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Sept. 15, 2005 One thing can be said about accounting—there is always a need for them. I, as an accountant by trade, have found that no matter where I turn, my knowledge is always needed. As an accountant, I ensure that every job which is entrusted to me, is completed in an accurate, efficient and effective manner. I take pride in being an accountant by trade, and my strong belief is that every accountant should do so. This ensures the quality and the accuracy of whatever we do as accountants is high. We do nothing short of striving for perfection. Unfortunately, the more hands paperwork has to go through, the higher it is susceptible to error. Accountants can only strive to minimize these errors through adding controls in the accounting system. The one thing I constantly see in industry is the lack of due diligence which is enhanced by miscommunication and the lack of controls or lack of testing controls. It’s not that the individuals do not know what they are doing, knowledge-wise, but it tends to be a lack of wanting to do the work necessary to ensure due diligence is carried out. This entails ensuring there is no lack in communication with individuals in charge of completing processes and ensuring the controls are in place in the system and working—-the accountant must check that the controls are in place and working. The only assured way to do this is to test. Do vector tests (spot checks) to ensure all controls are working. I always spot check the accuracy of work I give my staff. For example: filing. I check every now and then to ensure all of my documents have been filed appropriately and accurately. A simple task like this will decrease the errors in misfiling documents; documents which are important in assessing whether to ship to a customer certain products. I can’t tell you how awful it is insisting to a client that we did not receive their paperwork signed by them two months previously, and finding out a month after the conversation that the paperwork was misfiled in another binder. Now take for example, a junior accountant who is promoted to a higher level of accounting, and within the first year of doing the job, they ensure all of the t’s are crossed and the i’s are dotted. They complete the tasks of due diligence in every aspect of their job ensuring all the paperwork has the proper dates, the proper signatures, the proper backup, that the staff they are in charge of are also doing their work. This means that they are ticking and bobbing accurately, that they are not missing any steps in the process they are involved in, bank rec’s are being completed, outstanding accounts receivable are being collected, payments are being made on time, etc., etc.. After a while, I’ve found that these promoted accountants feel that some checking is unnecessary—-that not all steps are required to be completed. I don’t mean that bank reconciliations are not completed, but things such as if the system crashes, and information is lost (such as a client's change of address), you do not call the client again to request the information which was lost. Wrong. As an accountant, it is your duty to call back the client and request the information. If you do not have the time at hand to do so, you need to then rely on your staff accountants to acquire this information. Believe me; the client will appreciate the extra step you took to ensure their change of address was correct on the system. I cannot count the number of times I’ve had heated discussions with a staff accountant in other companies for not calling me again to ensure the accuracy of the information they had on the database when it had crashed. How would I have known their system crashed and lost our information? Or they cannot find the papers we had faxed over, or the Senior Accountant had to leave for emergency purposes during the exact time he was approving our account? An accountant should always ensure the job is done correctly and completely the first time, and if they need to, they should use their staff to complete the job and ensure the staff does so. Always. I cannot stress this enough. Till next time... ------------ About the author: Barbara has been writing short stories for the enjoyment of friends and family for years. She has published three books, Collection, Collection II, and Pawn: A Novel. Barbara lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and enjoys writing, reading and tending to her other field: accounting. Websites: http://www.barbaraannamarjanovic.com http://www.authorsden.com/barbaraannamarjanovic Look for my books at McNally Robinson! www.mcnallyrobinson.com Email: blueswan28@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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