Accountant Key » Your Key To A Bright Financial Career

Accounting is a multi-faceted discipline, which gives the student an in-depth working knowledge of the various functional areas of organizations including finance, information systems, human resources, production, marketing, and operations. The result is that graduates with an accounting education have a wide-range of future career choices in both accounting-related and non accounting- related areas.

 

Accounting is a multi-disciplinary profession. It is defined in terms of the problems it addresses, such as:

1. being part of management decision-making teams,
2. providing technical assistance in policy formulation;
3. designing and managing information systems;
4. evaluating personnel, operations, financial systems, and social goals;
5. assessing performance in relation to standards, competing systems, and changing conditions;
6. assisting in the design and evaluation of the effectiveness of planning and control activities; and
7. determining the effective allocation of resources.

An accountant is not an expert in all phases of accounting. Therefore, as their careers progress, many accountants specialize. Accountants may specialize in specific industry areas, such as medical services or manufacturing, or in particular professional service areas such as auditing, taxation, or business advisory services. During a career, many accountants broaden or change their areas of specialization and may make several career-path changes. They may change from one accounting career path (e.g., internal auditing, management accounting, government accounting, or public accounting) to a non-accounting career path or vice versa. An accounting education provides many opportunities for persons to take advantage of changing economic opportunities and organizational conditions. It provides a background for adapting to and making a wide range of career choices.

The range of career opportunities for accountants has broadened substantially during the past decade. Some of the new growth areas are:

Business Advisory Services: engaged to evaluate the policies and procedures of organizations and to provide information to those organizations and their managements as to the ways in which the firms may more effectively and efficiently attain organizational goals and objectives.

Forensic Accountants: engaged by and work with attorneys to determine the asset base of plaintiffs and defendants for purposes of prosecuting/defending in legal cases which range from personal litigation to corporate litigation. Forensic accountants frequently are used as "expert witnesses."

Risk Management: consult with management to assess the risks of business interruption, risks of economic changes, security risks within the organization, and other types of risk assessment, including providing programs for business recovery in the event a problem should arise. The objective is to manage risks rather than reducing risks to zero.

Among the wide range of the traditional accounting career paths are the:

Auditor (independent or public) - obtains and evaluates evidence about an entity's financial statements and issues a written communication expressing a conclusion regarding these statements. Auditors are responsible for inspecting physical assets and documents which support accounting records and for making independent tests of business transactions. Auditors also perform verification work in areas not involving financial statements, e.g., verifying and reporting on the capabilities of specific software and the compliance with contractual agreements.

Budget and Forecast Accountant - is concerned with planning and control; prepares budget plans, plans for cash requirements, prepares market forecasts, and assists management in using the information to make effective management decisions.

Certified Public Accountant - may perform one or all of the above financial services for an employer or client. A growing service area for CPAs is in non financial services, such as compliance auditing (e.g., compliance with government laws/regulations and provisions of contracts), forensic accounting or litigation services, and general business consulting.

Controller - directs the total accounting information system of a company and participates in strategic and operational planning.

Cost Accountant - is primarily involved in determining the cost of a business' products and services and assists management in utilizing that information to make effective management decisions.

General Accountant - performs some or all of the above functions (i.e., auditing, tax, systems and procedures, cost, budgeting and forecasting) including the day to - day work of keeping records, developing and supervising accounting practices and preparing special reports.

Governmental Accountant - at the Federal, state or local levels, there are many accounting positions available. Positions are filled and promotions obtained often through competitive civil service examinations.

Management Accountant - is member of the decision-making team of the organization. Work involves many of the activities of the "General Accountant," above.

Operational Auditor (Internal Auditor) - performs various investigatory tasks for managements of organization to ensure that the policies of the organization are effective and efficient and have been properly implemented. The operational auditor also may perform various financial statement audit functions as well, including assisting the independent auditor in the conduct of an audit. The operational auditor is an employee of the organization for which he or she performs audit tasks.

Tax Accountant - researches tax problems for maximum tax advantage, assists clients in tax planning, confers with taxing authorities on behalf of employer or client, and prepares tax returns.