Accounting is the language of business. Warren Buffett
You are deciding to study accounting beyond your school years. Let's face it, accounting is a career that is envied by many, simply because people believe accountants earn the big bucks. Well, if you are choosing to do accounting with the hopes of gaining financially, you may just be doing the right thing.
What many aspiring accountants fail to understand is just how personally and professionally rewarding a career in accountancy can be. You will definitely earn well as an accountant simply because there is much scope for professional progression in this field.
Change your future, by pursuing a career that will enable you to earn well from the onset. However, you ought to know (even before you dip your feet into the accountancy pond) that success in this field will only be possible if you work hard.
Behind every successful business is a team of accountants. Yet, the success of a business is determined by how much skills, knowledge, and expertise each accountant brings to the table.
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So, are you ready to become an accountant? Is number crunching your thing? Do you have the necessary skills and knowledge to get accepted to join the faculty of accountancy at your local university?
Intro to Accounting Studies: Requirements
First things first, you cannot seriously think of enrolling in a university accounting course if you haven't done accounting as a school subject. You should also have great numeracy skills, and it would be beneficial to have done pure mathematics right up until FET level. You cannot get accepted to study BCom Accounting if you have studied mathematical literacy at a school level.
If you want to learn more about managing money and understanding businesses, we suggest that you select a subject like business studies at a school level too.
Then again, in order to wrap your head around bookkeeping and the various journals kept by services and businesses that sell goods, you need to pursue accounting at a school level too.
If you find accounting and business studies at a school level interesting, you surely will enjoy studying accounting at a university level as well.
In most cases, you will need to have passed the following school subjects in order to be accepted into university for the BCom Accounting degree:
- English (50%)
- Mathematics (50%)
Your minimum APS score must be 28 in order to be granted admission in the first place. While you may not meet the requirements to pursue a degree in accounting at a university level, you don't have to give up on your dreams of becoming an accountant entirely. You do not necessarily have to pursue a degree in accounting or even a business degree for that matter in order to do accountancy work. There is always a way that you can get into the accountancy firm by completing an accounting diploma, or by gaining an accounting certificate.
You could even complete shorter courses in accounting, business management, and business administration in order to be employed to do some accounting related work at a firm. You won't get hired by bigger accounting firms in South Africa like KPMG or PWC if you have an accounting diploma or certificate in accounting, but you certainly may look to banks or other companies for employment.
Introductory Accounting
Once you get accepted to study accounting (either an accounting degree or diploma), you need to understand what to expect. You may have anticipated that much of your days at university or college will entail studying numbers. However, any qualified accountant will tell you that accounting is so much more than numbers. Accounting entails observing and tracing the flow of money, monitoring company balances constantly, and predicting future transactions before they even happen.
If you have goals of being an accountant in a business one day, you need to understand how integral information systems is. There may be times during your study where you will be introduced Microsoft Office Excel aspects related to accounting. Part of the advanced Microsoft Office Excel knowledge that you will gain will be:
- workbook basics
- operating a workbook
- working with formula
- working with functions
If you find working with Microsoft Office Excel to be difficult, wait until you interact with other software such as Pastel. You need to engage with software like Pastel as qualified accountants use this software for data processing as well as transaction processing.
You may decide to complete a short course in accounting should you wish to work as an accountant later in life, however, you have much more of an advantage career wise should you pursue an accounting degree. You would also be doing yourself a service should you study economics and math at a university level.
Again, you want to make sure that once you graduate, your qualification speaks volumes as to how dedicated, determined, and hard working you are.
While you can take different pathways to becoming an accountant, choose your pathway wisely and make an impression even before you get hired as an accountant.
If you are struggling with accounting terminology, rope in a Superprof accounting tutor to help you.
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Introductory Accounting
If we still haven't answered your question about what accounting is, we suggest that you read our article on an accounting overview. When you start off your journey as an accountant, you will begin to understand how vital accountants are to businesses.
While accountants feature in the background of businesses, they make sure that the front operation of a business runs smoothly. When you enter the job market and you are introduced to what it is that you need to do, you will realise that you are mainly responsible for producing truthful information about financial records. You have the sole responsibility to analyse all financial statements that have been presented to you.
Accountants need to remain ethical, trustworthy, and unbiased at all times. A subject that you will probably have to pursue if you do accounting at a university level is taxation. Subjects like these are important as you may find yourself working in the taxation department during your first job.
If you are not busy with tax-related matters, you may be busy with financial reporting, corporate finance, auditing, or dealing directly with accounting systems and processes.
Do you remember the accounting equation? Well, perhaps the same accounting equation that you have learnt about at school will come in handy when you become an accountant.
When you are introduced to what a day in the life of an accountant may look like, you will be told that it entails:
- Managing financial systems and budgets using Microsoft Office Excel and other accounting programs
- Engaging in financial audits such as checking the position of the business
- Providing financial advice
If you are someone who enjoys providing financial advice to others, you may need to complete the FAIS examinations. FAIS Examinations are regulatory examinations under the FAIS Act. Many accountants who choose to work in banks or insurance companies choose to complete the FAIS RE1 and RE5 exams in order to be able to provide financial advice to others.
Are you eager to know the golden rules of accounting? Read our article to find out what rules accountants must follow.
Fundamentals of Accounting
When you become an accountant, you need to know that you will either play the role of a financial accountant or a management accountant.
Management accountants
Management accountants have the duty of providing financial information. Management accountants liaise with management in order to help the decision-making process.
Management accountants perform tasks such as budget analysis, financial planning, and forecasting.
Financial accountants
Financial accountants provide information for external bodies, such as shareholders, investors and creditors.
Financial accountants spend their time analysing the company’s current financial position and then report the very important information.
Most accounting graduates enter the accountancy profession and start off doing financial accountancy. Irrespective of where you start off, you must remember that the accounting departments in businesses know where the money of the business is at all times. Accountants are there to organise all the financial information in a business.
Knowing the type of accountants that you find in a business is important, but you also need to know the golden rules of accounting.
What Are the Fundamental Rules of Accounting?
Accounting is a career field characterized by rules and quite obviously there are some rules that all accountants must follow. Here are three of the most important rules that accountants must keep in mind:
- Personal account: Debit the receiver, credit the giver.
- Real Account: Debit what comes in and credit what goes out.
- Nominal Account: Debit all expenses and credit all incomes and gains.
Again, to learn more fundamental rules of accounting and other accounting terms, you can use a resource like this Accounting for Dummies Cheat Sheet textbook.
We suggest that you find the right accounting tutor for you the minute you start finding accounting concepts covered in university too hard to grasp. While accounting is all about number crunching, it is also known as the language of businesses. Know the accounting language or take accounting online tutorial classes in order to make heads or tails of accounting jargon.
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