#65 Impairment Testing

Auditing & Accounting experts foreseen that impairment testing on intangible assets, fixed assets, investments, assets, etc has to be assessed crtically in a detailed basis in the coming year, subsequent to the credit crunch.

The recession has driven the stock prices down, the value of the intangible assets sank accordingly. The recession acts as a trigerring points for the impairment testing.

Hence, the auditors should highlight to the clients that the impairment testings have to be performed earlier ( rather than sometimes near the audit), as the impairment testings required a lot of times. Rigid assessment by auditors are required, given the fact that financial statements users will be using the financial statements more cautiously.

Work life balance in Big 4

Let's define what's big 4?

Big 4 was defined as 4 largest accounting firms in the accounting profession worldwide. The Big 4 consist of the following entities: Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young and KPMG.

Auditors in Big 4, in general, have long working hours. Working till midnight and over the weekend is a norm in the industry. We've heard about the heavy work load, stressful life and long working hours of auditors who work in Big 4 audit firms. However, what are the factors cause the long working hours in Big 4?

It is due to the portfolio of the clients that Big 4 have. Majority of the listed companies would engage one of the Big 4 audit firms as their auditors. Having high volume of transactions and relatively more complicated business, listed company has tigther dateline to meet. As such, the audit team work on a listed company have to struggling between the dateline and the complexity of the transactions. This has resulted in the increase in hours required to spend.

Listed parent company would normally requires its oversea subsidiary to engage the same auditor as the parent company or at least a big 4 auditor. The Multinational Company located in oversea has tight reporting dateline too. Due to the fact that the parent might be a listed company in United States/ Europe, and subsidiary is required to report to the parent company on time, in order to meet the regulatory dateline.

The above analysis tell you why auditors in Big 4 needs to work so late.

Accounting Degree Benefits for Businesses and Firms

Now that you've finished your studies you are looking for accounting degree employment. Theoretically, you should not have too much trouble in this search. There are many unorganized businesses out there which could use a professional accountant. A certified public accountant does just that: keeps track of financial transactions and records in the business.

The majority of business owners ask themselves if they should hire an accountant or not. Having an unorganized business is not an option, because that would lead to bankruptcy. Of course there is also the possibility to use an accounting software, but not anyone can use that either. The best thing to do is to look for a person with an accounting degree.

The first obvious choice for a business owner would be to look for a professional in an accounting firm. This has the advantage that you can find accountants who are well trained and experienced. This is not mandatory though, and you can as well hire an accountant who works on his own. This should be your own decision based on what type of accounting job you need.

How can one become certified public accountant? In America, you need to meet a few requirements, as in most of the countries worldwide. Usually, you need about 150 accounting college hours. You will also have to pass an exam. But this is only if you want to become a certified public accountant.

If you, however, are at the other end of the deal, meaning a business owner, you have more than one option when hiring an accountant. You can do it as a long term arrangement, or, as some business owners do, with the only purpose of him paying the taxes. But why hire a professional accountant with the sole purpose of paying taxes?

The answer is simple. Accountants are the ones who know best how to increase business deductions and maximize profit. You could be familiar yourself with some of these procedures but accountants are those who know them all. In the end, it's your choice whether you permanently want to hire an accountant, hire one for short periods of time, or even learn accounting yourself.

If you decide that you want to hire an accountant make sure you check his qualifications. You can work with a local accountant or look for one in an accounting firm.

Whatever you decide, you have to make sure that the respective person has an accounting degree. And hiring a professional to keep your financial situations in order is a very wise thing to do. You need to have the correct tax returns if you want not to get in trouble with the law. After all, there are many professionals out there who are looking for accounting degree employment.

Source: Free Articles

Author: benjamin

How You Know an Accounting Career is for You

Choosing an accounting career is a great life move. Unlike many other industries, there is never a shortage of work in this industry. In fact, there can never be too many accountants in the world because every single corporation requires at least one, but often several and in particular, those with expertise in particular aspects of accounting. If you can improve your accounting skills over time then you will be richly rewarded for them.

Some of the benefits of being an accountant include:

- Constant work and little chance of losing your job - Plenty of opportunity for career advancement and pay rises - Many areas of expertise to choose from - Ongoing study options - Great salary - Ability to understand finance in detail which can benefit your own personal finances - Option to become self employed

Self Employed Accountant vs Employed Accountant

Accountants are fortunate in that they can either choose to work for themselves or work for someone else. In general, a self employed accountant will deal mainly with personal income tax and possibly corporate tax. They can also become auditors and other roles. In general, self employed accountants are limited in the work they can do unless they have extensive experience in a corporate environment before undertaking self employment.

The employed accountant on the other hand has many options and a great capacity to gain more skills and experience. It is not uncommon for accountants to be both employed and self employed at the same time, meaning income is increased. They key is to be able to balance the work load of both roles.

All accountants must become certified by undertaking an accounting degree at a university or college. Here you will learn all the skills required to be good at your job as well as life skills like communication and attention to detail. You can choose to focus on one aspect of accounting after you have been studying for some time. This could be tax accounting, auditing, corporate accounts, payroll and many more fields.

Anyone can become an accountant but it helps to have an interest in finance and numbers. Analytical skills are vital as is a high attention to detail, as mistakes in accounting can often cause major problems for companies. You can choose to work in the public or private sector, with there being benefits in both. Does a career in accounting sound interesting to you? Learn everything from the types of accounting careers to where to get accounting career training. It?s all available at http://www.careertoolkits.com/

#64 Introduction to Auditing

What is auditing? More specifically, what is financial auditing?

In big corporate entities ( Multinational- Companies, listed companies), small-to-meidum businesses, sole proprietor,etc, the entities are, required by law, to keep accounting records of the business on a timely basis. Hence, the entities hire accountants to keep the accounting records, that reflect the day-to-day business acitivities of the Company, as well as financial position of the Company.

The financial results are summarized and presented in what we called: Statutory Account ( Financial Statements/ Annual report for listed Company). How do we ensure that the financial results presented are accurate?

The auditors, independent party, are engaged to audit the financial results prepared by the entities. The auditors provide an independent check on the accounting policies, method of estimation, mathematical accuracy on the financial results presented.

The tasks are not as easy as other people would thought, as auditing involve a lot of professional judgement to ensure that the accounting policies adopted are not materially deviated from the local financial reporting standard.

In short, auditing provide and independent check on the financial results, and publish an opinion on the financial results of the entity: to give opinion on if the financial results are fairly stated.