What do accountants do? Well, an accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy, which is the measurement, disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers, investors, tax authorities and others make decisions about allocating resources (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014). In many jurisdictions, professional accounting bodies maintain standards of practice and evaluations for professionals. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant or Certified Public Accountant. Such professionals are granted certain responsibilities by statute, such as the ability to certify an organization's financial statements, and may be held liable for professional misconduct. Non-qualified accountants may be employed by a qualified accountant, or may work independently without statutory privileges and obligations. In particular the adoption of the International Accounting Standard has made the profession more challenging. Accounting is an extremely complex activity with substantial ethical implications which have changed over the last century. Accountants are increasingly becoming an important part of successful business teams. This is because they understand the language of money and a company's complex financial situation better than any other employees. The job outlook for Accountants and auditors seems promising for those still in college with a major in Finance or Accounting. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2014), there is a projection of 13 percent growth for 2012 to 2022 for the employment of accountants and auditors. There are few issues that will hinder prospective acc... ... middle of paper ... ...se favors seem minor, they can build up a sense of obligation in the cost accountant's mind that the current analysis should be modified ever so slightly to cast the reviewer in a more favorable light. Another integrity issue involves the use of company assets. There is a temptation for employees to borrow company equipment or even access it for personal use while in the office. When a cost accountant does this, it creates a "gray area" in that person's mind regarding the extent to which assets can be used for other than company-specific purposes. This may lead to the cost accountant's overlooking any similar practices found during various cost accounting reviews if he or she finds that other employees are also borrowing company assets. As a result, accounting reports concerning the levels of control over company assets may not reveal that there is a usage problem.
Over one million people are employed as accountants, and most can be found in private business and industry. “Nearly 40 percent of all accountants are certified, and about 10 percent are self-employed’(Caruna, 1). In addition to openings resulting from growth, the need to replace accountants who retire or transfer to other occupations will produce thousands of job opening annually in this large occupation. The Occupational Outlook Handbook states that the expansion of accountants is related to: “increasingly complex taxation, growth in both the size and the number of business corporations required to release financial reports to stockholders, a more general use of accounting in the management of business, and outsourcing of a...
Australian bookkeeping gauges are set by the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) and have the power of law for Corporations law elements under s 296 of the Corporations Act 2001. They should likewise be connected to all other universally useful monetary reports of reporting elements in general society and private parts.Australian Accounting standards board oversee process of accouting standards if all companies registerd with ASIC complying with these standards and their financial reports are maintend with standards to keep public share holders money in safe hand in past many auditors companies used to ignore accounting standards to give companies actual financial figuers lower or higher to keep their shares prices or investors intact this lead to so many financial crises and collapse of comapanies.The case analyses the high standards required by the accounting profession in line with the requirements of the Australian Standards Board prescription. Further, the case is analyzed technically in line with the accounting standards prescribed by the institute. Here, an employee accountant of a company is asked to iron out the
The Statement of financial position is a very useful tool full of information showing the position of an entity. However within this sheet of information lies a lot of limitations and problems. This essay will pinpoint some of the limitations and problems within the balance sheet. These limitations include how the balance sheet does not reflect the true financial position of a business, it does not reflect assets that can’t be measured monetarily and it also has a huge amount of estimated values and not actual verified values so this causes some controversy within the entity and its true position on the market. As well as the problems within the balance sheet there also lies a lot of problems with what’s left out of the balance sheet.
The United States has distinguished itself as the ultimate melting pot. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed any discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in all public forums, representing our country’s complete embrace of a multicultural society. Today, the U.S. is experiencing a major shift in demographics, as the Census Bureau forecasts ethnic minorities will outnumber Caucasians by the year 2042. This trend has observably manifested in the business world, as the number of minority-owned businesses in recent years has expanded twofold, increasing by 45.6% to 5.8 million. Likewise, the SEC issued a directive in 2009 that strongly supported diversity in the boardroom, requiring proxy disclosure statements to
How would you explain accounting (its meaning and purpose) to someone who knew nothing about it?
