Question

What is the role of an accountant and accounting within a business what are some examples of the expectations of an accountant?

Answer 1

Any organization whether big or small performs its works through transacting with other persons, organizations and groups. Therese are called transactions. There may be few to huge number of transactions daily in an organization. To keep a record of these transactions is very important for them. Thus every business undergoes the process of compiling financial information which is called accounting. In simple words we can say accounting is the process of measuring and summarizing business activities, analyzing financial information and communicating results to management and decision makers. It is required by many parties as well. Accounting makes it easy for an organization to pinpoint what is going on in the business. Also it comes to know about several other factors by making use of various branches of accounting like cost accounting for cost determination, management accounting for decision making and financial accounting for dealing with finance. Again the information from accounting is used by various internal and external users also. Management uses it for decision making, bank may use it for giving a loan and government uses it for taxation purposes.

Accounting is done by a person whom we call Accountant. Thus an accountant in traditional form is doing the job of recording the transactions. However in the present day organization he is more than a record keeper. His responsibilities includes maintaining operational controls, implementing financial policies and keeping an eye on the financial health of the firm. He is concerned with compliance to internal and external rules and regulations. Maintaining accounts in tandem with the government regulations and following the professional code of conduct. An accountant also serves as leader for the organization to motivate and guide people for achieving the desired financial goals.

An accountant expects that the organization for which he is working has good data management, accurate records, use of new technology for accounting, competent staff members and proper security and controls in place for safeguarding accounting records. These are expectations that may not be present in the organization but an accountant is required to build all of those which are not present or weak. Thus he has a responsibility for maintain the financial health and wellbeing of the organization finances.