What Does An Accountant Do?

[MikeyRTT]

Dear Fellow Enthusiasts,

I'm looking to switch careers, and considering Accounting as my primary alternative.

Are there any Accountants in this forum who can share their experiences about the following?

1) What kind of tasks do Accountants perform on a daily basis?
2) What courses would you recommend for someone starting from scratch and want to know all the basics from ground, i.e. how can I gain practical experience on the tactical side of accounting?
3) What are the best books/reading materials?
4) What kind of software do Accountants use?
5) Are there global or local standards that guide the work Accountants do?
6) Is the Accounting market saturated?
7) Is there a local or global database of best practices and lessons learnt to help guide Accountants?
8) Are there local and international regulations for Accounting practice?
9) Do companies in Trinidad offer internships/co-ops (even without pay) for new starters?
10) Are there legacies within Trinidad that the Accounting community consider as the "Best Accountants"?

[Dohplaydat]

Hide money, evade taxes and launder

[teems1]

[SMc]

Look up ACCA for a start, come back when you read everything on their site then ask questions. They are the not the be all and end all of all things accounting but a good start.

Doh study DPD response, lawyers do plenty more than what they posted and if you have specific interests you can specialise in that field-

On a separate note- I am a bit worried that you want to be an accountant but have no idea what it entails other than potentially earning a good salary.

[Dave]

Haha

[88sins]

Dear Fellow Enthusiasts,

I'm looking to switch careers, and considering Accounting as my primary alternative.

Are there any Accountants in this forum who can share their experiences about the following?

1) What kind of tasks do Accountants perform on a daily basis? Depends on where they are working and what's required. Prepare taxes, payroll, evaluation of data on revenue and expenditures, some aspects of hr, bank reconciliations, etc. When it comes to the tasks they do it's quite varied

2) What courses would you recommend for someone starting from scratch and want to know all the basics from ground, i.e. how can I gain practical experience on the tactical side of accounting?ACCA offers a good program, widely available in various schools locally.

3) What are the best books/reading materials?the school will tell you this, acca produces their own books and practice kits, but they change up some things in them from year to year, so you will need to get the most current years text for the paper you are doing.

4) What kind of software do Accountants use? Peachtree and Quickbooks are commonly used

5) Are there global or local standards that guide the work Accountants do? Yes, most follow the ifrs standards.

6) Is the Accounting market saturated? Overly and exceedingly so.

7) Is there a local or global database of best practices and lessons learnt to help guide Accountants? Not to my knowledge

Are there local and international regulations for Accounting practice? Yes. Hundreds. And more are added and change from one year to the next.

9) Do companies in Trinidad offer internships/co-ops (even without pay) for new starters? Not really. Some will hire a beginner but they may only allow them to perform data collection or input with no analytic functions that may require more experienced and qualified people. But I don't recommend this for a beginner.

10) Are there legacies within Trinidad that the Accounting community consider as the "Best Accountants"? No. Globally, as far as the description of"the best accountants" goes, this doesn't exist in Trinidad. The ones that are considered the best in the field are generally speaking the people that develop and set industry standards and protocols, and all local accountants have to follow these standards to remain qualified and licensed to work in Trinidad.

To be completely honest with you, I don't recommend that you change your career to get into accounting and audit. It's not as easy as some might tell you, there ain't no big money involved, and it can be a very stressful job. This is a career path best suited for a certain type of person, someone who has a lot of focus, who doesn't mind tedious mind numbing work and long hours reviewing a lot of data daily, and not just financial data, and is ok with recieving somewhere between little to no appreciation. And a big screw up can result in either an ended career or prison sentence.

If you want to get into it still, go brave pallie

[viedcht]

Dear Fellow Enthusiasts,

I'm looking to switch careers, and considering Accounting as my primary alternative.

Are there any Accountants in this forum who can share their experiences about the following?

