The accountant’s role

The accountant’s role in the business world today is evolving from traditional role of preparing financial statements to decision-making, which involve complex business decisions. Accounting profession has undergone a transformation where accountant’s role is no more on the traditional approach or number crunchier. A complex business environment has resulted accountant to absorb the role of manager and also user of information technology. Today, accountants should have a complex knowledge and skills as required by the business in a constantly changing business environment. Accountants must be equipped with knowledge of information technology, Law, Marketing, Taxation and must be able to provide complex business services.

Recently, Australian Society of CPAs in its CPA newsletter (1999) has identified the following skills that should be acquired by the accountants in today’s complex business environment: -

1. Facility to correlate, manage and add value to financial information
2. Skills to create, re-program and working with web-based data and exploit e-commerce opportunities
3. Ability to work in hierarchical organizational structures that will ‘free’ decision making to be based on lighting fast data and communication
4. Be business managers rather than information providers which means getting involved in decisions of other management disciplines rather than reporting after the events
5. Be effective communicators and team builders

As Malaysia moves towards the year 2020, the year where Malaysia will become developed nation, the number of accountants needed will increase substantially. The developments of economy rely on the behavior and conduct of an accountant. This raises need for a quality accountant, in both financial and managerial skills. Apart from that, the government of Malaysia also had raised the needs to produce more Bumiputra accounting graduates under the New Economic Scheme.

Accountants play an important role in today’s business and their roles have changed from preparing financial statements to participating in decision making of an organization. In achieving the country’s Vision 2020, the demand and expectation of the business towards accountant will increase. The accounting education system in Malaysia must be able to cope with these demand and expectation by designing a good education system and identify good students in order to increase the quantity and quality of accountants.