If you are thinking about pursuing a career in accounting, but still have doubts about how it works and what possibilities of action are available, this post will clarify your main questions and help you make this important decision.
In it, it will be discussed how the work of the accountant is, one of the most important areas of professional practice in the field of work in accounting sciences.
Having information about the professional tasks of the accountant is essential to making the choice for the accounting area, since, in addition to being one of their fundamental activities, it helps to have a good idea of how to work in accounting sciences.
So don’t waste time and start clearing your doubts so that you can prepare yourself properly in the search for a successful career in accounting!
Who is the accountant?
The accountant is a professional who graduated in the higher course in accounting sciences and who passed the sufficiency exam of the Regional Accounting Council (CRC), obtaining registration in the body to be able to carry out activities related to the area.
Therefore, the accountant is the specialist in carrying out accounting functions, having specific training and institutional authorization to perform them.
In addition to basic training, obtained through a bachelor’s degree in accounting, it is natural for an accountant to take qualification courses after graduation.
These qualifications are developed at the postgraduate or extension level and aim to update the knowledge built during the higher education course or to deepen and improve skills and competencies in accounting areas.
What does the accountant do?
It is very common for people to associate the professional activities carried out by the accountant with the financial management of public and private institutions and with the implementation of services of accountability to the Federal Revenue.
Based on this same reasoning, there is also the current idea that this professional is responsible for preparing spreadsheets, controlling accounts and issuing notes, executing balance sheets, and making income statements.
It is clear that these types of performance and development of accounting tasks are present in most of the services provided by such a professional. However, this is not the only possible way, or even the most sought after by the market.
In fact, the work of the accountant is essential for controllership, expertise, and fiscal and tax auditing, as well as for the insurance industry.
Thus, the tasks of an accountant go beyond specific technical activities, covering fundamental actions for the financial health of an institution, such as planning, control, and execution.
This professional is responsible for preparing financial performance reports, identifying possibilities for reducing the tax burden, and adapting a company’s procedures to the requirements of the legislation.
As the professional responsible for monitoring and advising the management of all the financial processes of an organization, the accountant’s role ranges from controlling cash flow and billing to supporting global administrative planning.
In this way, it contributes to the realization of strategic planning, investment projection, identification of growth opportunities, and assessment of risks and losses of a company.
What activities can only the accountant perform?
An accountant can act as a self-employed person, have their own business — from an office that provides accounting advice, for example — or be an employee of an organization.
Its performance is demanded both by the private sector, in companies of the most diverse market sectors, and by the public power, in institutions of different segments governed by municipalities, states, and the federal government.
Such demand occurs because the accountant performs very specific professional functions, which are linked, for example, to the opening, maintenance, and closing of a business.
Thus, it is the responsibility of the accountant to provide all the support to establish the financial planning, the type of taxation levied, and the legal divisions between partners, particularly with regard to the closure of business activities.
In addition, it is the accountant who acts technically in the execution of accounting processes related to procedures and procedures for the dismissal of employees of a company. It is among the attributions of this professional to carry out all the accounting related to the charges, fines — if any — and payments that the organization must bear.
Based on his knowledge of finance, taxation, and labor legislation, the accountant not only defines the amounts to be paid in layoffs but also analyzes and can issue opinions and accounting reports for legal purposes.
These are activities that only a professional with a degree in accounting sciences and with professional registration in the area’s council is able to perform.
Where is the accountant’s work indispensable?
This is the easiest question to solve since the answer is simple: in all places that systematically deal with finances.
In other words, the work of the accountant is indispensable in commercial establishments, in companies of all branches, in public institutions of any nature, in short, where there is financial manipulation, whether with the sale and purchase of products or with the payment of people and taxes.
From this perspective, among the main areas of activity of the accountant are business management, internal and external accounting audit, actuarial – with insurance, pension, as well as capitalization and investments – accounting expertise and controllership.
In addition, this professional is essential in providing accounting advice to individuals and companies, and in teaching courses that have accounting subjects.
How important is the accountant to the market?
Taking into account the doubts that have been resolved so far, it is not difficult to perceive the great importance of the accountant for all activities carried out in the market. Due to the specificities and attributions of this field of work and due to the high market demand for the provision of accounting services, this professional is essential in any business segment.
The weight of the accountant’s work for the market can be felt when one observes the employability rate that this profession has in the Brazilian scenario.
According to a survey carried out by the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA), released in 2013, approximately 94% of professionals with an accounting background are working in the area of accounting sciences.
