Career profile Accountant

Table of Contents

• What does an Accountant do?
• What is a typical salary for an Accountant?
• What personality traits are common among Accountants?
  • Career Interests
  • Values
  • Psychological Demands
• What education and training do Accountants need?
  • Typical educational degrees
  • Required knowledge and expertise
  • Important abilities
  • Critical skills

What does an Accountant do?

Accountants examine, analyze, and interpret accounting records to prepare financial statements, give advice, or audit and evaluate statements prepared by others.

In addition, Accountants install or advise on systems of recording costs or other financial and budgetary data.

What kind of tasks does an Accountant perform regularly?

Accountants are often responsible for overseeing or executing some or all of the following tasks:

• Prepare detailed reports on audit findings.
• Report to management about asset utilization and audit results, and recommend changes in operations and financial activities.
• Inspect account books and accounting systems for efficiency, effectiveness, and use of accepted accounting procedures to record transactions.
• Supervise auditing of establishments, and determine scope of investigation required.
• Collect and analyze data to detect deficient controls, duplicated effort, extravagance, fraud, or non-compliance with laws, regulations, and management policies.
• Confer with company officials about financial and regulatory matters.
• Examine and evaluate financial and information systems, recommending controls to ensure system reliability and data integrity.
• Inspect cash on hand, notes receivable and payable, negotiable securities, and canceled checks to confirm records are accurate.
• Prepare adjusting journal entries.
• Prepare, examine, or analyze accounting records, financial statements, or other financial reports to assess accuracy, completeness, and conformance to reporting and procedural standards.
• Examine records and interview workers to ensure recording of transactions and compliance with laws and regulations.
• Review accounts for discrepancies and reconcile differences.
• Examine inventory to verify journal and ledger entries.
• Establish tables of accounts and assign entries to proper accounts.
• Report to management regarding the finances of establishment.
• Analyze business operations, trends, costs, revenues, financial commitments, and obligations to project future revenues and expenses or to provide advice.
• Develop, implement, modify, and document recordkeeping and accounting systems, making use of current computer technology.
• Evaluate taxpayer finances to determine tax liability, using knowledge of interest and discount rates, annuities, valuation of stocks and bonds, and amortization valuation of depletable assets.
• Examine whether the organization's objectives are reflected in its management activities, and whether employees understand the objectives.
• Audit payroll and personnel records to determine unemployment insurance premiums, workers' compensation coverage, liabilities, and compliance with tax laws.

The above responsibilities are specific to Accountants. More generally, Accountants are involved in several broader types of activities:

What is an Accountant salary?

What personality traits are common among Accountants?

Interests

Career interests describe a person's preferences for different types of working environments and activities. When a person's interest match the demands of an occupation, people are usually more engaged and satisfied in that role.

Compared to most occupations, those who work as an Accountant are usually higher in their Conventional and Enterprising interests.

Accountants typically have very strong Conventional interests. Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.

Also, Accountants typically have moderate Enterprising interests. Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.

Values

People differ in their values, or what is most important to them for building job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Compared to most people, those working as an Accountant tend to value Achievement, Independence, and Recognition.

Most importantly, Accountants strongly value Achievement. Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment.

Second, Accountants strongly value Independence. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to work on their own and make decisions.

Lastly, Accountants moderately value Recognition. Occupations that satisfy this work value offer advancement, potential for leadership, and are often considered prestigious.

Psychological Demands

Each occupation brings its own set of psychological demands, which describe the characteristics necessary to perform the job well.

In order to perform their job successfully, people who work as Accountants must consistently demonstrate qualities such as attention to detail, integrity, and dependability.

Below, you'll find a list of qualities typically required of Accountants, ranked by importance:

What education and training do Accountants need?

Many Accountants will have a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Accountants usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Educational degrees among Accountants

• 3.0% completed high school or secondary school
• 5.5% completed some college coursework
• 8.0% earned a Associate's degree
• 57.0% earned a Bachelor's degree
• 23.4% earned a Master's degree
• 3.0% earned a doctorate or professional degree

Knowledge and expertise required by Accountants

Important Abilities needed by Accountants

Accountants must develop a particular set of abilities to perform their job well. Abilities are individual capacities that influence a person's information processing, sensory perception, motor coordination, and physical strength or endurance. Individuals may naturally have certain abilities without explicit training, but most abilities can be sharpened somewhat through practice.

For example, Accountants need abilities such as written comprehension, oral expression, and deductive reasoning in order to perform their job at a high level. The list below shows several important abilities for Accountants, ranked by their relative importance.

Critical Skills needed by Accountants

Skills are developed capacities that enable people to function effectively in real-world settings. Unlike abilities, skills are typically easier to build through practice and experience. Skills influence effectiveness in areas such as learning, working with others, design, troubleshooting, and more.

Accountants frequently use skills like reading comprehension, active listening, and critical thinking to perform their job effectively. The list below shows several critical skills for Accountants, ranked by their relative importance.

What is the source of this information?

The information provided on this page is adapted from data and descriptions published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration under the CC BY 4.0 license. TraitLab has modified some information for ease of use and reading, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment, and Training Administration has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

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