This report is on the three main accounting professions. I will be talking about CA, CGA and CMA and what they do for a living. These three accounting professions may seem the same but I will be explaining how they are different. I will discuss all of these details in my report.
I’ll start off talking about the roles and duties of these three accounting professions. A Chartered Accountant’s role or purpose is “providing professional advice, aiming to maximise profitability on behalf of their client or employer and undertaking financial audits”1. A Chartered Accountant has many things to do for a living. They have to review the company systems and analyze the risks involved, perform tests to check financial information, advise clients on business transactions and maintaining and preparing accounting records for businesses 2. They also help with “financial reporting, taxation, auditing, forensic accounting, corporate finance, business recovery and insolvency, and accounting systems and processes”2.
A Certified General Accountant role is to be “responsible for ensuring the effective operation of accounting and financial activities within public sector organisations”3. Although a Certified General Accountant has a lot of responsibilities, they also have many duties. They have to develop and manage financial management systems and policies, make financial decisions and prepare and monitor budgets and accounts, prepare reports on annual accounts and budget information for the auditor and check credit invoices and charge customers for service fees 4. A Certified Management Accountant’s role is to look into the future of a business. “They analyse the performance of a business and advise on how to pre-empt problems,...
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AGCAS editors, . "Prospects." Certified General Accountant. AGCAS. Web. 20 Jan 2014. http://www.prospects.ac.uk/certified _ general_accountant_job_description.htm
Sermon, N.. "Prospects." Certified Management Accountant. AGCAS. Web. 20 Jan 2014.
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"Career cruising." Chartered accountants. N.p.. Web. 20 Jan 2014. https://www2.careercruising.com/careers/earnings/85 "Career cruising." Certified General accountants. N.p.. Web. 20 Jan 2014. https://www2.careercruising.com/careers/profile-at-a-glance/83 "Career cruising." Certified Management accountants. N.p.. Web. 20 Jan 2014. https://www2.careercruising.com/careers/profile-at-a-glance/84 George, Syme. Accounting . 7th Edition. Toronto: Pearson Canada, 2013. 8-9. Print.
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...
Accounting is basically a service activity. Its purpose is to provide quantitative information that principally used by the managers, investors, tax authorities, and other decision makers to make the financial decisions within companies, organizations, and public agencies. Accounting is also widely known as the “language of business.” An accountant measures, communicates, and interprets financial activities. They prepare financial statements or reports for individuals, businesses, government agencies, or other non-profit organizations. They use the accounting systems to categorize the expenses and income to the typical groups. They also keep tract of the money received or paid out to see if the transactions are accurate and complete. Accountants are familiar with the computer operation. They use the computer...
In Financial Accounting accountants prepare only the annual finance statement of any organization and shows if the organization is going in profit or loss. But in Management Accounting the managers have to take the future decisions and steps by looking at the past financial statements. So Management Accounting is very important because one wrong decision can transfer the organizations path or the future. Management Accountants have a responsibility to moral qualities which has to be kept intact by using their various skills, which will ultimately help the shareholders of any organization to retain profits earned from the money invested. Strategy formation by executing plans, budgeting and forecasting, risk management and decision making all these are required as skills in Management Accounting. In Management Accounting a manager has to have knowledge on both the financial and non-financial terms of the business and operational sides of the business. Both the financial and non-financial items are reported and analyzed by the managers to come to any decision. Again, the corporate social performance is also analyzed and a report is made on that. They have to take care of the other points also, i. e, profit of the organization, the final and end users, i. e ,customers and their satisfaction levels, employees of the organization, environmental matters related to the
Before I started this research, I thought of an accountant as someone who punched numbers every day and had great book-keeping skills but I have now learned that the accountant has to possess certain other skills often referred to as “soft skills” in order to be competitive and successful in this ever-changing business economy. Some of these “soft skills” are, but not limited to, excellent written and oral communication skills, the ability to work well with other people, work ethic, honesty, empathy, and problem-solving. Superior technical skills, though very important for an accountant, are no longer sufficient as employers are demanding that graduates have both technical and soft skills. If this is the case, are accounting majors adequately prepared and equipped with the requisite skills necessary to succeed in the accounting field? Researchers agree that there is a gap between the skill set of graduates and the expectation of the employer and that the accounting curriculum should be restructured in order to provide the accounting field with well-prepared, well-rounded, and suitably skilled graduates.
Management accountants use their skills to help with decisions that help a business make good decisions so they company will be valuable and in an ethical manner. They assess risk and implement strategy through planning, budgeting, and forecasting. Now managerial accounts have become critical with their analysis while managing a business. They do more than provide financial information they also have an active role in the business. Over the years managerial accountants has changed and now provide nonfinancial information. They can help a business achieve their goals. Today there is many things that is influencing how managerial accountants do their job with the emergence of e-business. They can use their knowledge to streamline the e-business (Hilton,2008). Now global competition has new challenges for managerial accounts because trade agreements can affect the way the business performs abroad. Gillet (n.d) said, “To be competitive, manufacturers must keep up
There are many different things an accountant does. An accountant keeps records of accounts, and maintain financial activities. Constructing tax returns and preparing business and government forms are also incorporated. Being an accountant also means counseling clients on finances and operating spreadsheet software. To be an accountant, I must know how to handle using different methods and investigate finances, validate transactions, and obtain financial information. An accountant uses computers to do work. Envisioning revenues is included in being an accountant. I need to know and use accounting terms, and be able to use accounting and bookkeeping software.
