Free Essay about Accounting Career Options

Accounting is a business field of study that yields to a series of professional job positions. Accounting careers openings range from small corporations, large scale corporations, MNCs, all levels of government agencies to NFP organisations ('AICPA: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants', 2004). They include:

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Management Accounting:

This is part of accounting that relates to the provision of financial information to people and managers within the organization to assist in the execution of management functions namely, planning, controlling, and evaluation of performance, organizing and decision making for example to make or buy decisions. Professional skills and knowledge are highly involved. Precisely, it requires preparation and presentation of information to all levels of management in the organization. The information generated by management accounting is for internal uses and is not guided by any standards or legal requirements.

Management accounting, unlike financial accounting, is proactive, that is, it is future-oriented. In a nutshell, cost accounting enables a business to, not only find out what various jobs or processes have cost, but also what they should have cost. It indicates where possible and potential actual losses are occurring before the task is finished and therefore appropriate corrective action recommended should be undertaken ('AICPA: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants', 2004). However, there is a very slim distinction between Cost accounting and Management accounting. In fact, cost accounting is part of management accounting.

Main functions:

Internal Auditing; continuous review, re-evaluations, analysis and regular reporting of the operations and other related departments.

Accounting management: book-keeping, preparation and maintenance of ledger books, running of accounting information systems and cash management.

Budgeting: preparations, harmonizing and publishing of budget and company quantified forecasts plans.

Reporting: preparation and presentation of regular relevant reports and ad hoc reporting to authority.

Any other prescribed function by the depending on unique features of the operating sector.

Government Accounting:

This is set of job opportunities available to accountants who work for the federal/local government and government agent. They are not practising as private consultant, instead they are civil servants, they keep a close eye on law changes related to tax, fines, federal annual budgets and local government budgetary protocol (Bls.gov, 2015).

Speciality functions:

Auditing,

Bookkeeping, recording of government accounts.

Tax and other revenue and expenditure budgeting.

Central bank regulations and proposal integration with the budgets.

Agency functions subject to the rule of law and government of the day.

Accountant position

Position: Cost Accountant

Required mandatory skills:

Analytical skills: equips the accountant with ability to draw very logical, precise, relevant, concrete, reliable deductions from a set of accounting data. Methodical skills are necessary, it provides a platform and interface to breakdown cost accounting data to a format that a general manager needs and understands.

Organisational Skills: cost accountant is a relevant position in accounting function as well as in management. The position requires continuous interaction with operations staff as well as senior manager. This necessities organisational skills to the position of a cost accountant.

Computing Skills: technology applicability is old news to accounting. Finance and accounts department are the most automated organisational functions. Basically, it obvious that a cost accountant should have profound computing skills for example; competence in R programing and MS excel.

Communication and presentation skills:

Cost accountant works closely with operations, audit and management executive. Ability to conduct and maintain an absolute clear communication culture is mandatory requirement. Management needs the cost accountant to pitch recommendation ideas, which would be well knit together, if a good communication series are sustained with operations, audit and executives (Bls.gov, 2015).

References

AICPA: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. (2004). Choice Reviews Online, 41(12), 41Sup-0391-41Sup-0391. http://dx.doi.org/10.5860/choice.41sup-0391

Bls.gov,. (2015). Business and Financial Occupations : Occupational Outlook Handbook: : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 13 October 2015, from http://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/home.htm