Accountant wanted: especially those well-versed in the lingo of new financial laws protecting wary investors against “creative” accounting schemes. Must prevent the next Enron scandal and must understand Sarbanes-Oxley.
The potentials in an accounting career were never as bright. With the increase in the number of business all over the country and the world, public demands for financial oversight, commercial business responsibility and financial disclosure, the need for accounting professionals have increased manifold.
Understanding the music of accounts for the common man or your superiors is the crux of accounting. In this field, you organize, you evaluate, and finally verify.
An accounting professional must locate methods to increase production and reduce uneconomical surplus. Arrange and make repots to update their patron’s finances and also verify that the accounts are accurate.
The responsibilities of many accounting professionals are similar to that of the managers and they have quite a flexible career too.
Accounting careers are basically of three types
Certified Public Accountants (CPA). They work as tax consultants, auditors, and evaluators in various corporate, government organizations, nonprofit organizations, and for personal clients. Certified Public Accountants (CPA) are certified by the State Board of Accounting. Forensic accounting is a specialization of the CPA’s. Here these accountants inspect and scrutinize those doubtful companies suspicious of deceit and embezzlements. The CPA’s send their reports to the concerned department for further action. Several of these forensic accountants serve as expert witnesses in court cases concerned with administrative crimes. The financial facts and figures of corporations are evaluated by these managerial accounting professionals. The results are reported to the investors, banks, and authorities. As an executive team member, they make suggestions and judgments about financial statements and engage in strategic planning. The managerial accounting professionals plan and aspire to make the most of a companies expenditures and proceeds.
In the government sector, the accountants take care of the legislative functions of the accounting world. They ascertain the regulatory compliance of different records. The accountants working with government organizations such as Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) inspect and scrutinize the various financial organizations and play an important role in preventing fraud.
The judicial functions of the accounting world are done by the internal auditors. These officers keep a track of the checks and balances to the economic world. They regularly appraise competence, legitimacy, and suitability of corporate books.
The financial advice given to special personal clients and individuals is the job of Personal financial advisors. These professionals prepare taxes and personal budgets, and also plan the client’s retirement accounts. They also assist their clients to appraise and develop investment portfolios.
A bachelor’s degree in accounting is the basic requirement for the entry-level jobs. Besides a degree the following skills are highly beneficial. They are critical thinking ability, analytical proficiency, communications dexterity, aptitude for numbers.
Other advantageous abilities are computer skills, a thorough knowledge of licensing or certification, and possessing a graduate degree in accounting. Basing on the type of specialization you have done, a number of professional associations provide guidelines for their members and aid them in obtaining certification.
As a result of being in high demand, accounting professionals make more than a comfortable living. They may work independently or with public accounting firms. Many of these accountants prefer to start off their careers and learn the ropes from senior partners. As they get proficient in their work profile, they get promoted into better positions. The normal salary for an accountants is approximately $50,000.