Changing Role of Accounting in the Business World

Corporate accounting structures have changed immensely since computers came into play. The old ideal of the company accountant or accounting department was of men in suite and ties with very little if any personalities. They usually would walk around mumbling out numbers all day long, but not really ever speak to anyone socially.

The divide between what was an accounting person or who was support to that position was very clear indeed. If you had a master's degree in accounting you are an "accountant" and you did accounting work. If you did not have that specific degree; you are not an accountant and you do not do accounting. You may be a bookkeeper or a secretary specializing in finance, you could be an accounting clerk if you were still in school, but you were always told that you do not do "accounting". Usually this bridge was created to honor the degreed professionals because back then, they really were the only people in the know. This was a time when people didn't have an internet to "just look rules and regulations up" and it took years to understand all of the different business structures and tax laws. But the other reason for the divide was of course; salary.

Then suddenly, in the 1980's these structures started changing because entrepreneurs started popping up and they had to suddenly be the ones who knew their own rules and regulations (and also how much they could get away with) when it came to taxes and running their own businesses. When you also throw in the invention of the computer, it gave many more people the advantage of being a numbers person when prior to this they were not interested in the least about accounting. Once these computers were brought into everyone's homes, etc. anyone could learn how to work in what were known as "accounting" jobs. The corporations grew to phenomenal sizes and they needed more positions put into place.

And so, the old hierarchy had to be thrown out, it was outdated. Currently you have thousands of people working in mega corporations that are doing the accounting or pieces of the accounting puzzle. There are still some companies that require an accounting degree to do anything they label accounting jobs, but usually it requires that you have experience, also. Because there have been so many positions created and year after year we come up with some new ones; it is difficult to draw that easy line that we once had in place.