Can You Be an Accountant with a Bachelor's Degree in Most States?
Accounting is an important profession, emerging in ancient Mesopotamia along with writing, counting, and numbers. Various forms of accounting have existed in many cultures and civilizations, but made a significant leap in 15th century Venice, when the system of double entry bookkeeping emerged. The practice of recording debits and credits in ledgers and journals is the foundation of the modern accounting systems we use today.
Accounting as a profession began to take shape during the Industrial Revolution when the first corporations appeared. The corporations consisted not only of management but also financial investors, including shareowners and bondholders. It was during this time that accountants began transitioning from their former roles as humble clerks to assume a more public role.
This development was most notable in the United Kingdom, followed by subsequent emergence in the United States. The American Association of Public Accountants (today known as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) was organized in 1887, with the first standardized testing for accountants occurring a decade later.
What Skills Does an Accountant Need?
The profession of accounting has been around a good long while, and seems likely to be necessary in business and government for many years to come. Of course, like so many other professions, the advent of computers has revolutionized the profession in significant ways. Anyone entering the field still needs reasonable basic math skills, perhaps even a little knowledge of algebra, but good organizational skills and the ability to pay attention to details are just as important.
Although not necessarily required, obtaining a bachelor's degree is the most common way to enter the profession. If you intend to be a CPA, you will need a four-year degree. Depending on the state you live in, advanced coursework beyond a bachelor's degree may be required, in subjects such as taxes, auditing, and financial reporting. Check the education requirements for a CPA in the area you wish to practice in.
Why Study Accounting?
Accounting generally offers good growth potential for a professional (with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting a growth rate of 10 percent through 2026) as well as the opportunity to move up. To advance in the career, accountants need to pursue more education in the field, and to continue to earn certifications so they can take advantage of more job opportunities.
Some accountants say they enjoy the problem solving aspect of accounting. As interest in forensics grows due to the prevalence of this field in the entertainment offerings on TV and the movies, so has interest in forensics accounting grown. Some accountants perform veritable detective work, helping to uncover financial fraud and assisting the authorities as they build a case that may put perpetrators in prison.
Another inducement for choosing accounting as a career is the fact that it provides an entree to employment in a wide diversity of businesses, industries, or organizations, both public and private. Most businesses and organizations either have an accountant on staff or require the services of an accounting firm.
Persons with accounting degrees typically work as auditors, tax accountants, bookkeepers, financial analysts, controllers, and accounting managers, either for the businesses or organizations themselves or the firms that provide these services. Public accountants typically work with a number of businesses, while corporate accountants often become experts in a particular field or industries, with duties in accounting, tax and consulting, and auditing.
What are some Types of Accountants?
Other exciting fields you might want to work in: environmental accounting, increasingly important as the green movement evolves, show business accounting, which could find you working a glamorous setting in Hollywood, and, a field of particular interest during financial downturns, bankruptcy.
If you're good with numbers and love to problem solve, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a Focus in Accounting, could be exactly what you need. ECPI University offers this degree at an accelerated pace. For more information, connect with a friendly admissions officer today.
It could be the Best Decision You Ever Make!
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Gainful Employment Information – Accounting - Bachelor’s
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