You may hear that a person is a CPA and that means that they are a Certified Public Accountant which is a credential given to a qualified accountant. It is a very highly respected qualification and one that is not earned lightly.
A CPA has to pass a myriad of exams from basic bookkeeping to understanding world economics and what makes it work. A person who is a CPA is understood to have an in-depth knowledge of accounting principles and practices, including past and current laws and regulations.
Bookkeepers prepare the trading figures of a company but an accountant reads and evaluates those figures, does comparisons with past figures, does projections for the future income and expenditures and advises what future growth the company can afford to undertake and how to go about it.
Where some confusion does arise is in countries like the US and Australia where there are various states that each have their own tax laws. This means that where a person may be a qualified CPA in one state their qualifications may not be accepted in another state.
Public Accountancy Career
A CPA is almost assured of a job as every business has to have their taxation figures done at the very least and that alone means that accountants are in high demand worldwide.
Usually an accountant specializes within their career choice and may be an auditor checking the books of a company or they may specialize in taxation accounting which is a very complex field as tax laws are constantly on the change. Tax accountants are in great demand as people always want to know where they can save on paying tax. Usually a person, especially a small business person, can get the cost of an accountant covered with a tax return just by having an accountant work on their tax deductions.
Tax accountants are required to keep their knowledge updated so that they can advise clients to the best of their knowledge. Even within the taxation field accountants specialize. For example, an accountant may specialize in the hospitality industry with most of their clients owning hotels and/or restaurants and another accountant may specialize in retail business.
People approaching accountants to have their books completed should always check on the experience of an accountant as it is in their own interest to have an accountant experienced in their type of business or their field of income.
There are public accounting firms everywhere it seems, but there are what is termed The Big 4 (Big Four) where studying accountants and qualified accountants can progress their careers and also move around the world within these huge public accounting firms. They are: PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young and KPMG. These companies literally employ thousands of accountants.
Private Accountancy Career
Large companies employ CPA’s to run their accounting departments and often a CPA will hold the CEO position in a large company advising on the future of the companies growth and expenditures.
Large companies like General Motors for example have huge accountancy divisions and they would employ a number of CPA personnel and also many that are studying for their CPA exams.
