About your role as an Accountant - Speech or Presentation Example

Controversial, because I am sure one way or another you have heard the recent news of financial scandals and crisis which was also brought by this profession. To give you a brief synopsis of the objective or what an Accountant does, it “is to record, classify, summarize, and interpret the transactions of an [business] entity“(Brewer, 2009, pg. 96). While this function may sound simple in text, the implication of it however is quite complex because ultimately,”the objective of financial accounting was to provide information useful in economic decision making” (Brewer et al, 2004, pg. 15). Through accounting, an entity is able to determine its financial position by recording all the transactions incurred in a given period, classify and summarize it to be used in making a rationale economic decision.

The tool that is usually used for making that rationale economic decision is called Financial Statements. This is basically a written report that describes the economic well being of a business entity which comes in the form of Income Statement, Balance Sheets and Cash Flow. Income Statement simply tells whether a business entity is earning or not. In a smaller scale, the income statement shows how much you spend compared to what you earned and if there is anything left for profit or savings.

Balance sheet on the other hand summarizes the business entity’s assets, liabilities and capital for a given period. Simply, it’s a summary of what you have and what you owe and how much you and your investors have invested in the business entity while Cash Flow shows how much money was used and generated by business entity in a given period. Common terms used that may sound complex but really meant simply are words like assets which simply means what the business entity owns, liability which means what the company owes.

While this may sound simple, the entire process of recording, classifying, summarizing and interpreting can get complicated especially if the organization is big for it involves a lot of transactions to consider for accounting reporting. In a small business, this can also be taxing especially if this entire accounting process is done by a single person compared to an entire department of a corporation. Such, technology can get handy in aiding a small business in its various Accounting Operation such as having a software that helps track employee’s wages, outgoing expenses with vendors and tracking the day-to-day operation of the business whether it is earning or not.

This gives the business owner a hindsight about his business’ financial progress and is able to make necessary adjustments to enhance his profitability i.e. streamlining expenses and reduce unnecessary expenditures. By having this accounting facility within the small business, the owner may not have to retain an Accountant, except on the occasion of filing of taxes which could save him cost. If you noticed, the profession of Accounting involves money. Not only that the Accountant is responsible for handling the resources of a business entity, he is also responsible for the factual and accurate reporting of it.

This is important because the public relies on this information whether they will put in their money for investment in that company or not. Such, the Accounting profession demands the highest ethical standard because when this function is