Reflective Essay on Financial Accounting Practices at Optimistic Ltd

This essay, written from the perspective of a professional accountant at Optimistic Ltd, a company developing designer drugs, provides a comprehensive self-reflection on financial accounting practices and ethical considerations. The essay discusses the responsibilities of a Chartered Accountant (CA), emphasizing the importance of ethical standards, communication, teamwork, and time management. It contrasts manual and computerized accounting, explores different professional qualifications like CPA, CA, and CIMA, and analyzes the author's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). Furthermore, the essay addresses a specific ethical dilemma involving the incorrect capitalization of research expenditure, highlighting the importance of adhering to AASB 138 and the steps to take when facing ethical breaches. The conclusion emphasizes the significance of ethical conduct and continuous professional development in the field of financial accounting.

Financial Accounting Essay

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
In the present reflective essay where I have been appointed as professional accountant in
Optimistic Ltd. This company is working with the objectives of developing designer drugs in
order to meet need of ageing population of Australia. Self reflection is important as this will be
enabling me to perform in a better way and thus telling me about my strengths and weaknesses.
This reflective practice will be advocating for self awareness in my learning process and will be
focusing on my technical rationality with solving the complex problems.
MAIN BODY
Professional accountant is person of business who is responsible for performing all
functions which are related to audit or financial statements of that business or company (Larson,
Lewis and Spilker, 2017). Chartered Accountants are appointed by firms so that they could carry
out carefully all the accounting functions which are related to accounts and audit department of
that firm. This will be very important for me to apply my professional knowledge and skills in
my workplace. As I'm having the professional degree of certified Chartered Accountant this
profession is having demand all over the world and is considered as one of the oldest and most
respected profession. The duty of CA is ethical standards aligned with public interest as they CA
are having very positive impact on community or society within which they are operating. At the
present time CA are working in almost all the industries or companies including entertainment,
engineering, sports, government, aviation, etc.,
Becoming a Chartered Accountant will be very important at current time as they are
required to have unique set of skill, having recognised profession qualification on international
level. CA are also having ability to work all over the world irrespective of the place from where
they have been qualified they are also having wide range of networking of their community
throughout world in each and every country. In the process of becoming a CA there need ot have
a continuing professional development as the demand of soft skill is been rising within
accounting like that of communication, teamwork, time management and interpersonal skills
play a very important role.
Communication- this will be very much important in dealing with employees and also with
outside environment like that of vendors and clients (Brandau, Luther and Trapp, 2017). As I
would be getting in touch with many persons who will be associated with my company
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Optimistic Ltd with whom I need to communicate on daily bases so for me it will be important to
have good and efficient communication skills in the area of accountancy.
Teamwork- I will also be requiring to communicate with my teammates who will be working
either under me or with me. This working in team together with all is very much important as
this is the core principle and will be managing parters and thus will be motivating and inspiring
my teammates.
Time management- my productivity will be depending upon the fact that how efficiently I'm
managing my work which has been allotted to me as I need to handle my piece of work in very
professional manner. I also need ot manage the time of my subordinates as well who will be
working under me and depending upon me as well. Time management will be allowing me to
prioritise my work according to which work to do first and which to do at last.
Interpersonal skills- as professional CA I will also be requiring some other skills like that of
conflict resolution, negotiation they will be helping me in my personal and professional
development.
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Manual accounting process is not usually used in current time in professional accounting
practice which is said to be outdated with the introduction of computers in every field of working
(Cokins and Shepherd, 2017). This is used when the business is running on very small scale as
this then will be very cost effective in keeping record of financial statements with help of pen
and paper. This manual accounting process will also be good at the time when there is power or
internet failure within company.
Both the course which are associated with the field of accountancy and taxation offer
opportunities and a very good pay to various students who are perusing them (Shen and Wiljer,
2017). The professional who is perusing CPA and CA are been recognised throughout the world
with the same respect and reputation. While countries like that of Australia, India, Canada and
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UK are giving qualification to accountants to CA and USA is giving qualification to accountants
to CPA which is also regarded as basic difference. By pursuing both CA and CPA individual can