According to Marshall (2004), "accounting is the process of identifying, measuring, and communicating economic information about an organization for the purpose of making decisions and informed judgements" (p. 3). Specifically, financial accounting "refers to the process that results in the preparation and reporting of financial statements for an entity" (Marshall, McManus, & Viele, p. 5). While many entities prepare their own financial statements, firms can also contract with a public accounting firm or a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) to perform services such as reviewing or compiling statements. (A CPA is a professional designation granted by individual states.) Entities that are publicly traded or complex in nature contract for auditing services. The provider of the auditing service will test the compliance of the entity's financial reporting against generally accepted accounting principles as issued by the Federal Accounting Standards Board (FASB). The provider will also ensure that the company, if publicly traded, complies with requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the regulations of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCOAB). This paper briefly explains the principles of financial accounting and how the deviation from ethical and legal obligations led to greater government oversight and the need for ethics training of future accounting professionals.
Accrual accounting is an accounting method that recognizes economic events regardless of when cash transactions occur in order to measure the performance and position of a company. The general idea is that economic events are matching revenues to expenses to recognize which is the matching principle at the time in which the transaction occurs rather than when payment is made (or received). This method allows combining the current cash inflows or outflows with future expected cash inflows or outflows to give a more accurate picture of a company's current financial condition. Accrual accounting is considered to be the standard accounting practice for most companies with the exception of very small operations. This method provides a more
The overall purpose of cost accounting is to advise top administration and the management team on the most suitable and cost effective methods and actions to employ based on cost, capability and efficiencies of a given product or service. It can be defined as the method where all the expenditures used during execution of business activities are gathered, categorized, examined and noted down (Horngren & Srikant, 2000). Once these numbers are gathered and recorded the information is used to determine a selling price and/or to identify possible investment opportunities. Although the principal aim or function of cost accounting is to help the business administration with their decision making and business planning process, the cost accounting data
The Bible provides evidence in the way of describing how to account for transactions, that is, a particular accounting system is required. Ecclesiasticus 14:7 states that:“Whatever stores you issue do it by number and weight, spending and taking put everything in writing.”This clearly indicates a need for using a perpetual inventory system. In addition, it may be interpreted as a requirement for all revenue and expenses be accounted and maintained as debits and credits in
Financial Accounting is an accounting system that tries to meet the needs of the various user
An auditor is an accountant that is hired to review a company’s financial statements and give an opinion on them. There are different kinds of auditor such as internal, external, and governmental, but their jobs are relatively the same. They are used to ensure that a company or organization is maintaining accurate and honest financial records so that others can use them with confidence.
An accountant performs financial functions related to the collection, accuracy, recording, analysis and presentation of a business, organization or company's financial operations. The accountant usually have different roles in a company's operations. In a smaller business, an accountant's role may consist of the main financial data collection, input and report generation. Between, the middle to larger sized companies could use the accountant as a consultant and financial interpreter, who may present the company's financial data to people within and outside of the business. In generally, the accountant can also deal with third parties, such as suppliers, customers and financial
ABC LTD COMPREHENSIVE INCOME STATEMENT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2012 NOTE 2012 Revenue 2 828,500 Cost of sales 3 (460,000) Gross profit 368,500 Other income 4 2,500 Operating expenses 5 361000 Profit before income tax 10000 Income tax expense (30%) 3,000 Profit for the year 7000 Other comprehensive income change in revaulation surplus 38500 Other comprehensive income for the year, net of tax 38500 Total comprehensive income for the year 45500 ABC LTD STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2012 NOTES 2012 ASSETS Current assets Cash and cash equivalents 6 100500 Trade and other receivables 7 45,200 Inventories 8 87700 Other current assets 9 7000
The accounting profession, along with its standards and regulatory sources, have changed dramatically in recent years. The accounting profession and its standards once consisted of standardized financial reporting compliance; however, it has now evolved into a specialized profession influenced by its constantly evolving standards resulting in accounting and legal technicalities. Many factors constituted the change, in addition to factors that constituted the need for its change; for example, corporate scandals and a global set of accounting standards respectively. The latter enticed its global trend for accounting harmonization among various private and governmental sectors that work cohesively to obtain its purpose. The various regulatory
Mired in dread by most and oft an exercise in futility, business owners spend agonizing hours tracking and paying obligations, calculating payroll, balancing checkbooks, and soliciting payments from past due accounts. From a place of naiveté, most business owners initially deny delegating these fundamental tasks to a seasoned bookkeeping professional whereby reasoning this method of business operation will improve their bottom line. Furthermore, each year a growing number of business owners find themselves scrambling in a near panic, sometimes successfully, sometimes not, to assimilate records in order to present to a CPA to meet tax deadlines. According to Jason Nazars’ article “16 Surprising Statistics