1) What kind of tasks do Accountants perform on a daily basis?
2) What courses would you recommend for someone starting from scratch and want to know all the basics from ground, i.e. how can I gain practical experience on the tactical side of accounting?
3) What are the best books/reading materials?
4) What kind of software do Accountants use?
5) Are there global or local standards that guide the work Accountants do?
6) Is the Accounting market saturated?
7) Is there a local or global database of best practices and lessons learnt to help guide Accountants?
Are there local and international regulations for Accounting practice?
9) Do companies in Trinidad offer internships/co-ops (even without pay) for new starters?
10) Are there legacies within Trinidad that the Accounting community consider as the "Best Accountants"?

I'll answer 4 & 6.

4-Peachtree is one widely used software for accounting. Check it out if you get a chance.

6-mostly lower-level qualifying jobs are saturated. Accounting assistant, accounts clerk, most of those that rely on level 1, 2, even bare level 3 ACCA/ AAT. To be relevant in this job market you need multiple qualifications. BAs MBAs, whatever other business qualifications. Even a Bachelor of Economics plus ACCA will open more opportunities than the bare accounting.

Though, if you want to be recognised, like Chanka, and SB&Associates, etc. prepare Yuh back for a haul (unless you become an accounting prodigy instantly). If you're aiming for the stars, prepare to go UK for the finals. Fellow of the Association has a prestigious sound to it. And if you get there, do CIMA as well. Good luck

[88sins]

viedcht
I don't think op is aware, that a career in accountancy and finance is a long hard expensive road, and in this country, the rewards are limited in comparison to the amount of headache and expense needed to be input to achieve them.

[viedcht]

^I have a good idea of what my relative went thru to get where he is. It eh no easy feat. Imagine to do higher level accounting/finance/Econ, Yuh need add maths . I laff at that til he show me in-depth work. I use to snub all business studies as just being cost-sales-profit... not again.

[alfa]

Do ppo instead

[Nexus]

Hey OP, perhaps you can consider a career in procurement. With the legislation many ministries and other entities should be taking on persons with the relevant training.

[ScHoolboySoloQ]

Dear Fellow Enthusiasts,

I'm looking to switch careers, and considering Accounting as my primary alternative.

Are there any Accountants in this forum who can share their experiences about the following?

1) What kind of tasks do Accountants perform on a daily basis?
2) What courses would you recommend for someone starting from scratch and want to know all the basics from ground, i.e. how can I gain practical experience on the tactical side of accounting?
3) What are the best books/reading materials?
4) What kind of software do Accountants use?
5) Are there global or local standards that guide the work Accountants do?
6) Is the Accounting market saturated?
7) Is there a local or global database of best practices and lessons learnt to help guide Accountants?
Are there local and international regulations for Accounting practice?
9) Do companies in Trinidad offer internships/co-ops (even without pay) for new starters?
10) Are there legacies within Trinidad that the Accounting community consider as the "Best Accountants"?

To answer 1, you have to do daily reports of yesterday's sales and make sure everything balances out with no discrepancies then you have to put the figures in Peachtree. You'll have to end of the month reports, end of the year reports for auditors, sorting out daily business operations (taxes, banking etc.), managing budgets for the company, assisting payroll and in short just a lot of paperwork.

Accounting is a field where you cant afford to make errors for example: if you make an error in Peachtree is a headache to fix it, if there is a wrong figure on a cheque or bank document and it is not corrected asap, it will throw off other figures (trickle down effect). Also everything must be done in a quick, timely manner otherwise you'll delay business operations for example if you do banking at the end of the week it wouldn't process in time then you create backlog because you still have your work to do.

To answer 6, the market will always need Accountants. What I've been told is that many Accountants 'burn out' after some years and decide to switch careers.

[timelapse]

Most accountants and auditors I have met can't live without Excel.My 2¢

[RedVEVO]

^I have a good idea of what my relative went thru to get where he is. It eh no easy feat. Imagine to do higher level accounting/finance/Econ, Yuh need add maths . I laff at that til he show me in-depth work. I use to snub all business studies as just being cost-sales-profit... not again.

Love always - never get a horn -Additional Maths and Calculus - Vector and Matrices - Statistics

[FrankChag]

Maybe this might add some value to what was already said.

1st know that Accounting/Auditing is a perfectionist's job.. there is very little room for error, and errors can literally cost you your job, and $$m's to the firm. Make sure you're cool with that excitement.

