Accounting Careers

So, you’re thinking about a career as an accountant, or perhaps you’ve already decided that this is where your career ambitions lie. An accounting degree and career is a great choice. It’s a large field, and the types of work that accountants do is quite varied. It includes the following:

Keeping financial records: Probably the most important part of an accounting career is keeping a record of all the financial transactions and earnings of a company or individual. This record is used for tax purposes, for decision making, for reporting to stockholders, and for archival storage.

Auditing financial records: Another important role played by accountants is to make sure that the financial records kept by a company are correct. In many cases, accountants are specifically hired to determine if records are accurate and if any errors in the records are the result of negligence or even criminal activity.

Preparing taxes: Accountants are vital in preparing taxes not just for corporations but for many individuals. In fact, tax preparation is an accounting career in itself. Accountants prepare tax forms to IRS specifications and help clients determine if clients or companies can save money on their taxes based on the sort of tax rules and loopholes that often only accountants are familiar with.

Analyzing budgets: Every company (and even every individual) needs to know how much money they can spend and what they can spend it on. An accountant can decide where to allocate funds and how many funds a company or individual can afford to allocate. This kind of budgeting is an important part of an accounting career.

Where do accountants work? They work in many different places. Often, accountants work for public accounting firms, which hire out their services to any company or person that needs an accountant’s services but can’t afford to have a full-time accountant on staff. Many accountants spend their accounting careers working for the government deciding how public funds are to be used. (Major decisions in this regard are made by the legislature, but accountants make sure that the legislative rules are enforced.) Many more accountants work for large corporations monitoring the flow of money within the corporation and determining whether funds are managed efficiently, productively, and without any errors, either accidental or deliberate.

Finally, many accountants freelance, running their own accounting firms with only a few employees or perhaps no employees other than themselves. This may well be the most appealing of all accounting jobs, but it’s also one of the chanciest and may not pay as well as the others.