Accounting as a career
The four careers of accountants, auditors, bookkeepers, and auditing clerks are all very well respected careers that are very similar in many aspects, yet very different in others. When comparing the description of the jobs, the work activities of each, the skills required, and the career opportunities, it is easy to see how similar and different they actually are. Accountants’ set up and design accounting systems and procedures, record financial transactions, and analyze and evaluate records for businesses, government, and the general public. Auditors determine whether established accounting record keeping procedures are being followed by analyzing records and inspecting and verifying journal and ledger entries. Accountants and auditors help to ensure that the Nation's firms are run more efficiently, its public records kept more accurately, and its taxes paid properly and on time. Bookkeepers prepare numerical records for reports, research, financial statements, and payroll use. Auditing clerks verify records of transactions posted by other workers. They check figures, postings, and documents for correct entry, mathematical accuracy, and proper codes. They also correct or note errors for accountants or other workers to adjust. Bookkeepers, accountants, and auditing clerks are an organization's financial record keepers.
The work activities of these four careers all deal with the records of companies and money, but each career specializes in a certain field pertaining ultimately to the same principles. Accountants design and use accounting systems and budgeting systems, prepare balance sheets and profit/loss statements, may direct the work of others performing similar duties, prepare various reports and documents such as payroll and sales tax reports, income tax returns, and personal property schedules, and examine and evaluate data relevant to the financial status of an organization. Auditors examine and evaluate data relevant to the financial status of an organization, make recommendations to management about operations and the financial position of the company, and determine correctness or lack of compliance. Bookkeepers post entries in ledgers, check items on reports and make necessary corrections, review computer printouts for accuracy, prepare invoices or monthly statements to be sent to customers, maintain financial files, complete claim, tax, or payroll forms, prepare and check financial reports used by management, and record details of transactions in account and cash journals. Auditing clerks update and maintain one or more accounting records, including those that tabulate expenditures, receipts, accounts payable and receivable, and profit and loss. They have a wide range of skills and knowledge, from full-charge bookkeepers, who can maintain an entire company's books, to accounting clerks who handle specific accounts. When looking at the work activities of each occupation it is obvious that accountants and auditors have very similar jobs, and the same is true with bookkeepers and auditing clerks.
Every career has its own aptitudes, physical demands, specific work setting, training and a certain amount of education that is usually required. The aptitudes of accounting include having good numerical and verbal abilities. They should be able to evaluate, analyze, and interpret records, concentrating for long periods. They should be [next page]