The Profession of Accounting in the USA

In most organizations the accounting group is the largest staff unit,

that is, the largest group other than the “line” activities of production

and marketing. The accounting group consists essentially of two types of

people: (1) bookkeepers and other data-entry employees who maintain

the detailed operating records and (2) professional accountants who de-

cide how items should be reported, prepare the reports, interpret these

reports, prepare special analyses, design and operate the systems through

which information flows, and ensure that the information is accurate.

In 2008 there were 1,762,000 accountants and auditors in the United

States.

All publicly owned companies and many other organizations have

their accounting reports audited by a public accounting firm. These

firms also perform other services for clients. Some of these firms are very

large: the four largest (colloquially called the Big Four) each have tens of

thousands of employees and hundreds of offices around the world, with

annual revenues totaling billions of dollars. They are far larger than any

law firm, medical group practice, or other professional firm. At the other

extreme, thousands of public accountants practice as individuals.

Most public accountants are licensed by their state and are designat-

ed as Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). The professional organiza-

tion of CPAs is the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

(AICPA). Many accountants employed by industry belong to the Insti-

tute of Management Accountants (IMA). Many college and university

accounting faculty members belong to the American Accounting As-

sociation (AAA).

Although accounting is a staff function performed by accounting

professionals within an organization the ultimate responsibility for the

generation of accounting information rests with management. Manage-

ment’s responsibility for accounting is the reason that one of the top

officers of many businesses is the controller. Within the division of top

management’s duties, the controller is the person responsible for satis-

fying other managers’ needs for management accounting information

and for complying with the requirements of financial reporting. To these

ends the controller’s office employs accounting professionals in both

management and financial accounting. These accountants design, in-

stall, and operate the information systems required to generate financial

and managerial reports.

2. Sort out the functions listed below into two categories:

(1) those performed by bookkeepers (2) those performed by accountants

Text 3

1. Read the text below and take notes of its content.

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