2nd, get an introductory book and start reading it, to see if you understand stuff. Look at some youtubes. Books that would help would be:
- Level 1 ACCA courses
- O-levels/A-levels accounting books (Frank Wood!)
- Any book titled "Introduction to Financial Accounting" and/or "Introduction to Cost and Managerial Accounting"

3rd, ACCAers/BSc Accounting folks end up in lots of places: P/T Bookkeeping for small firms (eg getting their 'books' in order for reporting or paying taxes), entry-level clerks (AP/AR), Analysts, Junior Auditors etc., Purchasing/Procurement, Inventory & Warehouse Management, taxation, even IT sometimes. Its a very good education to have, and with ACCA or CIMA, you're accepted in most countries where that is the standard to practice.

4th, You MUST have a very good working knowledge of Excel. After all it was literally created for accountants. If you want to be any good nowadays though, you have to start getting accustomed to scripting (python, r, ACL, etc). Beyond that, it literally depends on the Accounting software being used by the firm. It could range from small-scale peachtree/quikbooks to large Oracle/PeopleSoft, SAP, etc. The accounting principles are usually the same though.

5th, know that you will not be 'respected' in some circles unless you pass through a big accounting (slave) firm (The Big Four), like EY, PWC, etc.

6th, you should also know that with ACCA (like PMP, etc; not sure about CIMA), you must continue practicing and re-educating yourself, or you could lose your certification. But I think you can claim a BS or something also. So make sure if you're going to spend the time and effort into becoming an ACCAer, that it's something you have to keep working at (in the accounting field) or you can lose it.


EDIT:
To get a realistic idea of what these folks do, just search a job-board for jobs that require 'ACCA', and look at their daily duties. For example:
https://www.caribbeanjobs.com/ShowResul ... words=ACCA

Dear Fellow Enthusiasts,

I'm looking to switch careers, and considering Accounting as my primary alternative.

Are there any Accountants in this forum who can share their experiences about the following?

1) What kind of tasks do Accountants perform on a daily basis?
2) What courses would you recommend for someone starting from scratch and want to know all the basics from ground, i.e. how can I gain practical experience on the tactical side of accounting?
3) What are the best books/reading materials?
4) What kind of software do Accountants use?
5) Are there global or local standards that guide the work Accountants do?
6) Is the Accounting market saturated?
7) Is there a local or global database of best practices and lessons learnt to help guide Accountants?
Are there local and international regulations for Accounting practice?
9) Do companies in Trinidad offer internships/co-ops (even without pay) for new starters?
10) Are there legacies within Trinidad that the Accounting community consider as the "Best Accountants"?

[FrankChag]

Oh, and
7. Maths, lots of Maths/Statistics, especially if you're working in the CFO's office, and you're doing budgetary modelling, etc.

[88sins]

Most accountants and auditors I have met can't live without Excel.My 2¢

There's a reason for that
Dude, if you know how easy excel makes it to balance accounts, analyze data, create databases, generate reports, find errors, etc. That's why it's an accountants go to program, and knowing how to use excel effectively saves a LOT of time and energy and resources.

Not to mention, that excel is so useful and has been for so long that this is common knowledge, most accounting software including peachtree can export pretty much any amount and type of data stored in it to an excel file, and either create the file or send the data to an already existing file.

[Dave]

Hence why most if not all programs export into excel or pdf.

[daron]

out of curiosity what is your present job?

Dear Fellow Enthusiasts,

I'm looking to switch careers, and considering Accounting as my primary alternative.

Are there any Accountants in this forum who can share their experiences about the following?

1) What kind of tasks do Accountants perform on a daily basis?
2) What courses would you recommend for someone starting from scratch and want to know all the basics from ground, i.e. how can I gain practical experience on the tactical side of accounting?
3) What are the best books/reading materials?
4) What kind of software do Accountants use?
5) Are there global or local standards that guide the work Accountants do?
6) Is the Accounting market saturated?
7) Is there a local or global database of best practices and lessons learnt to help guide Accountants?
Are there local and international regulations for Accounting practice?
9) Do companies in Trinidad offer internships/co-ops (even without pay) for new starters?
10) Are there legacies within Trinidad that the Accounting community consider as the "Best Accountants"?

