Professional Ethics : The Connection Of The Accounting Calling

When auditing a publicly held company, auditors need to observe principles. The ethical principles of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Code of

Financial reporting practices and ethics have manifested an ocean of literature. This has mainly come from organization theorists that address accounting practices. These theorists and professionals have given fresh accountability measures. Their ideals give this industry the tools needed to survive, grow and prosper. The way an organization prepares and reports its financial information and handles its daily operations is in essence financial practices, and in the way it accomplishes this reveals their ethical standards to which they adhere to. This paper will discuss the financial practices, ethical standards, and

Accountants are held to a higher ethical standards and they must performed their duties in compliance with standards or ethical values of honesty, integrity, objectivity, due care, confidentiality, which must be fully committed to. They must put clients or public interest first before their own. They must have and ethical values and maintain those values way beyond what the society or the company’s code of ethic. It is important that accountants’ behavior or ethical values is in conformity with the

     The accounting system is constantly changing. During these changes, it is important for accountants to adhere to the high ethical standards that they have always lived by. Adhering to the high ethical standards is an accountant's obligation to the public, the profession, and themselves. An accountant's ethical conduct usually lies within four different areas. This includes competence, confidentiality, integrity, and objectivity. NYSSCPA.ORG states, "Members also have a continuing responsibility to cooperate with each other to improve the art of accounting, maintain the public's confidence, and carry out the professions special responsibilities for self-governance," (Article 1).

Ethics are crucial to the accounting profession and the business world, so choosing an ethics system to base your moral decisions on is extremely important. Accountants and all business professionals will be confronted with moral dilemmas on a daily basis. Being strong in your faith and knowing what you believe in will help you to always make the right decision. Based on this reasoning, this essay will explain why deontology is the best ethics system for the accounting profession.

Ethical and legal obligations apply to all members of society. As one in society, the obligation to act in an ethical, law abiding manner on a daily basis is vital to the integrity of daily life. Many professions have their own code of ethics. Financial reporting is not exempt from such ethical and legal standards. One’s lively hood depends on decisions made in the business world. Business transactions are done daily and can impact one’s economic stability. Trust is placed in the hands of corporate America and an obligation of financial reporting to reveal a complete honest and legal picture of an entity’s accounting practices is important in attaining trust. This paper will discuss the obligations of

The Institute of Management Accountants created a code of ethics that include: competence, confidentiality, integrity, credibility and resolution of ethical conflict which provide clear and concise standards that should be met in the work place (Dr. Shim’s notes). It was made evident that in the case of the Enron scandal, they have failed to abide by this code. Competence is to perform professional duties in accordance with relevant laws, regulations, and technical standards. It also should provide decisions that support information and recommendations that are accurate, clear, concise and timely. They fell guilty of breaking this standard by not producing clear and accurate reports which in turn lead to laws and regulations being broken. Enron was guilty of misstating their income and not including their earnings on their financial statements. Confidentiality is keeping information confidential except when disclosure is authorized or legally required. It

When determining and defending the use of a particular ethical system within the confines of a profession, it is important to evaluate the system in terms of the professional culture as well as the expected professional conduct laid out within the vocation itself. The accounting profession has been evolving for thousands of years. Early accounting records date business transactions back as far as third century B.C. (Schroeder, Clark, & Cathey, 2009). Early record keeping was for internal purposes and as societies and economies expanded, it became important to maintain records for external purposes as well. According to Schroeder, Clark & Cathey (2009), by the ninetheeth centruy, bookkeeing expanded into accounting (p. 3). From this time, it has been the duty of the accountant to serve the public interest and the profession has been culitvated into an organizational culture with professional norms and standards constantly taking shape in an effort to complete an all-inclusive conceptual framework.

The interpretation of ethics is a subjective matter, and this is mostly due to disparities about its understanding and implications in different societies, cultures and countries. The term ethics includes a diverse array of items, which makes it an implicitly complicated topic. The dissertation focuses on the sub heading of ‘moral reasoning’ in ethics, and this section of the dissertation presents a critical review of the literature in relation to moral reasoning. The emphasis on moral reasoning of accountants is still debated and as a result there is conflicting literature present on the issue. In recent past, due to financial scandals, there has been an increased attention given to ethics and moral reasoning and

Literature Review. The authors use a systematic review of literature in the research. The researchers examine studies of Frankel (1989), Backof and Martin (1991), and Beets (1991) to review the history of the progression of ethics in accounting industry. The accounting as other professions has its own ethics framework. The history of accounting profession demonstrates that competence, integrity, and independence always were essential to have a

Accounting fraud is common but is not as trivial as the common cold; a typical organization loses annual revenues of nearly 5 percent to fraud. In addition, almost one-quarter of reported fraud is exceeding $1 million dollars. The accounting industry is constantly growing and changing. Consequently, difficult decisions have to be made every day. While accountants follow a simple code of conduct; nevertheless, due to the infamous scandal of Enron, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was constructed to reestablish confidence in the public marketplace.

In the world of business accounting, ethics plays a major role in the daily operations of a business. Not only are businesses responsible for incorporating ethical standards into their operations, but accountants are also responsible for ensuring they perform in an ethical manner. So often, there is a thin line between what is considered ethical and what is considered unethical, especially when a company is considering profit over ethics. However, top level professionals or accountants hold the power to set the tone at the top, lead by example, and provide a standard or code of ethics for peers to follow without hesitation that will ultimately lead to profits earned

Ethics are the backbone of the accounting profession and are a subject of utmost importance within the field of business. Ethics within the accounting profession ensure that financial information is presented truthfully. Accounting ethics deals with specific questions on whether a given business practices is acceptable or not. To this end, many standards, principles and agencies such as FASB, GAAP, IASB, IFRS, and the Securities and Exchange Commission have been formed to codify and enforce these ethics. There has also been an increasing desire within the general public for transparency within publically held firms largely due to recent corporate scandals and the general power large corporations wield over society (Melé,

3. Duska, R.F. and Duska B.S. (2003), Accounting Ethics: Foundation of Business Ethics, Blackwell Publishing Ltd., Oxford, UK.

In today’s world, ethics became a significant part of the environment. Ethics refers to the morale, values and rules which tells what is the right thing to do. Business also includes ethics which governs the operation of businesses and how to take decisions as well as how to treat people. Ethics in company can be described as behaviour, ethical principles or worth that requested in the globe of commerce. The acceptability of company ethics can be ambitious by client and competitors. Business ethics are implemented so as to become belief amid client alongside the company organization. It is extremely vital in requesting ethics in company because the company can be successful after become the belief from the clients, vendors, suppliers and stockholders. A positive ethical atmosphere also improves the morale among workers which leads to increase in efficiency and effectiveness which result in achieving of organisational goals. In this essay I am going to talk about the importance of business ethics in corporate reporting and ethical issues that lead to corporate collapses. (E. Merrick Dodd, 1932)