get the expertise in field of accountancy and finance. So I would be choosing CPA over CA as I
would then be getting to work in USA as well including the countries like Australia, India,
Canada and UK. The main reason behind this choice would be course duration of CPA is 1 year
and while in CA it will be taking almost 4 years to complete the course. Certified Public
Accountant CPA is governed by the largest professional accounting body which is American
Institute of CPA.
So as far as my professional or career aspirations are concerned I will be choosing CPA
only which will be helping me to learn about international principle and standards of
accountancy. But if I'm not obtaining either CA or CPA I would like to go with CIMA which is
Chartered Institute of Management Accountant. This is also increasing nowadays as good option
for students across the world. This course and qualification degree is focusing not just on
accountancy or taxation of business but on whole and overall perspective of business institutions.
There are various other professional degrees which I could pursue other than that of CA
or CPA they are as under-
Company Secretary (CS)- this professional qualification is based on the efficient and effective
administration of company as whole and particularly that on compliance (Van der Klink, White
and Sakata, 2017). As CS I will be working for the statutory and regulatory working and
compliance of company and this will be helping me to work within public sector and private
sector companies as well.
Chartered Financial Analyst- this is the professionals who are concern in the field of investment
and finance work (Mackay, 2017). I can also choose this as my qualification as then my role will
be analysing the best investment proposals and making my company to invest into.
I would be like to chose CS as my other alternatives other than that of CA or CPA. As a
CS I can comply on my duties and roles as with that of working in most reputed banks and
public sector organisations of my country. CS is that qualification which is recognised
throughout the world.
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The following are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats which I'm having in
myself:
Along with my CPA other courses which I can undertake for future study and
professional development are that of MBA in finance as this could be most suited for my
profession development. This course of MBA in finance will be helping me in developing
various administration skills along with financial ones. This MBA in finance will be ensuring
me to go till top management of some MNC and developing my knowledge and understanding in
finance of that company.
As the professional accountant I'm working for Optimistic Ltd were my manager is
capitalised $1,000,000 of research expenditure as research and development this is clearly
defined as research under AASB 138. This tells that in process research and development project
acquiring separately in business combination and recognised then as intangible assets this is also
acquired after acquisition of the project. But my manager had already included this research in
the financial year ended June 30 2017 which is against the AASB 138. If they recorded this then
company will be facing loss of about $500,000 in that year but that manager will be getting
bonus on personal level. This is a breach of the code of ethics of company and that of AASB as
well. I should be first obtaining some strong evidence against that manager and then after that
complaining to higher level management about this.
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There are some code of ethics for professional accountant which need ot be followed by
all and negligence of which could lead to legal obligations and also loss to company
(Veletsianos, 2017). This situation must be resolved in a very efficient manner so that I'm safe
from that obligations
CONCLUSION
From the financial accounting essay it is concluded that I should be more focusing on the
principles and rules which need to be followed as a professional accountant of my firm. As from
this I have learnt communication skills and professional awareness I need this self reflection so
that I could analyse what are my strengths and weaknesses. I have also learnt form this essay
what are some other professional qualifications which I can pursue instead of CA or CPA and
along with them both.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Brandau, M., Luther, R. and Trapp, R., 2017. Separation–integration–and now…? A historical
perspective on the relationship between German management accounting and financial
accounting. Accounting History. 22(1). pp.67-91.
Cokins, G. and Shepherd, N., 2017. The power of intangibles: we need to move beyond the
narrow breadth of current financial accounting and reporting and shift to value creation.
Strategic Finance. 98(11). pp.32-40.
Larson, M.P., Lewis, T.K. and Spilker, B.C., 2017. A Case Integrating Financial and Tax
Accounting Using the Balance Sheet Approach to Account for Income Taxes. Issues in
Accounting Education. 32(4). pp.41-49.
Mackay, M., 2017. Professional development seen as employment capital. Professional
Development in Education. 43(1). pp.140-155.
Shen, N., and Wiljer, D., 2017. Rebooting kirkpatrick: integrating information system theory
into the evaluation of web-based continuing professional development interventions for
interprofessional education. Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions.
37(2). pp.137-146.
Van der Klink, M., White, S. and Sakata, T., 2017. Professional development of teacher
educators: what do they do? Findings from an explorative international study. Professional
Development in Education. 43(2). pp.163-178.
Veletsianos, G., 2017. Three cases of hashtags used as learning and professional development
environments. TechTrends. 61(3). pp.284-292.
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