Accounting Society Photoshoot


Image by dcshoesboy
Took some pictures for the upcoming Beta Alpha Psi and Accounting Society social at the Soroptomist House at CSULB.

Please note that I did not do any of the Photoshop work, I just took the pictures. Hope you enjoy!

© 2009 Chris Hiramatsu Photography,
Some Rights Reserved. This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works License.

How to Become an Accountant

If someone were to tell you that accounting is all about communication, you’d probably think the person knows nothing about the profession. Accountants are number-crunching wizards performing complex calculations in minutes, if not seconds. You would be thinking that how does math intersect with communication?

Yes, accountants are undoubtedly deft mathematicians,;but if you take a deeper look at their profession, you’ll realize that it is more closely related to communication than you thought.

Accountants are people who communicate important financial information to individuals and companies. They prepare, analyze, and verify financial statements, manage internal accounts of companies with which they work,to make sure taxes are paid properly and examine financial records of businesses for legal compliance. Accountants also offer investment and financial planning services to their clients.

Accounting is a popular career choice of people with above average numeric and analytical ability, and there are various academic paths for those who dream of becoming an accountant.

Accounting Education

There are some lower-rung, entry-level accounting jobs that can be attained after securing an Associate’s degree in Accounting, but the standard credential for most jobs in the profession is a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting.

A Bachelor’s in Accounting degree is typically a four-year undergraduate program available at universities and colleges. However, some four-year institutions also offer accelerated accounting degrees for students looking to graduate early. An accelerated Accounting degree can be earned in much less time as compared to a traditionally-paced college.

A Bachelor’s degree in Accounting includes courses on various accounting principles such as Accounting Fundamentals, Payroll Accounting, Tax Accounting, Cost Accounting, Auditing, etc. Since technology has become such an integral part of the profession, becoming an accountant also involves extensive computer training.

Accountants are important members of any business’s financial team, which is why they are also trained in other business concepts such as finance, management, marketing, business law, etc.

Some accountants choose to continue on the path of academics to get a Master’s in Accounting or an MBA for career advancement.

Professional Certifications

Many accountants vie for professional certifications for gaining a competitive edge over their rivals as well as for career growth. Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is probably the most widely known certification for accountants. To get a CPA certification, you need to have a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting or a related field.

The certificate is awarded after candidates pass a rigorous four-part Uniform CPA Examination. A CPA certificate not only qualifies accountants for a wider array of jobs, but also makes them eligible for a bigger paycheck.

In addition to CPA, there are many other certificates that can help accountants get professional recognition. Chief among them are Certified Management Accountant (CMA) offered by the Institute of Management Accountants, Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) conferred by the Institute of Internal Auditors, and Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) awarded by ISACA to qualifying candidates.

In conclusion, accounting is an attractive, high profile profession that is projected to experience a much faster than average growth in employment – so says the 2010-11 edition of the Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook. In cold numbers, that translates to a 22 percent growth in employment by 2018. (bls.gov/oco/ocos001.htm#training). If you have the necessary skills and required qualifications, then a golden career awaits you!

Why Is Accounting So Important?

The significance of accounting has never been more apparent than in today’s market, with the struggling economy and the job market in decline.  Though the loss of jobs may be happening in many fields the one that continues to stay strong is accounting.  The reasons for this are the same reasons that accounting is such an important aspect in the economy and in society.

                Before we can begin to understand the importance of accounting, we first must understand what accounting is.  Accounting can be defined as the theory and system of setting up, maintaining, and auditing the books of a firm.  It is the art of analyzing the financial position of a business through its sales, purchases, and overhead.  These records must be kept in chronological order and must be summarized in a useful format.   It is also responsible for identifying information on the transactions, analyzing it and then interpreting each and every document.

                Now that we have begun to understand what accounting means we can begin to examine how important accounting really is.  The first way in which it is important is that an accounting education can be applied to any job industry.  For instance a secretary uses accounting in managing a company’s check book.  Also the executives of this same company must be able to analyze the success of their business through analyzing the accounting statements from the past and present.  These are just two of the many job positions found in any company that must have some knowledge of accounting.  Another reason that accounting is important to all business majors is because of the fact that the business world has now come under much scrutiny.  As a result they are held much more accountable for their financial practices.  This has occurred because of the events of the Enron and WorldCom scandals.  For this reason nearly all businesses require their employees to have a general knowledge of accounting.

                Another way in which accounting is such an important aspect to any business is that accountants are responsible for providing information that is used to determine the present and future economic stability of the organization.  It has been proven that these companies that use good accounting practices have a competitive advantage over their opponents.  Also they have the ability to improve their decision making abilities.   Those that do not use these practices face an inability to compete in the market and make their decisions simply on a hunch.

                Not only is accounting very important in the business world it is also beneficial for ordinary people to know as well.  Each and every person uses these accounting skills in their daily lives when making financial investment decisions.  They also use it when assessing their interest rates in order to pay off their house mortgages.  The final way in which they can use these skills is to balance their check books and to calculate the rates of their car payments.

Within the accounting department can be found the forensic accountants these are individuals who use the audit and investigative skills to assist in legal matters and to make recommendations in order to minimize future risks.  Their jobs also can be extended into civil matters, for instance to find any hidden assets in certain divorce cases.  These individuals are just as important as regular accountants because of the fact that they are also in very high demand.  The reason though that their jobs are so important is because of the fact that fraud is becoming much easier to commit.  These actions are a result of the fact that technology has increased significantly and that gives people individuals the ability to commit fraud on a massive scale and get away with it very easily.

The significance of accounting not only is clearly vital in the business world but it also can be shown that it plays a part on the individual scale as well.  For these reasons and many more it can be shown that accounting clearly is if not close to the most important skill in todays’ society and will continue to be in the future. 

Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2007 – First Look


Image by programwitch

The Time Accounting module is for maintaining a time card based on Projects and Tasks. Once correctly setup, the tool can, in addition to the working units in OTRS, be a great controll point for managers and company owners, not only for billable hours, but for personnal management. This short video will help you understand and setup the basics.
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