.

However, courses in statistics and economics are required, and classes in taxes, estate planning, risk management, and investing are highly desired and recommended. A master’s degree in business administration (MBA) is even more attractive to a potential employer. In addition, the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) institute offers a CFA designation for people who have earned a bachelor’s degree and three years of working experiences in financial industry.

To acquire a CFA, a candidate must pass a series of three examinations that covered subjects in accounting economics, securities analysis, and portfolio management. This designation is not required for becoming a financial analyst, but it is surely an advantage for the candidate, especially if they work for an investment firm, a brokerage, or any other financial institutions.

The employment outlook for both accounting and financial analyzing are similar to each other. They are both involved in the business industry, which means if some unexpected events or disasters happen suddenly, they all have the direct impact upon these two careers. Those matters can change the job demand quickly. Up to now, it is good opportunities for the students who recently graduated in the Accounting major. The reason is many old accountants will be retired soon in the coming years. Plus, the development of international business will require more accountants to assist in their financial management.

Even better, when the tax regulations are getting complicated by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the tax preparation will be more complex, which will require the professional accountants to handle carefully. Those who have the voluntary certifications in specialty areas will have the best opportunities. According to the University of Minnesota, the employment forecast will for accountants will increase from 10 percent to 20 percent through out the year of 2010. For the financial analyzing, it also seems optimistic. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 197,000 people in the United States have the positions as financial analysts in 2004.

The growth for this career is expected to expand as fast as the average of all occupations through the year 2004. the financial analysts are always needed to help people making wise financial decisions. These people are always needed by the financial industry. There is always a stand for people studying in this filed. When the health of economy is in good time, people buying more securities because they have saving money, they wanted to invest to make money growth.

Many investors invest in securities, and they will need the financial analysts to provide the market information to them, to help the investors make the good bet for their money. When the economy is in the recession, the companies also need them to analyze the company’s budget, to help them eliminate the unnecessary cost as possible as they can, so the company can lower the expenses and keep surviving during the recession.

In my conclusion, I found interesting when doing research on these two occupations. The reason I chose them is to dig deeper and get more information about them. Personally, I major in Business Administration, I believe theses two possible occupations can be helpful to study further. They all use numbers as evidences to convince the clients or the head of companies to believe that the result they will get if they follow this path. These two professions require to use the critical thinking to think logically.

They use their numbers by giving the facts and their hard working on the market research as the solid statements to prove their points. I may possibly suit for these. I love math. I like to play with numbers. I have a broad knowledge in operating the computer as well as the Microsoft Offices. It suits my goal. You can be self-employed. You can control your time.

Although they can work under the highly pressure environment because of the deadlines required by the clients or the projects you are working on. If you know how to manage time, put time to work wisely, you already pass the obstacle in front of you. Having a balanced life between working and relaxing will help you making a big jump in your successful career.

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