The Role of the Accountant

The accountant in any business plays many vital roles and complete tasks that are necessary for a company to stay on top. Accounting is important to all companies and individuals. If you do not calculate your taxes right, you will get into a very horrible situation with the Internal Revenue Service. Accounting is how we determine our taxes as individuals, but also as businesses. There are very more roles of the accountant though that we will get into later. There are two main forms of accounting: management accounting and financial accounting (Atkinson, Kaplan, & Young, 2004, p.3-4). Management accounting is the provision of financial and nonfinancial information that directs managerial tasks (Atkinson, Kaplan, & Young, 2004, p.3). Financial accounting is the provision of financial statements to exterior sources (Atkinson, Kaplan, & Young, 2004, p.4).

Accountants have many different roles. Accountants serve as information providers to many institutions that influence the decision making within a company; this is just one example of the position that a managerial accountant performs (Atkinson, Kaplan, & Young, 2004, p.4). Managerial accountants also carryout the function of performance measures from within a company, which assures that proper assessment is completed at each stage of the manufacturing process (Atkinson, Kaplan, & Young, 2004, p.4). Management accountants help "increase profits, reduce costs, and improve processes" (Atkinson, Kaplan, & Young, 2004, p.4).

Financial accountants are more bookkeepers, than managerial accountants, but are still important to any business (Atkinson, Kaplan, & Young, 2004, p.4). "Financial accounting report, in contrast, communicate economic information to individuals and organizations that are external to the direct operations of a company, such as shareholders, creditors (bankers, bondholders, and suppliers), regulators, and government tax authorities" (Atkinson, Kaplan, & Young, 2004, p.4). In business the different kinds of accounting positions available to individuals are very different than just working with taxes.

"Accountants and auditors are broadening the services they offer to include budget analysis, financial and investment planning, information technology consulting, and limited legal services" (United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005). The type of information that accounting provides includes both financial information and nonfinancial information. The types of nonfinancial information that are included are "operational and physical measurements on processes, technologies, suppliers, customers, and competitors" (Atkinson, Kaplan, & Young, 2004, p.5).

It is necessary to understand that each of the different roles play an important part in everyday business. If accountants did not exist, businesses would fail in more than one way. For example, a company would be spending too much money without the right information that an accountant provides. They would also be in trouble, so to speak, with the United States Internal Revenue Service. It is very important to understand that a good accountant is a businesses best friend.

References

Atkinson, A.A., Kaplan, R.S., & Young, S.M. (2004). Management accounting (4th ed.).Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2005, December 20). Accountants and auditors. Retrieved January 19, 2007, from United States Department of Labor Web site: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos001.htm