A Professional Accounting Career versus Bean Counting

During a casual conversation I had with a good friend of mine the other day, we started to talk about our approach to our work. My friend is a public accountant and has been one for the last twenty-five years.

He said that he could never have survived in his accounting career if he had taken what is commonly thought of as the accountant's approach to finance, that of bean counting. He argued - and I have to agree with him - that modern accounting requires intelligence, imagination and flair if the accountant is to do his job properly.

Accounting for Multiple Futures

The argument goes that finance is just another resource. Accounting for how you spent money in the past is not enough; you need to forecast how to use it in the future. You should be able to use money in a flexible form and bend financial strategies to meet changing needs. You also have to plan for "multiple futures," working out how best to use your money in the short, medium, and long term.

Management Accounting Versus Financial Accounting

Management accounting is a part of this approach, allowing finance to underpin other management strategies, and ensuring that capital is in place to allow sufficient freedom for creative management strategies. Financial accounting ensures that the legal side of accounting is in place and in compliance with tax or company law.

Start With Your Accounting Degree

So how do you learn this kind of innovative approach to finance? The first step is to make sure that you have professional accounting training, taking an accounting degree and making sure that you are professionally registered. This can involve extensive training, but there are ways in which you can lighten this load; for instance, you can take an online accounting degree, allowing yourself to study and work at the same time.

Online accounting degrees can be particularly useful if you are already pursuing a career in finance; you make an online accounting degree a part of your continuing education program. Your accounting degree will help you to examine, not only the role you will play as an accountant, but also the way that finance can be used in the organization as a way of enabling other functions to happen.

You could, of course, decide to pursue an accounting career as a bean counter, but where would the fun be in that?

About the Author
Mary Hobson is a consultant for technology start-ups in Russia. She has also worked as an executive officer in a defense facility and as a university lecturer in computer science and management information. Mary earned her first degree in textile marketing and subsequently studied education and computer science at a Master's degree level.