Accounting

Introduction:

In the UK today, only 15% of the labour force are in manufacturing; this will go down to about 10% by the year 2010.

In Pakistan, approximately 15% to 25% accounting students are increasing every year. The number of professional commerce institutions has increased from 36 to 100 since 1992. (Source: Central bureau of education, Pakistan)

What does this means?

More and more people are directing towards non-manufacturing environments which makes them more conscious about social and environmental factors than those technical. The decline of manufacturing has been changing the skills and competencies that accountants need in the 21st century to satisfy the needs and requirements of stakeholders.

Result is the division of accountants into those who can coop up with changing world and those who can't i.e. entrepreneurs and number crunchers.

Because of the unawareness of the subject matter in general public, little use of available information technology by accountants and ignoring social & environmental factors to report with mere numbers, a common perception is developed that accountants are dull, conservative and preoccupied with numbers. Yet all is not lost. Change is afoot!

Do accountants have strength just in numbers?

Undoubtedly, accountants are more --much more than number crunchers. Accountants are concerned about how the collected data should be used whereas number crunchers are busy thinking how data should be collected. If number crunching was what was required, then artificial intelligence of computers was sufficient; employers won't look for accountants who are 'Emotionally intelligent' 'Team worker' and a lot. In fact, accountants are key strategists who help both individuals and organisations to improve their financial practices and systems. They have an ability to anticipate the client's needs and position organisation's capabilities to the best advantage. Depending on their chosen area of specialisation, there is a wide range of duties that accountants perform. Accountants, for instance, help businesses with problems like:

* Audit the business for compliance with legislation

* How to start a business and when to expand

* How much the business is worth

* How to make the most out of the corporate wealth

* Developing a tax & legal strategy

* Managing insolvency, bankruptcy and receivership

Forensic accounting, an emerging branch of accountancy, has helped in investigating and detecting frauds but above all, 'using' numbers instead of 'crunching' had added to the decision making capability of modern accountants. Would that accountants are number crunchers, who would find the right numbers at right times to make use of, for the critics? One who draws a map for others knows all the ways to destination, likewise an accountant who present reports to managers. "To get to the top in business, you need strength in numbers." (Motto: McCombs School of Business)

(Word count on page 1 = 458)

What can an accountant offer to a business beyond number crunching?

A study conducted by Intuit Professional Accounting Solutions revealed that 80% of the small business owners polled in 2003 are "very satisfied" with their accountant's service, as compared to 68% last year whereas, 94% of accountants feel their clients are very satisfied which is contrary to the statement "accountants are number crunchers". Think for a moment about what is thought to be involved in an accountant's workday. Most people would think about numbers, debits, and credits. Now that the idea of the stereotype has been introduced, it is time to know what accountants really have to tackle. Accounting is more closely related to other fields than a person might think. Communication in the work place makes writing skills imperative. When it comes to ethics, it seems as if accountant is the hub that connects the business world together. Stress is laid on the skills that may help business owners and stakeholders by the way of business sustainability, entrepreneurship and strategic thinking. Despite of critics; accounting professionals have proved incredible in past years to put the superlative strategic answers to the questions like:

* What to do?

* How to do?

* When to do?

But the future is only for them who have left number crunching behind and are object oriented, highly focused and grounding their feet in techniques like SWOT analysis, reverse engineering, Total Quality Management, etc. Some anecdotal evidence that will affect the future may be useful. Phillip Amen, CPA, controller and vice-president of General Electric, says that, generally speaking, for the last several years GE has not hired accountants for entry-level positions in the finance department and "we have no current plans to change that policy." GE is certainly not discriminating against accountants; it also avoids hiring MBAs and business majors for those jobs. Instead, he explains, the company searches for bright people who are adaptable--not those who are stuck in yesterday's business paradigm.

Why are accountants perceived to be number crunchers?

Because of the relaxation provided by the use of advanced technology in workplace, many accountants have stop thinking outside the box, and instead of making most out of the opportunity provided by technology they wish not to gain its familiarity and rather adapt a pessimistic approach, for this reason, a common perception is developed that accountants are boring number cruncher.

Where the employers look for accountants with computer literacy, it is highly observed that accountants find themselves more comfortable with manual records than electronic. Consequently, more effort and time is elapsed. The reason behind this seems to be quite out of sight, which is obviously lack of computer knowledge. A key solution to this problem is the introduction of the related