Accountants as a Career

Question 1

Define a Financial Accountant

Answer 1

Prepares the Financial Statements of the business and presents them to users and provides them advice so they can make financial decisions about the business.

Question 2

Define an Auditor

Answer 2

Checks the accuracy of the Financial Statements and provides an opinion on the reliability of them. Users then can decide if they can confidently use the information in the Financial Statements for their decision-making.

Question 3

Explain the difference between a Financial Accountant and an Auditor

Answer 3

The Financial Accountant prepares the Financial Statements and provides advice to Users for decision-making where as the Auditor is an independent expert who checks the Financial Accountants work for accuracy. He tells users if the financial statements are properly prepared and, in his opinion, reliable.

Question 4

Explain why the Auditors opinion on Financial Statements accuracy is important

Answer 4

Then the user can have confidence using the financial accountants advice for making decisions.

The Auditor’s opinion is very important to people who are members of incorporated organisations or shareholders in listed companies on the share market. They usually do not have the financial expertise to find mistakes in the financial statements so need the Auditor to do this for them.

Question 5

Define a Taxation Accountant

Answer 5

Calculates the taxation owing by a business and provides advice on how to minimise the taxation payable.

Question 6

Define a cost accountant

Answer 6

Calculates the costs of a firm producing a good or service and compares them to budgets set. The Cost Accountant then advises owners how to add a reasonable mark-up to achieve a competitive selling price while making a good profit for the business.

Question 7

Define a Management accountant

Answer 7

Checks the day to day financial data prepared by financial staff, compares it to managements budgets, and advises management on any changes needed to improve the financial performance of the business.

Note the Management Accountant does not prepare the Financial Statements – Financial Accountants do. They do not audit the data for accuracy – The Auditor does this

Question 8

Define an Accounting Technician

Answer 8

Assists the Accountant in preparing financial reports. The Accounting Technician DOES not provide financial advice for decision-making.

Question 9

Define a Chartered Accountant in Public Practice

Answer 9

Provides a range of Accounting Services to small businesses (Financial accounting, Cost accounting, Taxation accounting etc) who cant afford a full time accountant.

Question 10

Define a Treasurer

Answer 10

A specialist role on a committee of an incorporated organisation (usually a club).

The treasurer records the daily financial transactions of the organisation and prepares the financial statements for the annual general meeting.

Question 11

What happens to the financial statements prepared by a treasurer

Answer 11

The financial statements are then passed onto the auditor to verify the transactions and provide an opinion on the accuracy and reliability of them so the members can decide if to use the financial statements for decision-making