Certified Public Accountant Job Description

Maintaining financial reports to calculate profits and get tax benefits is the most tedious job which everyone cannot handle easily. These reports are analyzed and maintained by the accountants. Public accountants work in the organizations which offer accounting services such as setting accounting systems, calculating tax returns, profits, investment to the public charging some fees from them. Some professionals work as public accountants after completing their graduation or post graduation in the relevant field while some apply for certification exam (Uniform Public Accounting Exam) and work as certified public accountants (CPA). The responsibilities of any normal public accountant and certified public accountant are similar but being certified by the National Board they have added advantage over others. Here is a detailed certified public accountant job description given for your help.

Job Responsibilities of Certified Public Accountant

Accountants deal with all kinds of money transactions such as income, expenditure, profits, losses of a company
Some organization which are new and are still budding need to setup accounting systems; accountants help them
They visit their clients and conduct audits in which they analyze and collect detailed financial reports maintained by the company
They then analyze these reports and make sure that the reports maintained by the companies satisfy the necessary legal requirements
They help the organizations understand the legal issues related with the money transactions and help them stay out of unnecessary legal traps
They also maintain monthly, quarterly and yearly statements of the earnings and tax reports
They make sure that the tax returns forms are filled properly by the corporations to get tax benefits from the government
Some bigger organizations are required to prepare annual reports to be presented to the stockholders. These are also prepared and presented by the public accountants

Skills Required in a Certified Public Accountant

Accountants should be skilled at playing with numbers as most of their job consists of calculations
Accountants should have knowledge of all the tax related laws and legal issues that are related with the financial transactions of the company
They should have the ability to give unbiased and crystal clear financial suggestions to their clients
To carry out successful audits for the company they should have good reasoning ability, analyzing ability and ability to pay attention towards the details
They should also be skilled at using various low-end accounting software, middle-end accounting software and high-end accounting software
Some of the software products widely used are QuickBooks PRO, Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting, MYOB, Accpac from Sage, Syspro 6.1, Epicor Enterprise from Epicor, etc., which a public account should be able to use comfortably

Educational Requirements for a Certified Public Accountant

To work as a certified public accountant one should posses a bachelor's or master's degree in accounting or finance or any other relevant trait. Passing the Uniform Certified Public Accounting Exam after completing the master's or bachelor's degree is also essential to obtain certification in public accounting. People having experience in the accounting firms or any financial firms also have good opportunities with bigger firms at higher positions.

Compensation Offered for Certified Public Accountants

Some people work independently taking contract from small business organizations. The annual earnings of self-employed public accountants may vary depending upon the companies they work with and their individual charges. People who are employed at private and public firms earn about $40,000 to $60,000 per annum. Experience, skills and state may cause variations in the salaries.

Certified public accountants usually work in offices and sometimes they conduct audits at clients place visiting their offices. Skilled certified accountants get good opportunities and good salary packages. So this is a good career to opt for if you have expertise in calculations, financial legal issues and interest in working as accountants. Hope this certified public accountant job description helped you understand the pros and cons of this career.