[MikeyRTT]

out of curiosity what is your present job?

Dear Fellow Enthusiasts,

I'm looking to switch careers, and considering Accounting as my primary alternative.

Are there any Accountants in this forum who can share their experiences about the following?

1) What kind of tasks do Accountants perform on a daily basis?
2) What courses would you recommend for someone starting from scratch and want to know all the basics from ground, i.e. how can I gain practical experience on the tactical side of accounting?
3) What are the best books/reading materials?
4) What kind of software do Accountants use?
5) Are there global or local standards that guide the work Accountants do?
6) Is the Accounting market saturated?
7) Is there a local or global database of best practices and lessons learnt to help guide Accountants?
Are there local and international regulations for Accounting practice?
9) Do companies in Trinidad offer internships/co-ops (even without pay) for new starters?
10) Are there legacies within Trinidad that the Accounting community consider as the "Best Accountants"?

I'm currently a Mechanical Engineer.

[ProtonPowder]

A bit more generalised advice that is easy to overlook.

Whatever you want to get into, join the facebook groups for the young professional arm, see what the atmosphere is like. Skim their circulars and periodical literature. See what webinars they might have and drop in once or twice.

Talk with a range of people, people who studying it now, people who just graduate (these would have the best ideas on the current entry level job market), and the seasoned professionals on where the industry is heading and what it needs. This is where the networking starts.

[ruffneck_12]

I hear Rowley mother count HAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAA


ALLYUH GET THE JOKE?
I WAS REFERRING TO THAT SONG MASSIVE GOSINE MADE WHERE HE MADE A SEXUAL INNUENDO HAHA GOOD TIMES GOOD TIMES, SO THE JOKE IS THAT, BUT ALSO ME OVER EXPLAINING THE JOKE IS THE SECOND PART OF IT SO THERE IS LEVELS TO THIS JOKE HAHAAAA

[88sins]

I hear Rowley mother count HAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAA


ALLYUH GET THE JOKE?
I WAS REFERRING TO THAT SONG MASSIVE GOSINE MADE WHERE HE MADE A SEXUAL INNUENDO HAHA GOOD TIMES GOOD TIMES, SO THE JOKE IS THAT, BUT ALSO ME OVER EXPLAINING THE JOKE IS THE SECOND PART OF IT SO THERE IS LEVELS TO THIS JOKE HAHAAAA

wtf u be smokin son

[Soul Collector]

He not smoking nuh, he snorting lol

88sins on point in this thread though. You really have to be a certain kind of individual to derive joy or any sort of pleasure out of that profession. Excel is life btw.

[AlphaMan]

Op how did things go with your Accounting endeavors

[bluefete]

Oh, and
7. Maths, lots of Maths/Statistics, especially if you're working in the CFO's office, and you're doing budgetary modelling, etc.

First time people see Black-Scholes Model for stock options valuation = very glassy eyes.

[FrankChag]

Oh, and
7. Maths, lots of Maths/Statistics, especially if you're working in the CFO's office, and you're doing budgetary modelling, etc.

First time people see Black-Scholes Model for stock options valuation = very glassy eyes.

Not an aCcoUntANt by any stretch, but I've done an unfair share of core postgrad corporate finance courses. The most difficult thing we did which i'm still proud of was firm valuation modelling (WACCs and stuff).

The BSM model though doesn't look that difficult (cuz it's stats baby!).. looks like value estimating using the gaussian (ie normal) distribution. If you look at it like that, it's not that intimidating. Nice though.

[src1983]

Can I ask what is your current profession and why you are thinking about accounting?

[Jerry84]

Being in an accounting environment and having passed through the long process of being qualified, I would suggest that OP not switch career paths but rather specialize. Stay within your engineering skills and further your knowledge. That way you will now be much more demanded and appreciated by your employer.
Accounting is my qualification but the road to attaining this is a rough one. You start off with "dog work" to gain the experience necessary. And there is the need to update yourself with the necessary international accounting standards. Not to mention the late hours which makes it difficult for one with a family. So think clearly about it. Just my $0.02