Saturday, April 29, 2006

Accounting School In General

The primary purpose of the Accounting School is to prepare students to meet the demands of professional accountants ; for professional careers in public accounting, corporate accounting, non-profit entities, and other organizations. In the past, Accounting School focused itself on accounting technical knowledge, and, therefore, the subjects taught were concentrating more on the process of recording financial transactions, accounting management techniques, tax laws, and audit procedures.

At the end of the century, the accounting profession and education face new challenges. The development of technology has great influences on various applications, including on accountancy. As a result, concepts of modern accounting put emphasis on the correlation between economic and accounting knowledge, as well as on the information technology as a knowledge-based in processing financial information and control.

In anticipating the economic development in the world, more professionals capable in accounting skills and knowledge are required to optimize company's performance.

Accounting is the one degree that provides you with the education needed to succeed in every aspect of the business world. It also prepares students to obtain their certification in public accounting (CPA), management accounting (CMA), and internal auditing (CIA) upon graduation.

Accounting is the international language of business. It is a versatile degree that offers a wide range of opportunities to graduates. Accountants have titles like CEO, CFO, Managing Partner, and Controller. They work for national and international business firms, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and in their own companies. Many work in CPA firms providing management consulting services, auditing services, personal financial planning, and tax services.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Basic Accounting Tips

If you hated math in school and the idea of small-business accounting makes you want to hide, don't despair. A few quick tips can help you get a handle on accounting basics so you can achieve your financial goals.

First, keep track of what you spend and earn, says Deidre E. Newton, small-business growth strategist and president of Community Real Estate Services in West Palm Beach, Florida. Investing in an easy-to-use accounting software program can help. Newton suggests Peachtree Accounting for Windows, QuickBooks for Windows or Quicken Basic as good ones to try.

Second, structure your accounting and financial plan with the end result in mind--be it growth, securing a loan or an eventual sale of the business.

Finally, drill the following phrases into your head: financial statement (a written record of your financial status), balance sheet (an accounting picture with the left side stating assets and the right side listing liabilities), retained earnings (net profits kept after liabilities are paid), and owners equity (the portion of the business belonging to the owners--also called stockholders equity).

To find free or low-cost accounting seminars in your area, contact local community colleges, SBA offices (www.sba.gov) and Small Business Development Centers (www.sba.gov/sbdc).

Friday, April 14, 2006

Accounting Schools & Accounting Degree

Accounting Schools

An exciting career awaits you in the field of Accounting! Get your career started in the right direction. An important step in the process is to earn your Degree from an Accounting School. There are many qualified and well recognized Accounting Schools to choose from. If you are not able to attend school at a fixed campus location, you will find online Accounting Schools that offer Diplomas & Degrees via online study. Use this site as your starting point to research different Web Design Schools and Programs.

Accounting Degree

If you've been contemplating a degree in accounting, today's your lucky day. You're about to spend the next minute of your life reading why this career path is such a good choice for you. First, most of you already know that virtually every organization needs accountants. More importantly, most of these organizations will hesitate to fire their accountants in unprofitable times, because they are often needed to creatively balance the books and make sure all the bills are paid. What does this mean for you, the future accountant? It means that once you earn your accounting degree, you'll probably find a job that pays you well and is quite secure. Even if you're company does go belly up, a good accountant can usually land on two feet and find another job without too much sweat involved.

Now, before you start lapping in the luxury, you're going to have to do some work. Earning your accounting degree is no walk in the park. You're going to have to take some pretty hard classes, including managerial accounting, tax, audit, and other high level accounting classes. And unfortunately, earning your accounting degree is just the first step for a number of accountants. If you want to command a higher salary and become certified to take on different types of accounting work, you'll have to pass a difficult test to become a certified public accountant, and will have to take other tests to do other types of related accounting work such as actuarial science, for example. Although there's a lot of hard work involved in becoming an accountant, most accountants say the benefits outweigh the negatives.

