ACCOUNTANT OVERVIEW

Taxes can be insanely confusing, so it is vital that you get all the help you can. An accountant is a good choice in most cases. Here is why.

Accountancy is the measurement of financial information. It also deals with the concept of assurance of accuracy with this financial information. To put this in more simple terms, accountancy is the method by which we compile and transmit an accurate picture of a given financial situation. If you were to count the money in your pocket, making sure you had included every penny and then made a record of the total that was accurate and reflected the exact amount counted, you would have done accountancy on the status on your cash in hand.

Most people are familiar with the accountant. They view him as a person who does their taxes or works in the accounting department at their job. The image of the accountant in popular culture is of someone with a calculator in their hand; thick glasses from studying rows of figure; and a rather disciplined respect for accuracy in everything. Although, the calculator and thick glasses are a mistake, the respect for accuracy is much closer to the truth.

Accountants work in both the public and the private sector. They are involved in many aspects of financial management beyond the accounting departments of business. They include tax specialists and top executives in the business sector. The field is fairly extensive and growing larger. The advent of the computer and its ability to process and store information has changed the field of accounting greatly in some ways. In other ways, the basic principles of accounting and accountancy have been unchanged since early history.

There has always existed a need to generate accurate pictures of financial situations and conditions. The dual entry bookkeeping methods still used as the basis of business accounting may have been developed and used since biblical times. It is important to understand that the accountant does not create the business situation. Their role is to present it in a manner that represents it reality at any given time. It is like taking a snapshot of a particular situation at a particular moment in time.

The field of accounting is growing and the opportunities within are greater now than at any time in history. The world is merging into a massive global economy and accurate and trustworthy accountancy of this new financial mega structure is critical. Auditing and accountancy creates information that gives managers the knowledge that they need to make current decisions and future plans. Too many view accountants as only dealing in the past. They are really the ones who give us the information we need to plan for the future.