Reflection 1

Greetings, hope everyone had a happy Christmas. This year I had a nice low key Christmas with the family which was a change from the usual parties we attend. Our results were released early last week and I'm quite happy with them, getting a distinction in ACCG315.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, in the unit we were assigned weekly 'reflections' where we were given a couple questions on our thoughts of the profession. In the final week, we were given the same questions as the first week and were asked to compare our answers to see how our perceptions on the profession had changed. Today I am sharing my last reflection.

1. When you think of the accounting profession what comes to mind?

Before studying ACCG315, my knowledge of being an accountant was limited to the technical aspects of accounting such creating journal entries and ledgers, calculating depreciation, providing and presenting financial information to management and financial reports for external stakeholders. Long hours behind a desk and in front of a computer, the big four accounting firms and accounting bodies also came to mind. The different types of accounting such as management, taxation and auditory services also connotes with the accounting profession.

When I think of the accounting profession now, I think of working in teams and having one on one time with clients. In the beginning, I was not aware of how people oriented accounting was, and that networking and forming client relationships was also a large part of the profession.

With the technological revolution, I am now aware that technology plays an increasingly larger role in accounting with technologies such as cloud computing and AIS and their implications on accountants.

2. What contextual factors do you think could influence the accounting profession?

Previously, the only contextual factors I thought that could influence the accounting profession were regulators such as the government (and the current political situation), accounting standard setting bodies such as the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), the situation of the economy, and scandals involving poor accounting or failure in standard setting.

After attending seminars and presentations, I have found that are a wide variety of contextual factors such as the current state of technological advancement, globalisation, and public perceptions of sustainability and ethics also play a large part in influencing the accounting profession.

3. Describe the people you expect to interact with as an accountant.

I expect to interact with fellow employees and management of a company as an accountant, and stakeholders such as financiers, suppliers and customers. Also, auditors, professionals who work in the legal sector solicitors and possibly debt collectors.

Expectations on the people I will interact with as an accountant has not dramatically changed but I will also now expect to spend a great deal of time interacting with clients in order to conduct business.

4. What role do you think you should play in contributing to your community as an accountant?

I think as an accountant, my role to the community is to provide relevant financial information that is accurately and faithfully represented in order to give users the information they need to make informed decisions about my company.

According to The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, the role of accountants are becoming increasingly technically demanding and specialised involving; compliance w/ financial reporting standards, pensions solvency, and corporate governance legislation. In addition, accountants now feel more empowered and have greater career ambitions; demanding and expecting more career development prospects.

This was all reinforced with the seminars as this was addressed by the industry partners. Leadership skills were a part of accounting that I had originally overlooked and the extent of the role people play in relation to the accounting profession. As pointed out by James Solomons, as a result of the technological revolution, there has been a shift in the role of accountants as accountants are now able to place more focus on their analytical skills rather than spend their time on tasks such as data entry or creating financial statements.

I now know that accountants must possess a number of ‘soft skills’ as well as technical skills to succeed.

5. What might the clients and fellow employees expect of you as an accountant?

Clients and fellow employees can expect me to act ethically and in the best interest of the company. As an accountant, there may also be expectations to be proficient and to have technical skills, analytical skills, interpersonal and communication skills, business skills, leadership and team building skills and to be efficient with time management.

Industry partners such as Kamlee and Lynn highlighted the importance of time management and maintaining a good work life balance as being an accountant can be very demanding and many tasks can be due at once.

Performance Education also taught me the significance in understanding cultural differences and useful skills in making presentations stand out which will be of great benefit in the business world.

6.  What do you think are the major issues accountants face in their profession? 

As learnt from the student presentations, accountants can face a broad range of issues from maintaining a good work life balance, the threat of offshoring and redundancy, a gap in the market of the services demanded and services that are provided by accountants, issues regarding cyber security, sustainability and ethics, the digital disruption and international financial reporting standards.

Accountants can also face specific challenges depending on what area they specialise in. For example, accountants specialising in taxation will need to keep up with the annual changes to regulations imposed by the government.

References

A Changing Profession?, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, London, viewed 9 August 2014 <http://ilearn.mq.edu.au/pluginfile.php/2736496/mod_resource/content/1/A%20Changing%20Profession%20by%20ACCA.pdf>.