Mod 2 Flashcards
What are the skills required from accountants?
- Judgement
- Knowledge
- Critical analysis and problem solving
- Communication
- Teamwork
- Self-management
What is a pneumonic for the skills required for accountants
Just Kidding Peter Cant Travel South
What is the skill of judgement
the ability to combine personal qualities with relevant knowledge and experience to form opinions and make decisions
What is the skill of communication?
a. Present their ideas coherently to people at different levels of the company (all the way up to the chair of the board of directors)
b. As well as to people outside the company, who will have different interests, backgrounds and levels of accounting and business understanding.
What is the skill of teamwork?
Since accountants advise managers and board members, they must possess the same interpersonal skills that a competent manager or board member possesses. These include the ability to lead and influence others, to motivate others, to withstand and resolve conflict, and to organise and delegate tasks.
What are some components of the skill of knowledge?
- Evaluate risks
- Ability to use data to make decisions
- To solve problems in a range of contexts
- construct accounting data
- Knowledge of related areas
What is the skill of self-management skills?
An ability to reflect on performance feedback is important in order to identify and carry out learning opportunities that will lead to self-improvement.
What is the skill of critical thinking?
Critical thinking is the process that evaluates ideas. It determines whether any of the ideas will work, what types of problems there might be with them, whether ideas can be improved and which ideas are better than others.
What are the characteristics of a critical thinker?
- Independent – must rely on their own conclusions rather than those of others
- Objectivity – quality of being unbiased
- Tolerate ambiguity and willingly defer judgement – until they can collect more info and consider and evaluate other solutions
- Courage of their own convictions
What are the four stages in problem solving and decision making?
- Recognise problem
- Identify alternatives
- Evaluate alternatives
- Make decisions
What are the fundamental principles within the Code of Ethics?
- Integrity
- Objectivity
- Professional competence
- Due care
- Confidentiality
- Professional behaviour
Why is sustainability in business important?
o Improving their reputation
o Reducing costs
o Strengthening the communities in which they operate
o But also because of improved profitability in the long term
What is IFAC?
It is an independent global organisation. Its stated purpose is to ‘serve the public interest by the worldwide advancement of education and development for professional accountants leading to harmonized standards’. As part of its efforts, it has developed a code of ethics for accountants in each country to use as the basis for founding their own codes of ethics.
What are some other factors the code addresses?
o Tax practice o Independence o Cross-border activities o Public interest o Ethics o independence, fees and commissions, activities incompatible with the practice of accountancy o Clients’ money o Relations with other professional accountants o Advertising and solicitation.
