Understanding of the Accounting Profession.

Questions: 1. When you think of the accounting profession what comes to your mind? 2. What contextual factors do you think could influence the accounting profession? 3. Describe the people you expect to interact with as an accountant? 4. What role do you think you should play in contributing to your community as an accountant? 5. What might the clients and fellow employees expect of you as an accountant? 6. What skills do you think you should possess to be a successful accountant? Answers: 1. When I am critically involved in thinking about the profession of accounting, certain things come to my mind. However, these things have changed with the passage of time, as I have gained new knowledge regarding the profession. Before attending the beginning seminar of my course, my view was that accounting is mainly deals with passing journal entries, creating ledger accounts, forming trial balance and final accounts. Moreover, I thought that accounting work is associated with handling large number of files in office and such task is complex and time-consuming to perform. Furthermore, accounting profession is associated with certain other functions like taxation, management and auditing services. However, my perception regarding accounting has now changed, as it is associated with spending one on one time and working with the clients. The accounting professionals devote their time sitting in computers and networking. Thus, developing strong association with the clients is a major part of the profession of accounting. 2. In the current competitive environment, there is presence of various contextual factors; w3hich could affect the profession of accounting. Before gaining a thorough knowledge of the accounting profession, I have a mindset that the contextual factors like the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) have direct impact on the accounting profession. However, after reading the articles of ACCA and CIMA, I have identified other contextual factors like technological innovation, globalisation and ethics and these play a major role in affecting the profession of accounting. 3. In an accounting profession, an individual could expect interacting with different types of people. As an accountant, I expect interacting with the staffs and managers involved with planning, controlling and leading the former for conducting the work in an effective fashion. IN addition, it is also the responsibility of the accountant to interact with the other organisational stakeholders, which comprise of suppliers, investors and customers. The other individuals with which I could expect to interact with include debt collectors and clients for carrying out professional stuffs. 4. It is a proven fact that an accountant plays a pivotal role in community contributions. One such role is providing accurate financial information to the different users for undertaking key decisions for my organisation. The information delivered needs to be trustworthy, correct, timely and comprehensible. In addition, developing strong relationships with the customers and managers and protecting the reliability of financial reporting are other major roles in community contribution. However, there are different issues confronting financial reporting, which include malpractices on the part of the accountants. Hence, as an accountant, it is needed to eliminate these malpractices to enhance the reliability of financial reporting for assuring the different users of the accounting information. This would help in increasing the accuracy of the financial reports for assuring effective decision-making. The main reason that the accounting professionals conduct accounting malpractices is to evade taxes from the government. However, I would be involved in providing assistance to the corporate strategies for providing advice and helping the organisation in minimising costs. Thus, accounting has an important role in imparting capabilities, knowledge and ethical foundations of profession to the upcoming generation. 5. The clients and staffs expect the accountant to behave diligently and ethically with entire dedication to the organisation. In addition, the staffs of the organisation expect me to increase the work life quality and satisfaction level. Secondly, another expectation of the staffs includes forming effective working associations by developing a trustful environment for supporting teamwork. Thirdly, the employees expect me to espouse the workplace values and norms displayed on the part of both formal and informal groups. In addition, the clients could expect me to reveal capabilities like communication skills, leadership and decision-making power to resolve workplace issues rapidly. 6. In order to become a successful accountant, it is necessary that I possess effective leadership skills like long-term goal planning and strategic thinking for my organisation. I need to develop my communication skills for managing the customers. The other necessary skills include adaptability due to the dynamic nature of the accounting industry. Time management skill is crucial for an accountant to complete a task within the scheduled time. Finally, it is necessary for an accountant to possess relevant computer skills, as most of the organisations use specialised computer programs to manage the accountancy work. Thus, according to me, the accountants need to adopt both soft skills and technical skills for accomplishing their career objectives.