Accountants must be familiar with the tax laws concerning their client's professions or business. They are responsible for budgeting, performance evaluation of the company, cost management, and asset management. They interpret the financial information that corporate executives need in order to make sound business decisions. They also prepare the reports for creditors, regulatory agencies, and tax authorities (“Accountants and Auditors”).
Public accounting involves services such as auditing and tax-preparation. There are many ways CPA’s’ help businesses and individuals. CPAs help individuals and companies with financial planning, investments, taxes, mergers and acquisitions. Individuals, businesses, financial institutions, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies need CPAs to offer objective advice and assistance in both financial and strategic areas. CPA’s have broad range of duties to choose from, like environmental accounting to forensic accounting. Although opportunities are plentiful and varied for top-notch accounting graduates, many new entrants to the profession consider an entry-level job in public accounting to be an essential first stop on their career path. The reason is simple: a public accounting background is a huge resume-builder that confers instant credibility. Employers often prefer to hire candidates who have public accounting experience and have earned the always-in-demand CPA
The stereotypical image correlated to the account mirrors that of a public accountant. An individual working as a public accountant can expect to work as an independent third party to a multitude of companies. As this third party it is their duty to oversee financial transactions to ensure that the statements of not only the company, but also its’ supporting companies, correctly correspond and match up to the position, results and cash-flow of the clientele. This general quota outlining a public accountants job description is not the same for a private accountant. The main difference between a public and private accountant is that unlike the public and its handle on a multitude of accounts, a private accountant specializes with a certain company or field. With this specialization, a private accountant tackles setting up a system that records the transactions within the business. The recordation of the transactions is then generated into statem...
A corporate accountant prepares financial statements for the organization, checks the accuracy of the financial statements to ensure they comply with the GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles), and makes a budget for the company and ensures they follow the budget. There are a lot
The purpose of accounting is to provide the information that needed to make sound economic decisions. It is one of the oldest professions in the world today, and the backbone of any business operation. It is not just about numbers, accounting is about planning. Accounting has many subfields, which includes management accounting, financial accounting, and cost accounting. Accounting can be a prestigious career, but to achieve that prestige you will have pass the CPA (Certified Public Accountant) exam and become a licensed accountant, and with that license you can work in any of the subfields.
An accountant makes sure that the Nation’s firms are run efficiently, the public records are kept accurately, and that taxes are paid properly and on time (“Accountants and Auditors”). Accounting is the study of how a business tracks their income, assets, expenses, and many other things for a period of time. They also do many other things like quality management, tax strategy, and health care benefits management (“Welcome to Careers in Accounting”). An accountant is crucial to the success of a business, without one the business tends to fail.
What does the accountant of the future need to be successful? A sturdy education that while is based on traditional accounting practices, also prepares future accountants for the plethora of changes happening in the accounting universe. Frequently, most of the institutions responsible for educating professionals fail to evolve as rapidly as the professional practice itself (Bedford et al. 4). In every way, accounting is expanding and in order for the future to have competent accountants, accounting education must expand as well. Major changes occurring in the world of accounting include the expansion of services and products, changes in competition, an increase in specialization, and an increase in and an advancement of technology. It is up to academic institutions to find proactive ways in which to prepare students for such changes. Accounting education of the future will require more breadth to cover the inevitable expansion of services and products, increased knowledge of economics, marketing, management and information systems to increase competitive advantage, a balanced course load that provides a general accounting knowledge as well as increased knowledge of a specialization, and also a greater, proactive focus on the use of continuously advancing accounting technologies (Bedford et al. 8). Also in play is the chance of change in accounting standards, the move from US GAAP to IFRS. While there are no certainties surrounding the threat of such change, students in the U.S. should acquire at least a general, basic feel for the practices used in regards to IFRS. The future health of the accounting profession depends, to a great extent, on the health of our students (Gormon and Hargadon 4). Reorganization of curriculums would surely be difficult and assumedly time-consuming, but nevertheless, completely
Accounting is a very important term to our modern society. It is the career for men and women who at the start have their eyes set on top positions in industry, management, government, and general business. Accounting is a basic need of every businessman, from the operator of a filling station to the government of the United States. It's so important to our society. None of the business organization can operate without is. They are there-somewhere-in every business. In small business, people use pen, ink and skill keep the records. In large business, modern accounting machines are used to operate. Men and women are directing these machines in the accounting process. Wise businessmen enter business must have some accounting knowledge.
When I think of a financial manager, accountant quickly comes to mind. The role of accountant and financial manager are similar in several ways and often times they work closely together on various projects. The role of an Accountant is to ensure that their organization is run efficiently, make sure their records are accurate, and that their taxes are paid properly and on time. Accountants perform a broad range of accounting, auditing, tax, and consulting activities for their clients. They record and analyze the financial information of the companies for which they work. Other responsibilities include budgeting, performance evaluation, cost management, and asset management. “The role of the financial manager has expanded beyond traditional responsibilities related to company's finances. A financial manager, through his/her understanding of the company's financial health, the current market, and the goals of the company, helps set direction and guides decision making.” Financial managers perform several different task related to finance for their organization they normally oversee the preparation of financial reports, direct investment activities, and implement cash management strategies.