Financial Accounting Practice-Based Reflection Report

This report reflects on the accounting profession and career development related to accountancy. It covers professional knowledge and skills, career pathways, responsibilities, STOW analysis, future study options, and legal and ethical responsibilities.

Financial Accounting
Practice-Based Reflection Report
Name:
Student ID.:
Date of submission:
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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Application of professional knowledge and skill in the workplace..............................................................2
Identification of career pathway related to the course program...................................................................3
Professional role in the firm and their responsibilities.................................................................................3
STOW analysis in relation to a particular career.........................................................................................4
Knowledge of future study and professional development option...............................................................4
Legal and ethical professional responsibilities and standard.......................................................................5
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................6
References...................................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
Self-reflection is one of the best ways to look inward the ability and skill of a person occupy.
Performing self-reflection allow me to strengthen my emotional intelligence then it also helps me
to be more confident. Generally speaking, this process of self-reflection is highly effective for
me to build my personality. This process helps to create the self-awareness as well as self-
regulation. Reflection is the crucial characteristics of the practice system that all the accountant
need to embody because in accountancy there are numerous measurement, then processing, and
also the financial information which require an effective learning technique. Reflection in
accounting help to determine the drawbacks and the flaw that might be visualised within the
accounting process (Komori, 2015). The primary purpose of the paper is to reflect on the
accounting profession and also on the career development related to the accountancy.
Application of professional knowledge and skill in the workplace
The manual accounting system always requires the accountant to understand the entire process in
a way which might be unnecessary with the help of a computerised accounting system. In this
process the effective communication skill along with the teamwork in necessary to perform the
accounting (Buchheit, Dalton, Harp, & Hollingsworth, 2015). Being the professional accountant
the most effective and the vital aspect is to maintain the team and also have an effective
interpersonal communication skill. In the process of accounting these skills are highly essential
to develop understanding and strength within the team members. The manual accounting process
is generally performed for the fresh accountant to understand the process and also to gather
effective knowledge on accounting.
It helps to analyse the financial statement and also help to learn the skill of maintaining
accounting book, forming a journal and the balance sheet. This is generally done to provide
knowledge for the accountant and help them to develop their skill and their capabilities regarding
the process. Both the process of accounting is highly effective for maintaining the accounts of a
firm. The benefits of using manual accounting are the error correction with double-entry
accounting (Güngörmüş, & Uyar, 2017). The limitation of manual or traditional accounting is the
frequent error in the data entry. Benefits of the computerised accounting process are the speed
than the access information for accounting (Bobek, Hageman, & Radtke, 2015). The limitation
of the computerised accounting process is the expense than the security and the performance for
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accounting. Both the system are applicable within the workplace but the in the modern world
computerised accounting is considered to be the best for the firm.
Identification of career pathway related to the course program
Both the CPA and the CA is the credentials that one have to earn through study. Both of the
systems are equivalent for providing the financial service to the customers and it can be worked
in the public as well as private sector. In both the case the study of area involves the auditing,
financial reporting, managerial accounting and taxation (Anderson, Bian, & Çalıyurt, 2018). For
me, I would like to pursue CPA qualification as a student of CPA gets effective membership of
the AICPA and also they are able to learn regarding IFRS, GAAP and the GAAS. Accountants
have the wide range of option to perform their activity. My career aspiration at this point is to be
the CPA or to work independently and even can perform as the government accountant within
the country. There is another pathway also that could be easily developed if CA or CPA gets
failed. It can be seen that MBA is also an effective process in accounting to establish in the
market, then getting an education regarding auditing and taxation is also effective in the field of
accounting (Miranda, Leal, de Oliveira Medeiros, & Lemes, 2015). The management accounting
is also effective for working within the firm and providing best accounting results.
Professional role in the firm and their responsibilities
The different professional roles that could be visualised within the accounting firm rather than an
accountant or the auditors are an environmental accountant, then the financial controller, tax
agent, financial investigator, and the international accounting specialist. The environmental
accountant has the responsibility regarding the pollution licenses as well as the certification of
the clean technologies (Ismail, 2017). The responsibility of the financial controller is to ensure
that the accounting allocation has been performed in the appropriate manner. The responsibility
of the tax agent is the preparation of tax provision schedule and also recommend tax strategies
(Pendley, 2018). Financial investigator responsibility is to analyse the financial statement, bank
record, and the government database. The international accounting specialist responsibility is to
comply as well as sort the documents like work orders, then the vouchers and the business
transactions (Suddaby, Saxton, & Gunz, 2015). I have the special interest regarding the
environmental accounting and the financial controller. This is due to the fact that environmental
accounting deal with the pollution control level of the firm and financial controller maintain the
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documentation in the accounting process. I think that these two are quite effective for the
business to maintain their activity and for that, I find this two role really interesting.
