This article is a transcript from our research entitled Factors that Influence Accounting Students to Choose Auditing as a Profession. This means that this article is all about accounting.
Over the years, accounting industry have been a job necessity where every business that operate needs a practitioner for such profession. In the Philippines, as stated by Joel Tan-Torres, former Chairman of the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy of the Philippines, it appears that the country has the “oldest” accountancy profession in Asia. For this reason, the country may also have the largest number of qualified professional accountants among Asian countries. Based on the records of Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) last 2018, there are 188,203 Certified Public Accountants (CPA) in the roster of Board of Accountancy (BOA).
There is a great interest in accounting profession among Filipino students based on the statistics from Commission on Higher Education (CHED). It stated that in years 2015 to 2017, there were about 160,622 enrollees in Bachelor of Science in Accountancy in 572 CHED-registered schools (Tan-Torres, 2018)
Accounting practice in the Philippines is divided into four (4) different areas or scope. These areas are: (1) Public Accounting, (2) Commerce and Industry, (3) Government Accounting, and (4) Education or Academe.
Accountants who practice public accounting are mostly working individually or in accounting firms to provide an audit and attestation, tax preparation and planning, and advisory services to their clients. The accounting practitioners on commerce and industry on the other hand, serves only one company, hence is also called private accounting. Private accountants provide a stuff function which supports the company by performing accounting-related tasks. Moreover, accountants in government accounting works in government agencies helping them to forecast, plan, budget, and allocate government funds. Furthermore, academe practitioners of accounting are engaged in teaching the profession into new generation, as well as research, and training and development.
Additionally, as stated in an online article on Fresh Books, there are eight (8) branches of accounting. Those branches are: (1) Financial Accounting, (2) Cost Accounting, (3) Auditing, (4) Managerial Accounting, (5) Accounting Information System, (6) Tax Accounting, (7) Forensic Accounting, and (8) Fiduciary Accounting.
Financial accountants are engaged in recording, classifying, and summarizing of business transactions, and preparing and presenting financial statements to be used by internal and external users. Financial accounting is concerned primarily in processing of the firm’s historical data. Managerial accounting on the other hand, focuses on providing information the benefit of internal users or the management (Accounting Verse, 2021).
Managerial accountants are engaged in the analysis of financial statements, cost analysis, budgeting and forecasting, and evaluation of business decisions which deals with the needs of the management rather than focusing on strict compliance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) (Accounting Verse, 2021).
Cost accounting is most often considered to be a subset of management accounting. Cost accountants are responsible for the recording, presentation, and analysis of manufacturing costs. They also analyze actual costs over budgets or standards to help determine courses of action in the future with regards to the company’s cost management (Accounting Verse, 2021).
Moreover, auditing is a branch of accounting that is divided into two (2) functions, external and internal auditing. External auditing is usually those who practice public accounting, wherein an auditor examines the financial statements of an independent party with the purpose of expressing an opinion as to fairness and reliability of the presentation and compliance with GAAP. Internal auditing refers to evaluating of the adequacy of the internal control structure of the company by testing segregation of duties, degrees of authorization, policies and procedures, and other controls implemented by the management (Accounting Verse, 2021).
Tax accounting is a branch of accounting where the accountants help their clients follow rules set by taxation authorities. This involves tax planning and preparation of tax returns as well as the determination of income tax and other taxes imposed by the government. They also provide tax advisory services such as way to lessen taxes legally, evaluation of tax decision consequences, and other tax related matters (Accounting Verse, 2021).
Accounting information systems (AIS) includes the development, installation, implementation, and monitoring of accounting systems and procedures being used in the accounting process. This involves the employment of business forms, direction of accounting personnel, and software management (Accounting Verse, 2021).
Fiduciary accounting on the other hand, includes handling of accounts managed by the authorized person with the custody and management of property of or for the benefit of another person (Accounting Verse, 2021).
Lastly, forensic accounting includes court and litigation cases, claims and dispute resolution, fraud investigation, and other areas with regards to legal matters (Accounting Verse, 2021).
Due to the variety of accounting professions that an accounting student could take, the question arises as to what are the factors that influence the students to choose an accounting career path. However, in this study, the researcher aims to focus on determining the factors that influence an accounting student to particularly choose auditing as a profession. Whether it is due to intrinsic or extrinsic motivation, or third-party influences.
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