Accountancy can be a prestigious and well-paid career that offers the opportunity to work at a wide range of businesses and organisations. Financial accounting and management accounting are the two main areas of accounting. Most graduates go into financial accounting and choose to specialise in particular areas, such as tax or audit. Other types of accounting include management accounting and public accounting.
The Big Four are very important in this sector and can provide good opportunities to travel and advance within a firm. Working for a smaller firm also has its benefits as it can mean more responsibility early on, and a greater chance to influence how things work in an organisation.
Finance and accounting is central to all organisations. Financial information is needed to shape policy and ascertain how an organisation is performing.
There are many different roles in the accountancy field. Accounting assistants and technicians help to process monthly transactions in an organisation, while senior accounting managers or finance directors utilise reports to inform and advise on executive decisions as to overall direction.
If you're aiming at a career in accounting, then it's important to recognise that the profession is about more than just number-crunching - it's about how organisations operate, liaising with managers or clients, and providing sound financial feedback and advice.
The Certification in Accountancy (CA) is the professional qualification, usually gained only once working in the financial workplace. This covers company performance, tax issues, investment opportunities, strategy and general business advice.
Will Accounting Suit You?
In addition to numeracy, which is the most obvious of the aptitudes you need to have, there's a range of transferable skills that are required across all areas of accounting:
- An interest in finance and economics, plus what makes organisations (not necessarily businesses) work.
- Accuracy, efficiency and attention to detail, no matter how routine the task.
- Analytical and problem solving skills, with the determination to find answers to numerical questions.
- Strong verbal communication skills for dealing with managers, clients or fellow staff, particularly when discussing financial issues with others who have little or no financial background.
- Excellent written communication skills for the preparation of and delivery of reports and analyses.
- Ability to understand and apply regulations, and to communicate and liaise with government agencies and external professionals.
- Confidence in liaising with regulatory representatives and professionals in external organisations.
- Strengths in information technology skills, particularly accounting packages and systems, with ability to utilise modelling programs and optimise financial management systems
Careers in Accounting: Chartered Accountant in Private Practice
The private chartered accountant (or general accountant) works in their own or someone else's private practice, providing services to fee-paying clients. Their work is relatively straightforward: handling clients' annual tax and accounts, and conducting audits for registered companies. The work can be extremely seasonal, with the greatest workload coming at the end of the financial year.
Clients for individual private accountants range from freelancers to small businesses. Larger private accountancy firms might deal with major corporations, extending their services into areas of consultancy (i.e. financial management consultation) aimed at improving the business's finances. They might advise on mergers and acquisitions, as well as financial processes.
Accountants frequently develop specialist areas when working for larger consultancy firms and may move on to specialist positions. Individual accountants who have been working with small businesses may progress to positions with the bigger accountancy firms.
Specialist Skills for a Chartered Accountant
In addition to the transferable skills already mentioned, you need the following skills and experience for this area of accountancy:
- Understanding of the UK's accounting laws and regulations.
- Strong time management skills in order to work on different contracts.
- Thorough accounting skills and knowledge of procedures and accounting practices, with awareness of updates to requirements.
- High level of analytical skills, with ability to see the broader financial picture and how it affects a particular organisation.
- Experience of developing or revising financial policy and procedure to improve financial processes and streamline systems.
- Experience of liaising with regulatory representatives and professionals in external organisations.
- Good interpersonal skills to liaise with managers of different organisations and companies.
- Resourcefulness and ability to work alone.
Careers in Accounting: Company Accountant
A chartered accountant can also work within a business, either singly or as part of a group of accountants, depending on the company's size. The tasks are essentially the same, involving compilation of financial information, report preparation and the ongoing monitoring of financial transactions and events.
Specialist Skills for a Company Accountant
- Ability to prepare and verify documents for compliance and scrutiny by governmental agencies.
- Thorough accounting skills and knowledge of procedures and accounting practices, with awareness of updates to requirements.
- High level of analytical skills, with ability to see the broader financial picture and how it affects the business.
- Experience of developing or revising financial policy and procedure to improve financial processes and streamline systems.
- Experience of liaising with regulatory representatives and professionals in external organisations.
Careers in Accounting: Chartered Management Accountant
A chartered management accountant is a senior management role that involves contributing directly to the organisation's decision-making processes. Typically, the post holder sits on the executive team and plays a role in strategic planning processes by managing the organisation or group's finances, assessing and evaluating financial performance and identifying ways to increase profitability.
The management accountant's primary role is to record and analyse financial information. This way, they gain a clear overview and are able to undertake effective budgeting, clearly evaluating performance, and efficiently managing costs and assets. They prepare financial reports for other parties, such as stockholders and creditors, tax authorities and auditors, etc.
In larger organisations, there may be a senior management accountant working at senior executive level, with other management accountants in the next management level down, each cover specific areas of accounting, such as planning and budgeting, cost accounting, financial analysis, etc.
Specialist Skills for the Chartered Management Accountant
- Meticulous accounting skills and exemplary knowledge of procedures, with consistency in adhering to these.
- Resourcefulness with the ability to work alone, while providing full input to the executive team's decision-making processes.
- Ability to manage workloads and oversee completion of monthly and financial period reports by the accounting team.
- Thorough knowledge of regulations and changes to legislation affecting accounting.
- Staff management skills, with strengths in supervising and motivating a team, sometimes over different sites.
Finance Manager
Finance Managers are employed in private sector organisations. The role's exact nature is determined by the organisation in question, but usually overlaps with many other finance and accounting roles. Generally speaking, finance managers are responsible for providing direction on the investment side, preparing reports, making recommendations and developing and overseeing cash management strategies.
In doing so, they aim to further the organisation's goals by optimising profit from investments while reducing risks. As mergers, consolidations and acquisitions occur with increasing rapidity in a global marketplace, the finance managers' role has been increasingly important and specialised. Likewise, the growth of digital technology has changed the nature of the work due to enhanced data analysis functions, speedier report production and easier modelling and projections.
Specialist Skills for a Finance Manager
- Deep business management and economics knowledge to enable research and evaluation of changes and trends.
- Ability to operate at senior management level, provide input and recommendations to the executive team's decision-making processes.
- Experience in liaising with regulatory representatives and professionals in external organisations.
- Staff management skills, with strengths in supervising and motivating a team.
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