STOW analysis in relation to a particular career
Internal Factors
Strengths Weaknesses
 Problem-solving skill along with
teamwork and the effective decision-
making process
 Capability to manage things and team
members in an effective way
 I have Effective knowledge and skill
regarding the accounting process
 I have Critical thinking skill with effective
knowledge of the interpersonal expertise
 I have Good communication skill with
valuable knowledge activity
 My weakness is that I am quite nervous in
any situation
 I am not so much flexible
 I am very much impatient regarding the
situation or any business activity
 I am quite dependent on my team
members for gathering the information
and also for performing a various activity
External Factors
Opportunities Threats
 Taking advantages from the current
accounting profession and the marketing
strategies to develop skill and knowledge
 The course program of accounting also
help in developing the capabilities and
skill
 Gather information from CPA course for
the betterment of future
 The accounting work is associated with
full of stress
 The level of competition in the accounting
professional is also high
 Numerous people are getting involved in
the various field of accounting
Knowledge of future study and professional development option
The knowledge of the future study with the CA or the CPA is vital for the development of
accounting professional within the field. The courses that are highly essential to supplement the
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CA degree within the field of accounting are the CWA or the CS then the IFRS along with the
CISA and CIMA and also CIA within the field (Almeida, & Fernando, 2017). This course
effectively allows the accountant to perform various actions for performing the accounting
within the field of accountancy. The IFRS is the certification course that is offered to the auditor
and the accountant to perform their activity within the field (Haynes, 2017). The future study
within the field of accounting is highly essential to follow the business process and the working
function for delivering highly essential accounting process for the field. The post-qualification
courses that are being offered by the ICAI is another option for the CA or the CPA student to
gain effective knowledge on the accounting process in the field. There are other courses also that
could be utilised effectively with the CA or the CPA are the LLB, then the MBA, government
service and also the financial risk management course.
Legal and ethical professional responsibilities and standard
The situation is quite critical for the accounting profession and for that effective decision-making
process and working as a team is the most essential factor. Regarding the situation, I would like
to consult with the team members and also the executives within the business process to achieve
an effective and valuable result within the process. The situation clearly shows that the
alternatives for the material device along with the service is essential to develop the decision-
making process within the field. The code of ethics for the accounting profession is to maintain
the confidentiality in the document as well as provide the professional competence in the process
(Qiao, Chen, & Hung, 2018). It can be also seen that the accounting professional within need to
maintain their personal behaviour to maintain a healthy relationship with the clients within the
field. To solve this situation I would effectively gather more information regarding the situation
and try to critically analyse the process to understand the development and effective solution for
the situation. I would definitely hold the team meeting to discuss the situation and get the
suitable solution for the process.
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Conclusion
The paper eventually concludes the fact that the accounting process is highly developed within
the field to maintain their working function for the development of the process. The paper also
concludes the fact that in the accounting professional there is numerous course which could be
effectively achieved to get effective knowledge and skill in the process. It can be also seen that in
the recent years the development of computerised accounting process helps to analyse the
situation and the position within the market. The paper also evaluated the fact that accounting
professionals have the vital aspect within the firm for maintaining the financial activity.
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References
Almeida, S., & Fernando, M. (2017). Making the cut: occupation-specific factors influencing
employers in their recruitment and selection of immigrant professionals in the
information technology and accounting occupations in regional Australia. The
International Journal of Human Resource Management, 28(6), 880-912.
Anderson, A., Bian, J., & Çalıyurt, K. T. (2018). Accounting professionals, 70, 238 Accounting
scandals, 70 Analysis of variance, 88–90. Regulations and Applications of Ethics in
Business Practice, 237, 323.
Bobek, D. D., Hageman, A. M., & Radtke, R. R. (2015). The effects of professional role,
decision context, and gender on the ethical decision making of public accounting
professionals. Behavioral Research in Accounting, 27(1), 55-78.
Buchheit, S., Dalton, D. W., Harp, N. L., & Hollingsworth, C. W. (2015). A contemporary
analysis of accounting professionals' work-life balance. Accounting Horizons, 30(1), 41-
62.
Güngörmüş, A. H., & Uyar, A. (2017). Investigation of internal and external factors causing the
unethical behavior of accounting professionals. In Sustainability and Management (pp.
71-82). Routledge.
Haynes, K. (2017). Accounting as gendering and gendered: A review of 25 years of critical
accounting research on gender. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 43, 110-124.
Ismail, S. (2017). Ethical Judgment and Ethical Ideology of Accounting Professionals and
Accounting Students. Asian Journal of Accounting Perspectives, 99-113.
Komori, N. (2015). Beneath the globalization paradox: Towards the sustainability of cultural
diversity in accounting research. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 26, 141-156.
Miranda, G. J., Leal, E. A., de Oliveira Medeiros, C. R., & Lemes, S. (2015). Social
representations of college applicants:(re) constructing the stereotype of accounting
professionals. Advances in Scientific and Applied Accounting, 8(1), 020-038.
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Pendley, J. A. (2018). Finance and Accounting Professionals and Cybersecurity
Awareness. Journal of Corporate Accounting & Finance, 29(1), 53-58.
Qiao, Z., Chen, K. Y., & Hung, S. (2018). Professionals inside the boardroom: accounting
expertise of directors and dividend policy. Applied Economics, 1-12.
Suddaby, R., Saxton, G. D., & Gunz, S. (2015). Twittering change: The institutional work of
domain change in accounting expertise. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 45, 52-
68.
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