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What is the daily life of an accountant?
I am asking this question because I am interested in being one and I just want to know what do you do in accounting. #accounting
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Micayla’s Answer
Hi, Meliah! It varies depending on what kind of accounting you go into, but I can speak to auditing in the public practice.
Risk Assurance is a subcategory of auditing - the main difference being that we are IT (information technology) focused. When working with a client, we are looking at their business processes and ensuring that the systems within those processes are producing complete and accurate information. For example, let's say that an individual logs into a system and makes a change to the source code. We would "audit" that process by looking into whether or not the individual was authorized to make the change, if the change was approved before being made, what controls were in place to detect any unauthorized changes, etc.
What I love about public accounting is the opportunity to work with a variety of businesses. Everyday differs depending on what client I'm working with but my day-to-day activities usually revolve around interactions with the client and testing (like the example above) and documenting results. Generally, when I'm not meeting with clients, I'm on my computer - that means a lot of work in Excel. Some days I work from the office and other days my team and I go to the client. Overall though, it's a nice balance between having a routine and getting a little variety!
Risk Assurance is a subcategory of auditing - the main difference being that we are IT (information technology) focused. When working with a client, we are looking at their business processes and ensuring that the systems within those processes are producing complete and accurate information. For example, let's say that an individual logs into a system and makes a change to the source code. We would "audit" that process by looking into whether or not the individual was authorized to make the change, if the change was approved before being made, what controls were in place to detect any unauthorized changes, etc.
What I love about public accounting is the opportunity to work with a variety of businesses. Everyday differs depending on what client I'm working with but my day-to-day activities usually revolve around interactions with the client and testing (like the example above) and documenting results. Generally, when I'm not meeting with clients, I'm on my computer - that means a lot of work in Excel. Some days I work from the office and other days my team and I go to the client. Overall though, it's a nice balance between having a routine and getting a little variety!
Updated
Amanda’s Answer
Hi Meliah,
Similar to what others said, your typical day would vary depending on what type of accounting you're interested in. I can give you a bit of background on what a typical day would look like from an experienced associate in the public assurance (audit) practice.
An exciting thing about auditing is that the routine can vary day to day. You could potentially be working from your company's office or from the client site, it's typically a rotation between the two. This a huge pro if you like being on the go and switching up your routine. You can potentially also be on multiple teams at once (typically two teams).
Day to day tasks also vary, typically you're working on multiple tasks at once (testing controls/transactions, updating current year documentation). The audit follows the following phase which covers a one year cycle: (1) planning phase, (2) execution phase, and (3) completion phase. Something I love is that although you're building your knowledge as you go from task to task, you're always learning and working on something new.
To be more specific, as an associate there's typically a project plan/huddle board which outlines all of the tasks that should be completed and its corresponding due date. As an associate you'd be testing and documenting these activities and communicating your status with the team. Any questions you have you can talk through with your team, but you also have the opportunity for client exposure as you can discuss any questions you might have with them as well. As a senior in public auditing, you'd be focusing on preparing more of the complex tasks and project management.
Overall, a job as an auditor in public accounting will always keep you on your toes. There is always something to learn!
Similar to what others said, your typical day would vary depending on what type of accounting you're interested in. I can give you a bit of background on what a typical day would look like from an experienced associate in the public assurance (audit) practice.
An exciting thing about auditing is that the routine can vary day to day. You could potentially be working from your company's office or from the client site, it's typically a rotation between the two. This a huge pro if you like being on the go and switching up your routine. You can potentially also be on multiple teams at once (typically two teams).
Day to day tasks also vary, typically you're working on multiple tasks at once (testing controls/transactions, updating current year documentation). The audit follows the following phase which covers a one year cycle: (1) planning phase, (2) execution phase, and (3) completion phase. Something I love is that although you're building your knowledge as you go from task to task, you're always learning and working on something new.