Saturday, April 8, 2006

Accounting School Careers

Accounting School graduates apply multiple skills and expertise to form the pivotal management of many organisations. Qualified accountants are in high demand and a degree majoring in accounting will prepare you for a dynamic financial career.

Graduates from Accounting School pursue careers as:
  • Chief Financial Officers
  • Project Accountants
  • Finance Directors
  • Company Secretaries
  • Taxation Consultants
  • Financial Advisors
Accounting School is committed to adding value to the development of students, to research, to the profession and wider community.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Accounting Careers

A career in accounting can take many different forms. Starting from public accounting to practice in business and industry, government, non-profit or education. To start a career as an accountant in any of these fields one first needs to attain the skills and training required of an accountant.

There are different ways to acquire the skills and knowledge of an accountant. Theoretically, one could simply get a job functioning as an accountant without any experience or training and learn on the job. However, in the current, highly-competitive job market, that is not the best way to start a career in accounting. When one is armed with the knowledge and skills expected of an accountant, the door to finding a job working as an accountant is easier to open. The first question one must ask when beginning a career as an accountant is whether or not to become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). Becoming a CPA requires meeting the standards set by the state in which one chooses to practice, including completion of a required number of hours of education and passing the CPA examination. Due to the strict standards set by the state accounting boards, being a CPA is not the right choice for everyone. Becoming a CPA is not required to work as an accountant. There are many job and career opportunities open to individuals who decide that being certified is not the right choice for them. For example, at http://www.ratedetective.com.au/insurance/life-insurance/quotes.

If you decide that gaining a CPA certification is not the route for you, it is still important to develop the skills, attain the knowledge and develop the competencies required to be a successful accountant. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (the 'AICPA') has developed a list of competencies and skills it considers essential to being an accountant. Acquiring these skills and competencies is a good starting point for anybody looking to become an accountant, even though one does not intend to become certified. The AICPA publishes its comprehensive list of what is considers to be the skills/competencies necessary to be a successful CPA on its website. Many colleges and universities offer undergraduate degrees in accounting that will provide students with these skills and competencies. Both coursework and extracurricular activities can help an individual become competent in the areas necessary to become a successful accountant.

A CPA designation is almost universally required for a career in the world of public accounting. To qualify for certification as a CPA, generally, one must complete a program of study in accounting at a college/university of 150 semester hours, pass the Uniform CPA examination which is developed and graded by the AICPA, and have a certain amount of professional work experience in public accounting. The requirements for certification are determined by each individual state's accounting board. The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy provides a chart detailing the requirements for certification in each state at NASBA.

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Are accounting school graduates favorably recruited for entry-level management positions?

A major problem facing the accounting profession today is the shrinking pool of accounting school graduates from which to recruit. An obstacle accounting educators must overcome in recruiting students is a misguided perception that (1) accounting as a profession offers narrow career opportunities and (2) accounting positions do not offer variety in the type of work performed. While anecdotal evidence exists that an accounting degree provides broad training suitable for a variety of business careers, this proposition has not been well-established empirically. The purpose of our research is to determine whether students majoring in accounting are favorably recruited for general entry-level business positions.

The research resulted in several findings. The most notable was that accounting majors are significantly preferred by recruiters over general business majors for general entry-level management positions. A second result was that students with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree were not significantly preferred over those with a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree. This second result, however, was strongly influenced by the effect of accounting as an undergraduate major. For example, an accounting major with only a BBA received a higher mean recruitment rating than a student with an MBA (having general business as the undergraduate major).

The motivation for our research is the potential to enhance the efforts of attracting students into accounting programs. Our findings provide evidence that selecting accounting for an undergraduate major offers a variety of career alternatives. Not only does this result have positive implications for recruiting students to major in accounting, but it also reinforces the efforts of IMA and the AICPA in promoting accountants as professionals possessing a variety of business skills.

Read more...