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by Anonymous |
"There are no television 'store-front accountants', so people often aren't aware that accountants play an important role in the community. They're more than bookkeepers."
Accounting is not just a job to Bruce Joyce. He is a Chartered Accountant (CA), and at 29, is the staff training partner in Ward, Mallette & Co., in Ottawa, Ontario.
"To me accounting is communication. Behind every figure there is an individual. Accounting deals with people as well as with figures. I share hiring responsibilities with the recruiting partner and go to universities to interview prospective employees."
"I look for those with accounting ability and also an aptitude for talking to people, and identifying with their business problems. An accountant must have the ability to communicate with the client. Information flows out in the form of financial statements, but there also has to be input from our clients," he explained.
Accounting can be as complex as the preparation of financial statements, or it can be no more than just writing up a checkbook, recording deposits or sales and allocating them properly to the accounts. That's the accounting function. An auditor checks what has already been done by the accountant. But accountants can be called auditors and vice versa.
"The pure accounting role of the past - the accountant wearing an armband and eyeshade who poured over the books - is no longer true," Bruce said. "Neither is the image of auditors as a 'fraud squad'."
"There has been tremendous growth in the accounting profession in recent years," Bruce said. "Graduates from university disciplines such as geography, science or sociology have entered the profession. People now look at accounting as a background for other jobs, realizing that in order to understand how business operates they need to have some knowledge of finance."
Accounting has always been a part of Bruce's life. "My father is a CA so I knew what was involved, and I wasn't awed by the profession."
"I was in commerce at Carleton University and I joined clubs that involved finance. I was treasurer of the Commerce Society and Finance Commissioner of the Student's Association. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do until I began looking around and met other CA's. I was offered a position with Ward, Mallette & Co., and decided to try it for a year. That year stretched into five!"
Bruce earned the CA designation after joining the firm. All CA students must complete 45 semester hours of specified university courses. This requirement is usually automatically completed if the student has a commerce degree. Also necessary is three years of experience with a chartered accountancy firm.
"There's not a great deal of flexibility until you have your CA," he said. "There is a core body of knowledge that you must learn that is prescribed by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) and is administered by the provinces. You take the uniform final exam with approximately 2,500 other people across the country, who must also have the same basic core knowledge."
"I found CA students had a lot in common. You are working toward the same goal, are basically the same age, and in most cases, it's your first job after university so no one has much money, and everyone is trying to make good. I think this is true of most firms," he said.
Once you have CA designation it's possible to specialize in different areas such as tax, auditing, or finance. Accountants can work in the private sector for a business or firm; in the government; or, as Bruce does, in public accounting.
"In my role in public accounting I am responsible to my clients. They might request financial statements, audit reports, or advice on tax matters," he said. Public accounting firms provide services to anyone willing to pay the fee.
"Our office is set up into teams consisting of a partner, a manager, and a supervisor, all of whom are CA's, plus a number of staff who are responsible for a specific and varied client load," he said.
Clients are charged fees based upon the amount of time it takes the team to do a job. Billing rates for accountants vary from city to city and according to expertise. "For any set of financial statements that's four or five pages long, there may be 50 or 100 pages of working papers that support every figure on that financial statement."
Within a firm only a partner can sign financial statements. An accounting firm is not an incorporated business; it is a group of individuals who are giving their professional opinion, and they stake their reputation every time they issue a statement. The firm builds up a system of internal controls, so that work is checked and double-checked.
When an audit is performed, a company's internal system of controls is examined to ensure that the accounting system is producing proper data. Also a number of documents are tested and confirmed with businesses who deal with the company to verify that its records are accurate.
The result is an 'opinion' which says that in the firm's opinion these financial statements present fairly the operations of the business at a given point in time, in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
Accountants also prepare unaudited financial statements in which there is no examination of internal controls and no opinion is formed.
Only those with a public account-ant's licence can issue opinions on audited financial statements, and generally, only chartered accountants can get this licence.
Bruce isn't a CA only during office hours. "I think the profession is becoming more diverse. Accountants do a lot of valuable work in the community, but they stay in the background. We prepare income tax returns for senior citizens, free of charge, and accountants are needed in every civic organization."
"I do as much work in the community as I can, in areas where someone with my expertise is really needed. I talk to high school and university groups, and I'm a financial officer for a candidate in an election. It doesn't matter to me what party they represent. The community has to operate through elections and I feel it's my duty to pass on some of my professional knowledge," he said.
Bruce has lectured at Algonquin College, and given accounting courses at Carleton University. "I like teaching but I just didn't have the time to teach in all areas. Now, I basically teach within the profession. I give courses to students writing the CA exam; at our firm's staff conference in a specialized area, and I also mark a question on the final CA exam for the CICA."
"There's a friendly atmosphere within the profession," he said. "Most CA's are happy to tell students about their career. I would definitely suggest to anyone considering accounting as a profession that they get as much information as possible-from CA's, from the CICA or from their provincial institute. Everyone in accounting seems to love the profession.
CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT
A chartered accountant does a variety of things. Some jobs in-clude: the planning of accounting systems for companies; advising on financial matters; preparation of income tax statements for indiv-iduals or businesses; acting as trustees In bankruptcy cases; pre-paration of financial statements.
Training
A chartered accountant is university trained. (At least, he/she is in almost all provinces, but check the requirements in your province.)
Specific university courses can be taken at university which will cut down on the time required to qualify as a chartered accountant.
After graduation, a student is employed by a firm of chartered accountants where he/she receives up to 3 years of practical experience. During this time the student studies such subjects as accounting, law taxation and auditing.
Examinations set by the Institute of Chartered Accountants must be passed before training is completed, and the designation C.A. may be used.
Aptitudes Needed
Good ability in practical mathematics, and the ability to work logically and methodically are important.
High School Subjects
Business subjects are useful-so are math and English. Other subjects should give a good general background.
Related Careers
Registered Industrial accountant (RIA), general accountant, auditor, statistician, and actuary are only a few that could be mentioned.
Sources of Further Information
Chartered Accountants Associations in each province do a good job of supplying career information. Check with your guidance counsellor or write to your provincial C.A. Association.
Accountant, is a monograph published by the Guidance Centre, Faculty of Education, University of Toronto, 1000 Yonge St., Toronto, Ontario. M4W 2K8. Cost: 60, minimum order $1.00.
©1999 TG Magazine/Le Magazine TG
tgmag@tgmag.ca