To be more specific, as an associate there's typically a project plan/huddle board which outlines all of the tasks that should be completed and its corresponding due date. As an associate you'd be testing and documenting these activities and communicating your status with the team. Any questions you have you can talk through with your team, but you also have the opportunity for client exposure as you can discuss any questions you might have with them as well. As a senior in public auditing, you'd be focusing on preparing more of the complex tasks and project management.
Overall, a job as an auditor in public accounting will always keep you on your toes. There is always something to learn!
Updated
Mohamed’s Answer
Hi Meliah,
What I love about public accounting is the opportunity to work with a variety of businesses. Everyday differs depending on what client I'm working with but my day-to-day activities usually revolve around interactions with the client and testing (like the example above) and documenting results. Generally, when I'm not meeting with clients, I'm on my computer - that means a lot of work in Excel. Some days I work from the office and other days my team and I go to the client. Overall though, it's a nice balance between having a routine and getting a little variety.
What I love about public accounting is the opportunity to work with a variety of businesses. Everyday differs depending on what client I'm working with but my day-to-day activities usually revolve around interactions with the client and testing (like the example above) and documenting results. Generally, when I'm not meeting with clients, I'm on my computer - that means a lot of work in Excel. Some days I work from the office and other days my team and I go to the client. Overall though, it's a nice balance between having a routine and getting a little variety.
Updated
Tiffany’s Answer
Hi Meliah!
Accounting as a category on its own is quite broad. For example, there's public, private, and government sectors, and then many fields within each. For public accounting, it is generally further broken down into assurance, tax, and advisory.
I personally work in the international tax consulting practice within a public accounting firm. What this means is that I assist companies with the tax planning and structuring of moving their employees abroad, as well as help ensure those individuals' taxes are filed correctly and comply with both US and international tax law. I view my day-to-day as a split of structure (preparing tax returns), and hypothetical (finding solutions within the grey-area of tax law), so it's a nice balance!
Accounting as a category on its own is quite broad. For example, there's public, private, and government sectors, and then many fields within each. For public accounting, it is generally further broken down into assurance, tax, and advisory.
I personally work in the international tax consulting practice within a public accounting firm. What this means is that I assist companies with the tax planning and structuring of moving their employees abroad, as well as help ensure those individuals' taxes are filed correctly and comply with both US and international tax law. I view my day-to-day as a split of structure (preparing tax returns), and hypothetical (finding solutions within the grey-area of tax law), so it's a nice balance!
Updated
Alexandra’s Answer
Hi Meliah
As commented above, there are a lot of jobs within accounting.
I work in a bank and I started in Financial Control. This job has a number of regular tasks. There are activities you need to do every month, such as reconciling accounts, controlling entries and preparing reports to present the monthly results to the management. However every month is different because the issues to fix will be different every time.
You could do that type of role in any company, whereas some accounting roles might depend more on the industry you work in.
I then moved into cost management. Again, a lot about controls and systems but this role has also a strategic impact as you may need to recommend on actions to save costs or to establish if the bank can afford hiring or doing specific projects. You would also have to manage the budget and see if you will end the year in line with your budget and find solutions if you are not.
There will also be roles focusing on revenues, where you learn about financial products and you might need to figure out if a product is profitable or not.
To be an accountant, I think the main key is to be happy with working with excel and systems and a number of roles is likely to be about problem solving.
As commented above, there are a lot of jobs within accounting.
I work in a bank and I started in Financial Control. This job has a number of regular tasks. There are activities you need to do every month, such as reconciling accounts, controlling entries and preparing reports to present the monthly results to the management. However every month is different because the issues to fix will be different every time.
You could do that type of role in any company, whereas some accounting roles might depend more on the industry you work in.
I then moved into cost management. Again, a lot about controls and systems but this role has also a strategic impact as you may need to recommend on actions to save costs or to establish if the bank can afford hiring or doing specific projects. You would also have to manage the budget and see if you will end the year in line with your budget and find solutions if you are not.
There will also be roles focusing on revenues, where you learn about financial products and you might need to figure out if a product is profitable or not.
To be an accountant, I think the main key is to be happy with working with excel and systems and a number of roles is likely to be about problem solving.