Example Career: Accountants and Auditors

Career Description

Examine, analyze, and interpret accounting records to prepare financial statements, give advice, or audit and evaluate statements prepared by others. Install or advise on systems of recording costs or other financial and budgetary data.

What Job Titles Accountants and Auditors Might Have

• Auditor
• Internal Auditor
• Accountant
• Cost Accountant
• Certified Public Accountant (CPA)

What Accountants and Auditors Do

• Prepare detailed reports on audit findings.
• Report to management about asset utilization and audit results, and recommend changes in operations and financial activities.
• Collect and analyze data to detect deficient controls, duplicated effort, extravagance, fraud, or non-compliance with laws, regulations, and management policies.
• Supervise auditing of establishments, and determine scope of investigation required.
• Inspect account books and accounting systems for efficiency, effectiveness, and use of accepted accounting procedures to record transactions.
• Prepare, analyze, and verify annual reports, financial statements, and other records, using accepted accounting and statistical procedures to assess financial condition and facilitate financial planning.
• Review data about material assets, net worth, liabilities, capital stock, surplus, income, and expenditures.
• Examine and evaluate financial and information systems, recommending controls to ensure system reliability and data integrity.
• Confer with company officials about financial and regulatory matters.
• Inspect cash on hand, notes receivable and payable, negotiable securities, and canceled checks to confirm records are accurate.
• Examine records and interview workers to ensure recording of transactions and compliance with laws and regulations.
• Examine inventory to verify journal and ledger entries.
• 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.
• Review taxpayer accounts, and conduct audits on-site, by correspondence, or by summoning taxpayer to office.
• Examine records, tax returns, and related documents pertaining to settlement of decedent's estate.
• Produce up-to-the-minute information, using internal computer systems, to allow management to base decisions on actual, not historical, data.
• Direct activities of personnel engaged in filing, recording, compiling and transmitting financial records.
• Conduct pre-implementation audits to determine if systems and programs under development will work as planned.

What Accountants and Auditors Should Be Good At

• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
• Mathematical Reasoning - The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

What Accountants and Auditors Should Be Interested In

• Conventional - 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.
• Enterprising - 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.

What Accountants and Auditors Need to Learn

• Economics and Accounting - Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Law and Government - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.