Accounting_as_a_Career

ACCOUNTING AS A CAREER PATTI MELTON AMERICAN INTERCONTINENTAL UNIVERSITY ABSTRACT Accounting is an interesting career and can provide an insight into how a business operates. Accountants are a much needed part of a business, whether it is a small family owned one or a large international corporation. The primary objectives of accounting are to identify the goals and purposes of financial reporting. Accounting is the process of identifying, measuring, and communicating economic information. The objectives are used to help a business keep track of their assets, liabilities, and equity. In basic accounting, the terns used are debits and credits, assets and liabilities, equity, and income and expenses. Accountants use the following equation in their reports: assets=liabilities + owner’s equity. To begin with, I will explain debits and credits and how they are posted in a ledger. Debits are posted in the left column and credits are posted in the right column. Debits must always equal credits or the entry will not correspond. Depending on the system used, a debit or credit will either increase or decrease the account balance. Debit entries will increase assets and decrease liabilities and equity. Credit entries will increase liabilities and equity and decrease assets. To simplify this, debits are money brought into the business and credits are money the business owes to a creditor. The terms assets and liabilities refer to the value of the business and what the business owes. Assets are entered on the balance sheet in the left column. Items that would be considered assets are cash accounts receivable, and furniture and fixtures. Accounts receivable is the money due the business from sales or services rendered. Liabilities are also entered on the balance sheet in the right column. Items that would be entered as liabilities are accounts payable, utility expenses, and advertising expenses. These are items that the business owes to a creditor that are payable. I have been doing expense reports for the last ten years for my fiancé’s mobile home rental business. I have become very proficient in using Microsoft Excel. I use it for the monthly expense reports and the end of the year expense reports. I have had licensed CPAs tell me that I have made their job easier doing his taxes. My fiancé has even told me that I should become an accountant. Technology has made accounting easier for the professional and non-professional accountants. Microsoft Excel has made creating spread sheets and books easier for them. The many accounting software programs on the market have made it even easier to find and correct mistakes made in entries. Computers have made it easier for businesses to keep track of financial reports and data. There are many different programs on the market for accounting. According to TopTen Review, the most often used accounting programs are Intuit’s QuickBook Pro and Sage’s Peachtree Complete Accounting. Both programs are easy to use and many features not found in Microsoft Excel. These are the top two recommended and are more affordable than the other programs. References Cunningham, C. (2010). Accounting Rules Framework: Get It Together. Compliance Week, 7(83), 34. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Debit. Retrieved from http://www.nysscpa.com/glossary Credit. Retrieved from http://www.nysscpa.com/glossary Assets. Retrieved from http://www.nysscpa.com/glossary Liabilities. Retrieved from http://www.nysscpa.com/glossary Software Reviews. Retrieved from http://www.accounting-software-review.toptenreviews.com