Financial Accounting Essay

The profession of accounting is a one that is highly regulated, due to the knowledge and power each accountant possesses. Although an accountants duties differ from one position to the next, the main sectors that accountants pursue are auditing or taxation. Auditing is ensuring the public that the information listed on the financial statements of public companies is free of material misstatements. While taxation is helping people or companies file their tax returns to the federal government or offering tax advice. In the world of auditing, you either follow the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), for public company audits, or the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), for other entities

a. According to Dictionary.com, an accountant is, “a person concerned with the  maintenance and audit of business accounts and the preparation ofconsultant reports in tax and  finance”. (Dictionary.com, 2013)

Accounting is the study of how businesses track their income and assets over time. Accountants engage in a wide variety of activities besides preparing financial statements and recording business transactions. These activities include computing costs and efficiency gains from new technologies, participating in strategies for mergers and acquisitions, quality management, developing and using information systems to track financial

At the end of the last century, accountants began to organize and become a profession as state societies and boards of accounting debuted. At that time a few companies began to issue financial statements; however, there were no established standards, codes of ethics, or generally accepted principles. Practitioners wishing to represent the economic reality of an entity had to rely on professional judgement. Over time, the profession evolved so that committiees emerged to address these issues, and practitioners voluntarily abided by their guidance.

Accountants are relied upon to be trustworthy and maintain high ethical standards. It is because of the nature of the profession that puts them in a position of trust with people who rely on their professional judgment and guidance in making decisions. These decisions are extremely important in accounting and more so that companies that have high ethical standard or main good ethical culture spend enormous time to train the staffs about the conduct that is expected of them.

We need accountants because they are trained to handle tough financial situations. They know what investments are wise, what we can afford, and how we can increase our wealth.

Assess the degree to which the firm’s accounting reflects the underlying business reality. Identify accounting distortions and evaluate their impact on profits and the sustainability of profits.

Accountants should always carry out the public responsibility, meaning they have a responsibility to ensure that the accounting functions are performed to the highest possible standards and the information which an organisation provides for its stakeholders is true and accurate. To reach the goal of improving the performance of accountants, there might be several steps to undertake. There should be on-going education to keep abreast with the existing and emerging

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.

With professions having this tremendous knowledge regarding a company’s financial standing and not being able to disclose the information to the public it can create major investment errors. With these restrictions in place by the AICPA the accountants and auditors “… in a position of having to choose between earning a livelihood or making a proper ethical choice” (Synder, 2011).

There are four main fields of accounting and auditing listed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics: "public accounting, management accounting, government accounting, and internal auditing." CPAs are not limited to a narrow list of activities, in fact public accountants typically work with a "broad range of accounting, auditing, tax, and consulting

A specialized accountant’s main duty is to “analyze, interpret, summarize, and present complex financial and business related issues in a manner that is both understandable and properly supported.” (Business Courier) They are commonly engaged in public practices, or in insurance companies, banks, police departments and other government agencies.

Sooner or later, an owner would want to delegate all the financial work to the kind of accountant to allow them to spend additional time concentrating on the execution and procedure of the business. Spending additional time growing the business enterprise rather than concentrating on the financial and legal edges of the business will finally make the business

Accounting professionals are in very high demand. The nature of work in accounting is so vast an individual would have so many different areas of accounting to choose from. Accounting requires people who can work with complex business structures, computer systems, and financial analysis packages. Accounting work further requires an aptitude for mathematics and the ability to compare and analyze accounting data quickly. Accountants also need to have strong communication skills as they must effectively communicate accounting data to their employers and/or clients. The accounting profession also demands a high level of integrity and morality because the financial data prepared by accountants is used by business managers to run their

The Accountant is in-charge of the efficient and effective operation of the Finance Division of FAM and reports directly to the CEO. The responsibilities of the Accountant include: