I'm Larry Walther, and this is principlesofaccounting.com, Chapter 1.
In this particular module we're going to talk about the accounting profession and
accounting careers.
Many students will begin their career with a public accounting firm.
Public accounting firms provide a variety of services,
from audit, to tax, and consulting services.
Audit relates to the examination of transactions, and systems, and
internal controls that underlie an organization's financial reports.
A bank might require its clients to have audited financial statements pursuant to
a loan agreement.
Shareholders and public company shareholders would expect that
the financial statements for the company that they're buying stock in would have
an audit performed by an independent public accounting firm.
So that's a very good area to begin a career,
because you see a variety of businesses.
You work and audit a number of different clients, so
it's a great continuation of your education in many respects.
But these firms also provide tax services, not only to prepare and file tax returns,
but also to render advice on the tax consequences of alternative transactions.
There are number of consulting opportunities with public
accounting firms.
A large area of this relates to implementation of information systems and
technology.
In addition though, there are opportunities to simply just do general
business consulting on the merits of a particular business plan, for example.
Usually for someone to be engaged in the practice of public accounting, maybe not
from the first day that they enter a firm, but fairly quickly along in their career,
they'll become licensed as, in the United States, a Certified Public Accountant.
In other countries that's also known as a Chartered Accountant.
These are licenses typically issued by the states in which the individual practices.
It's a license to practice public accounting.
There are additional career opportunities, in fact even larger areas of employment
outside of public accounting, that relate to industry accounting.
Obviously within the organization, there's a need for a number of accountants.
So those accountants are often serving as what are known as Controllers, or
Chief Financial Officers, or Chief Accounting Officers.
Depending on the organization, they may carry a different title.
Also within organizations are Internal Auditors.
Internal Auditors look at controls and procedures in use by
a company to ensure financial integrity of the reporting process.
But they'll also look at operational efficiency,
which is an interesting area to see if there's ways, or try to identify areas
of waste, and opportunities for running a better business organization.
Not-for-profit agencies have similar specific tasks, so they might be in
hospitals, universities, charitable organizations all employ a large number
of accountant to provide oversight over the financial information of the entity.
The governmental sector has a number of branches, so the Internal Revenue Service,
General Accounting Office, Securities & Exchange Commission,
even the FBI hire a large number of accountants for their investigative work.
So those are very promising career paths as well.
No matter what area of accounting you choose,
it's important to maintain an ethical attitude.
The financial reporting process must be truthful and dependable.
Investors and creditors rely on financial statements when making their investment
and credit decisions.
They'll quickly cease to provide funding to a specific business, or
the economy as a whole, if they lose confidence.
So without an ethical base in the accounting profession it
would serve no purpose, so ethics is paramount.
The accounting profession has adopted a code of ethics to which its
licensed members must adhere.
Licenses can be removed for ethical lapses.
There are also checks and balances, and
government oversights that help ensure the maintenance of an ethical attitude.
Now as you go forward in your career, what I want you to remember is,
good people make mistakes.
And oftentimes in reflecting on those mistakes,
there are two things that are in common.
A decision was made in haste, and a decision was made under pressure.
So as you go forward in your accounting career,
always remember the challenges you're going to face,
and don't be pushed into a hasty decision that you'll later regret.
It's fairly easy, with time and reflection,
to know what the right thing is to do, and then it's incumbent to do that.