An accountant is a person who practises the art of accountancy. As we have to understand the characteristics of an accountant we need to understand or define accountancy and here is the best definition of accountancy I could find “Accountancy is the art of recording classifying and summarising economic events and transactions, which are of financial character and interpreting results thereof in the form of financial statements”.
Hence accountant is the person who records and write down financial transactions in a specified format which is called the language of accountancy and is also capable of translating results of those recorded transactions into meaningful reports to be used by their users in other words we can also say that accountancy is a language known to accountants and over and above that, accountants also know the art of interpreting or translation to produce the results in a common language which is understood by the stakeholders who intend to use these results / reports of financial transactions.
Above definition of accountancy has two parts first part is called the art of recording classifying and summarising this part is called book keeping and second part is interpreting results thereof both parts of this definition in conjunction becomes accountancy so an accountant is a person who masters the art of bookkeeping and at the same time is proficient in the art of interpreting results of book keeping data.
There is a big misnomer in the financial world that an accountant is the one who maintains the records of financial transactions and for translating the results or for preparation of financial statements like profit and loss statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement there are specified professionals who will come after the end of the financial year and do this honour for the purpose of statutory compliances.
My dear friends first and foremost important person to use the records of financial transactions is a business owner and business managers who need this results in various forms and reports Day in and day out so that they are capable of taking informed decisions while managing and growing their business.
An accountant is the most important person in a business organisation as he is the provider of most important information required by decision makers in other words we can say that accountant is the backbone of accountancy system of the business body.
So as an accountant you can improve your value for the business and for yourself if you achieve proficiency in the art of interpretation or producing valuable reports for the business owners, when you are capable and achieve excellence in preparing Financial Statements (Balance sheet, Profit & Loss statement, Cash Flow statements). And when you add value to the business you get best value for your services provided to the organisation.
So “ASPIRE TO GROW” in your career through attainment of proficiency in the art of accountancy