Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Accounting and a general view of the field

Hi,  my name is Thi My Ngan Tran and I'm actually studying in the field of accounting.  I chose to study Accounting because it had interested me and I wanted to follow the same path as my cousin. Accounting is a field that you need to be good with numbers. Indeed, you will register the operations of enterprise, regroup them, class them and then present the results in an orderly system of financial information. What interests us in accounting is all the financial information, like sales amounts, the money an enterprise currently owns, the profits made, etc. I'm going to present some information I got from an article about a day in the life of an accountant so that you can see a little how it goes in accounting. I chose it because I felt it represented well how the life of an accountant is and what you will need to accomplish. 
As an accountant, you will be responsible for all that is finance and tax related. You will handle the payments and make sure they are paid on time, you will transfer the money or the income made to your clients and will have to keep in mind the implications these actions will have on your tax reports. You will spend a lot of time working with number but mostly about other people's work, in which case you will have to deliver bad news, as most of the business owners will not check the numbers themselves and might take some time to employ an accountant, making things worse with time. The public might not react well and give off a negative reaction, but it is normal, people always get defensive when they're told they're not doing things right and might owe a lot of money. That is mostly for general accountants and auditors, but there's also personal accountants. They're responsible for tracking the income and for filling out all the necessary paperwork of clients and sending them to the federal and state government when tax season comes, which is usually in April. Although personal accountants works a lot in April and less the rest of the year, there's also the corporate tax accountants, which works at large enterprises all year-round and are involved in decision making about which actions will affect the tax and how. 
After long years of study, you will then enter the job market as usually an apprentice to a professional accountant for around 2 years. Employers usually requires experience to work in higher standing jobs and it is better to do it with a professional supervising you. You will also probably be doing your certification while working (which also requires field experience), which only 25% of accountants pass the first time. Around 7% of those who leave the work force of accountants leave to pursue their study in the field of accounting. 
After five years being in the work field of accounting, you will notice yourself starting to move a lot. You will be a certified professional and will now start to specialize in private or public accounting, making you go up in the corporate positions, which also makes your hours and salary go up too. You might even start your own accounting firm if you'd like. But, all in all, you must remain strong in the face of long hours and the negative public response because the benefits starts to really show after around 10 years. 
You will either have successfully established your own private firm and be your own boss, or you will have followed the corporate path and will now be involved in the decision making and the corporate strategy. You will notice managements and consulting job positions opening up and will also have the qualifications to take them. Your salary will have gone up significantly by then and hours will start to regulate themselves. You will work less and be able to focus more on your family and hobbies. Then, you can either stay in the corporate business or enter the government service or academia. 
I think choosing the accounting field is a safe bet, especially if you're at ease with numbers, the world will always have the need for an accountant, since everyone has to pay taxes. Hope you learned a little reading this, I really encourage you to go research more information on your own and don't get scared by the public backlash, it is worth it in the end since you will have a rewarding career.

References: 

Checked and revised with the help of the Virtual Writing Tutor grammar checker

A peek in the accounting terminology




Accumulated Depreciation 

Total depreciation pertaining to an asset or group of assets from the time the assets were placed in services until the date of the financial statement or tax return. This total is the contra account to the related asset account.  
Fraud

The use of one's occupation for personal enrichment through the deliberate misuse or misapplication of employing an organization's resources or assets. This can include the fraudulent conversion and obtaining of money or property by false pretenses. 

Inventory 

Tangible property held for sale, or materials used in a production process to make a product. 
Tax 
Charge levied by a governmental unit on income, consumption, wealth, or other basis. 

Partnership 

Relationship between two or more people based on a written, oral, or implied agreement whereby they agree to carry on a trade or business for profit and share the resulting profits. Unlike a corporation's shareholders, the partnership's general partners are liable for the debts of the partnership. (See general partnership, limited liability partnership, limited partnership.) 

Investment 

Expenditure used to purchase goods or services that could produce a return to the investor. 
Loss 
Excess of expenditures over revenue for a period or activity. Also, for tax purposes, an excess of basis over the amount realized in a transaction. (See net income.) 

Letter of Credit
 
Conditional bank commitment issued on behalf of a customer to pay a third party in accordance with certain terms and conditions. The two primary types are commercial letters of credit and standby letters of credit. 
Franchise 

Legal arrangement whereby the owner of a trade name, the franchiser, contracts with a party that wants to use the name on a non-exclusive basis to sell goods or services, the franchisee. Frequently, the franchise agreement grants strict supervisory powers to the franchiser over the franchisee which, nevertheless, is an independent business. 
Depreciation 

Expense allowance made for wear and tear on an asset over its estimated useful life. (See accelerated depreciation and straight-line depreciation.) 

Inventory
          Stocks of goods held for manufacture or for resale
Provision 
         A liability of uncertain timing or amount.

Just now, you read some of the words that we use in the field of accounting. Accounting is a science of numbers and finance. You will crunch numbers and analyze the income, profits, sales amounts and loss of either individuals or businesses and help them accordingly make the good decisions in relation to the results. I chose Accounting because it interested me and because I am good with numbers. I also wanted to follow the path that my cousin took, which I could see was very successful.
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