Accounts moving from Complaince towards consuting

Change is an inevitable part of growing organisms and organizations.

The old Oxford English Dictionary defines an Accountant as “ a person whose job is to keep or inspect financial accounts “.

The New Digital edition Collins English Dictionary defines an Accountant as “ a person concerned with the maintenance and audit of business accounts and the preparation of consultant reports in tax and finance “

The above definitions illustrate the shift in the role of an Accountant.

Gone are the days when an accountant was considered as “ a book-keeper “. Today he is much more above that role. An Accountant’s role has expanded from mere Book-keeping and Auditing to Business Advisory and Consulting.

Apart from the Management team, in a sense, more than them, the Accounting person has better insights on the business, because of the role he or she plays. Entrusted with the responsibility of recording the business transactions and inspecting the same, he or she knows the minute details of the business.

With an eye for the details, a quality Accountant is able to identify weak links, strong areas, missing links etc. and hence is better equipped to provide insightful and meaningful inputs to the management team.

A quality accountant is capable of understanding the trends and / or shifts in business and better equipped to forecast the future business trajectory. Also, as an Accountant is updated on the changes in Tax Laws, Regulatory issues etc., his or her advice is crucial in these areas.

Hence, an Accountant is able to provide vital advisory role, which turns out to be a useful Consultancy to the business manager.

The scope of an accountant is ever expanding and the accountants’ role is moving away from complaisance work toward more of a consulatns role.

This transition is the difficult but necessary step facing many accountants facing in Australia today.