Role of an accountant

The role and responsibilities of today’s accountant is not limited to paperwork alone. There are a lot of other things to manage which will ultimately impact the business. Along with the major duties an accountant has, there are major roles which cannot be overlooked and need to be fulfilled from time to time.

These chief roles comprise of:

1. Managerial role
An accountant is not just a bookkeeper who needs to maintain record of transactions. At some level; he is a manager too and needs to take managerial decisions as and when required. This means that he would be required to participate in the decision-making process just to facilitate the management.

2. Predicting and implementing cost-effective strategies
Another major role of an accountant revolves around the technique of predicting and implementing cost-effective strategies in the business. This means that, on the basis of present status of the business and the environment it is operating in, an accountant needs to predict the strategies that would be good for the business and would cut down the costs of operations.

3. Auditing
Auditing is not only a role, but also the responsibility of an accountant. Herein, internal as well as statutory audit form a distinctive part where an accountant needs to carry out the auditing tasks internally and also in accordance to the statutory benchmarks.

4. Coordination and controlling
It depends a lot on the accountant to coordinate the activities and control the budgeting and other related activities just so that the business operates in a cost-effective manner. This is the sole reason why an accountant is also a manager to a certain level.

5. Applying accounting system and standards
Application of proper accounting system and maintaining effective standards is also one of the vital roles of an accountant wherein he needs to apply an efficient system in the business which is capable of managing the accounts of the business.

6. Carrying out researches and studies
An accountant is also a researcher to some extent since he needs to study the current happenings in the business and see where modifications can be made. According to the need of these modifications, better accounting system can be implemented with proper research work.