The Work of the Accountant
1. The work of the accountant is said to be divers in nature but basically it deals with recording, summarizing, analyzing and verifying business transactions in books of accounts. The task of examining and analyzing accounts is one of great significance because it makes it possible to provide information necessary for economic management. There is usually an unlimited supply of data available in an enterprise. The key problem facing accounts is the selection for presenting to the management only meaningful information. And the accountant is effective if the supplies information promptly and in a clear language.
2. Great and momentous changes are known to have taken place over recent years and the accountancy profession has gained an important status. The role of the accountant has changed and his functions have not only deepened but widened as well. The modern accountant is not like the old book-keeper now a legend who was often described as a dried up narrow-minded person ignorant of everything but tedious operations with figures. The modern accountant begins to play an increasingly important role in business activity. He is now expected to perform various duties and his tasks are wider than they were a decade or two back. He act as an adviser to management and helps the latter in decision-making.
Under modern conditions only accountants can analyze business situations and minimize the degree of uncertainty inherent in every business decisions. By providing vital information to the management the accountant enables them to assess their own performance and what is more important it helps them devise ways to improve their efficiency and performance.
3. In many countries of the world accountants are also believed to make a valuable contribution towards promoting economic grows of a country. Economic thinking is considered to be moulded by proper accounting information as well.
What should modern accountant be like?
1. In all countries of the world the complexity of economic activity is gradually growing. And this, in its turn, leads to an increasingly important role of accounting as a function of economic management. At present the necessity of improving accounting through raising its operational utility and quality is regarded as one of the most important tasks.
2. The main condition for the solution of this task is improving the quality of accounting personnel. To attract able young people to the study of accounting, to raise its prestige and demonstrate its importance is an urgent task in many countries of the world.
3. In a word, it is not easy to put the qualities of a good accountant in a nutshell. Some of them are inborn, others must be acquired by education and experience. Among the most important of that sort of qualities are the following: a good knowledge of accounting and the ability to apply its principles in practical life; a broad general outlook and understanding of economic trends and events; responsibility, decision-making ability, the knowledge of accounting techniques; the ability to get on with colleagues, personnel people in general.
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What is the difference between book-keeping and accounting,
book-keeper and accountant?
Some people confuse a book-keeper with an accountant and book-keeping with accounting. Meanwhile the distinction between them is significant enough. Book-keeping is one of the minor parts of the whole of accounting.
It can be defined as the procedure used in recording business transactions. Book-keeping is justly said to require only minimal knowledge of accounting. In fact, it is the routine and clerical side of accounting/ A book-keeper is known to record the repeated and uncomplicated transactions to business. In contrast the accountant is a professional who is competent in analyzing accounting information, systems design and financial advising.
To put it differently, an accountant should be particularly interested in the relationship between the financial results and events which have created them. Apart from that he is believed to study the various alternatives open to the business. In a word, he is thought to use accounting experience to help the management in decision- making. As a rule, there are two essential questions that the managers or owners of a business want to know: first, whether or not the business will be able to meet its commitments. Therefore, the accountants role in business activity is difficult to overestimate. As for the book-keeper, his function is that of a clerk working in a finance department. A person might become a proficient book-keeper in a few weeks or months. To become a professional accountant, however, is a far greater challenge. It requires years of study, experience and an ongoing commitment, to keeping current.
VOCABULARY STUDY
1) to record ,
record - , ; pl , , ;
to keep records ()
make/keep (kept; kept) , , ( )
record keeping ().
2) diverse ; diverse in nature
3) basically ,
4) to deal (with smth) -
5) to summarize ,
6) to verify - , , ,
7) transaction , ; business transactions- ; accounting transactions -
8) account- ; account books-
9) to examine -, , ; examine accounts- ()
10) to provide - , , ; to provide information-
11) supply - , ; to supply- ,
12) to be available ,
13) performance -
14) prompt ; promptly
15) tedious- , ,
16) to devise ,
17) to assess - ,
18) to enable
19) to contribute - , ; contribution-; to make contribution- ,
20) to promote
21) to mould
22) momentous ,
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23) uncertainty - ,
24) to be inherent (in smth) , (-).
to check, to control, to monitor
1) ) to check , .
Have you checked the figures on the invoice? -?
We regularly check the activity of accounting department. () .
b) to check (on smth) , , ( -)
~ on the past experience of the applicants for the post of chief accountant ; ~ on the facts .
) to check (with smth) , ( -)
