Accountant Job Description
Accountants are like the big brothers of the financial world. They keep everyone from low-income individuals to the most powerful corporations honest. They perform a system of checks and balances that ensures their clients are not shorting the government, their clients or their employees, and that the government, their clients and their employees are not shorting them.
Function
Accountants handle a variety of issues dealing with money, finances, profits, expenditures, payrolls and sales. An accountant's duties can vary greatly depending on his client and his client's financials. An accountant's job can range from performing audits to ensure an individual or business is being truthful in its tax documents, to handling the payroll of a small business, to analyzing a business' ledger, or overall financial health. Some accountants deal strictly with tax documents, while others may perform many of the tasks similar to a financial planner or analyst.
Features
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), most accountants made between $42,520 and $71,960 a year in 2006. The lowest-paid accountants earned less than $34,470, while the highest-paid earned $94,050 a year. The BLS emphasized that an accountant's salary depended greatly on one's years of experience. Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) and Certified Management Accountants (CMAs) who have been practicing for more than 10 years usually earn the most money.
Types
There are four main types of accountants. Public accountants usually work for themselves or for public accounting companies. They assist the public with all issues concerning taxes, audits, declarations and deductions. Government accountants oversee the accounting records for the government. They ensure that the government's records are truthful and accurate. They also oversee the accounting records for individuals who work for the government. Internal auditors work directly for companies. They ensure that the company's records are truthfully and accurately reported, which ensures that the company is not taking money unecessarily from its clients, and that employees are not inappropriately taking funds from the company. Management accountants oversee the profits and pay-outs of a company. This may be done for tax purposes or to evaluate what investments and expenditures are benefiting the company and which are simply wasting money.
Time Frame
The job of accountant is very much an office job. Most accountants work for private or public companies or the government. Therefore, these jobs are usually in office buildings and obide by the standard nine-to-five workday and federal holiday schedule. Independently operating accountants have more flexible hours. They can choose to work when they want, which usually means they work a substantial amount of hours during tax season, with a lot of down time in the late summer through the holiday season.
Geography
Most accountants work in dense, urban areas and major metropolitans. This is because most governmental and corporate jobs are based in these areas. It is usually where the largest amount of people live and, thus, the largest pool of potential clients for public accountants. Many accountants who do reside in smaller cities that are far away from urban dwellings tend to open their own accounting firms in an attempt to corner the market by offering a unique service and forming genuine relationships with clients.
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