Accounting and Finance: Career, Birmingham University Report Project

This report provides an overview of the fields of accounting and finance, exploring career expectations and the benefits of pursuing these disciplines, particularly at the University of Birmingham. It defines accounting as the study of financial performance and statement preparation, and finance as the management of funds. The report highlights career specializations, job market demands, and potential employers in accounting and finance. It also details the advantages of studying at the University of Birmingham, including its international student community, campus environment, and placement opportunities. The report concludes by summarizing the key differences between accounting and finance and emphasizes the high demand and growth in the field, making the University of Birmingham a popular choice for students. References from various financial and accounting sources are also included.

ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This project report is on Accounting and finance. It explains what accounting and finance
deals with. This project also reflects that what the expectations of a student are when he
chooses it as his career. However, there are a very large number of universities that provide
courses in this field but why do people want to study at Birmingham university and what are
the benefits that they have when they pursue Accounting and finance from this well known
university. The project also shows the future aspects of choosing their career in this field and
what are the opportunities in the near future.
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Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................4
ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE AS A CAREER - EXPECTATIONS.................................................................6
WHY TO CHOOSE ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM?......................7
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................8
References.............................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Accounting is the field that helps to generate specialised knowledge of studying the financial
performance and position of the business and also preparing the financial statements.
Accounting involves large number of steps such as recording day to day transactions in the
form of journal entries, posting these entries to different ledger accounts which help in the
preparation of trial balance, income statement and balance sheet.
The financial information of a company is contained in financial statements which consist of
Income statement, Balance sheet, Cash flow statement and Notes to accounts. The income
statement tells us about the financial performance of the company whereas the balance sheet
provides an overview of the financial position of the company and hence it is also known as
the Statement of financial position. Cash flow shows the cash inflows and outflows during
the financial year. The accounting career gives an individual a specialised knowledge of
analysing this financial information provided in form of financial statements. There is a local
as well as international accounting standard that governs the preparation of these financial
statements. The accounting career focuses largely on analysing and comparing the past as
well as present financial information which helps the management as well as the investors in
planning, controlling and also in decision making.
Financial accounting involves the interest of the stakeholders because it provides information
for decision making. The financial statements should have the following characteristics-
 Relevance
 Materiality
 Reliability
 Understand-ability
 Comparability
Finance is the study of acquiring funds from the cheapest possible source and managing those
funds properly and correctly. A finance degree helps to initiate careers in the financial
services. Finance has a great deal of profits because it is concerned with the present and
future of the company’s growth and sustainability. Finance does not involve recording of past
and present information rather it involves forecasting and analysing the potential growth and
profits of the company using certain appropriate tools. (What is Management Accounting?)
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ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE AS A CAREER - EXPECTATIONS
A person who has studied accounting can often specialise in various topics which includes
management accounting, auditing, risk assessment and also taxation. Finance specialisation
includes specialisation in a large number of topics such as financial evaluation, corporate
finance, derivatives, capital market, financial reporting, investment management etc. (Lerner,
2009)
There is a huge demand for accounting and finance professionals and it is expected that the
demand for accountants and auditors will grow by 13% up to 2022 and the demand for the
financial analyst to go up by 16% during these years (Fridson & Alvarez, 2012). There is
huge number of potential employers in this field. Few of them are accounting firms, public
sector agencies, banks and several multinational financial services firms. However, the entry
in this field is very competitive but there is a huge opportunity as well. There are a large
number of firms that recruit employees in the large scale and with a good salary package. As
compared to accounting to finance, there is a very less demand for less specialised roles such
as book keeping, data entry, typist and couriers. (Girard, 2014)
The major sectors that are expected to expand in the near future are accounting, payroll
services, consultation services (both scientific as well as technical) and other general
financial services activities. (McLaney & Adril, 2016)
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WHY TO CHOOSE ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
BIRMINGHAM?
Birmingham is considered to be in top 100 universities of the world. It comprises of the
largest international student communities in the United Kingdom, with 5000 students from
150 countries.
The campus of the university is one of the reasons that the students gets attracted to. There
are a huge number of social and cultural events that takes place which makes all students
interested irrespective of where they are from. The university is also considered in the top for
its sports and rehabilitation which has resulted in healthier diets and of course lifestyle. There
are various community projects that the students take up and these project help them to have
practical experiences which will help them in future at the time of finding employment. The
campus has good restaurants which provide good food to the students so that they stay
healthy. (Raun, 1962)
The most attractive feature of this university is its placement opportunities. In terms of
percentage, the number of people who has been employed or pursued further studied resulted
to 96% which is quite impressive. When asked to the students it was also found that 88%
students were highly satisfied which gave a confirmation that either the students were
extremely happy or happy with the university. (Ittelson, 2009)
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CONCLUSION
Accounting deals with recording, summarising and analysing the past and present financial
transactions of a company whereas finance deals with the procurement of funds and
managing or investing them at a place which can help them to generate higher profits. The
project has made me very clear about what does accounting and finance actually deal with. A
specialist of accounting and finance can get jobs in various companies in different
departments. The students who choose Accounting and finance as career have huge
expectations because it is a highly competitive field where large number of people tries to get
employed for the best job possible. Although there is a huge competition, there is also a high
growth rate of employment opportunities in this field. Birmingham is one of the most popular
universities with high success rates and therefore, students wish to take admission there.
(Seal, 2012)
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References
Fridson, M., & Alvarez, F. (2012). Financial Statement Analysis: A Practitioner's Guide.
New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Girard, S. L. (2014). Business finance basics. Pompton Plains, NJ: Career Press.
Ittelson, T. (2009). Financial Statements: A Step-by-Step Guide to Understanding and
Creating Financial Reports. Franklin Lakes, N.J.: Career Press.
Lerner, J. J. (2009). Schaum's outline of principles of accounting. New York: Schaum.
McLaney, E., & Adril, D. P. (2016). Accounting and Finance: An Introduction. United
Kingdom: Pearson.
Raun, D. L. (1962). What is Accounting? The Accounting Review , 769-773.
Seal, W. (2012). Management accounting. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
What is Management Accounting? (n.d.). Retrieved from www.cimaglobal.com:
https://www.cimaglobal.com/Starting-CIMA/Why-CIMA/what-is-management-accounting/
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