Accountants and Auditors

two-smiling-businessmen-shaking-hands-while-standing-office
$79,880 Median Wage (2022)
130,800 Projected job openings (2022-2032)
5.8% Projected growth (2022-2032)

Examine, analyze, and interpret accounting records to prepare financial statements, give advice, or audit and evaluate statements prepared by others. Install or advise on systems of recording costs or other financial and budgetary data.

Experience Requirements Overview

  • Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
  • A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
  • Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
  • Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Detailed Work Activities

  • Prepare financial documents, reports, or budgets.
  • Report information to managers or other personnel.
  • Advise others on business or operational matters.
  • Advise others on financial matters.
  • Collect evidence for legal proceedings.

Work Values

Achievement

Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment. Corresponding needs are Ability Utilization and Achievement.

Working Conditions

Recognition

Relationships

Support

Independence

Tasks

  • Prepare detailed reports on audit findings.
  • Report to management about asset utilization and audit results, and recommend changes in operations and financial activities.
  • Collect and analyze data to detect deficient controls, duplicated effort, extravagance, fraud, or non-compliance with laws, regulations, and management policies.
  • Inspect account books and accounting systems for efficiency, effectiveness, and use of accepted accounting procedures to record transactions.
  • Supervise auditing of establishments, and determine scope of investigation required.
  • Confer with company officials about financial and regulatory matters.
  • Examine and evaluate financial and information systems, recommending controls to ensure system reliability and data integrity.
  • Inspect cash on hand, notes receivable and payable, negotiable securities, and canceled checks to confirm records are accurate.
  • Examine records and interview workers to ensure recording of transactions and compliance with laws and regulations.
  • Prepare, examine, or analyze accounting records, financial statements, or other financial reports to assess accuracy, completeness, and conformance to reporting and procedural standards.
  • Prepare adjusting journal entries.
  • Review accounts for discrepancies and reconcile differences.
  • Establish tables of accounts and assign entries to proper accounts.
  • Examine inventory to verify journal and ledger entries.
  • Analyze business operations, trends, costs, revenues, financial commitments, and obligations to project future revenues and expenses or to provide advice.
  • Report to management regarding the finances of establishment.
  • Develop, implement, modify, and document recordkeeping and accounting systems, making use of current computer technology.
  • Evaluate taxpayer finances to determine tax liability, using knowledge of interest and discount rates, annuities, valuation of stocks and bonds, and amortization valuation of depletable assets.
  • Examine whether the organization's objectives are reflected in its management activities, and whether employees understand the objectives.
  • Audit payroll and personnel records to determine unemployment insurance premiums, workers' compensation coverage, liabilities, and compliance with tax laws.
  • Review taxpayer accounts, and conduct audits on-site, by correspondence, or by summoning taxpayer to office.
  • Compute taxes owed and prepare tax returns, ensuring compliance with payment, reporting, or other tax requirements.
  • Advise clients in areas such as compensation, employee health care benefits, the design of accounting or data processing systems, or long-range tax or estate plans.
  • Direct activities of personnel engaged in filing, recording, compiling, and transmitting financial records.
  • Conduct pre-implementation audits to determine if systems and programs under development will work as planned.
  • Develop, maintain, or analyze budgets, preparing periodic reports that compare budgeted costs to actual costs.
  • Prepare, analyze, or verify annual reports, financial statements, and other records, using accepted accounting and statistical procedures to assess financial condition and facilitate financial planning.
  • Process invoices for payment.
  • Review data about material assets, net worth, liabilities, capital stock, surplus, income, or expenditures.

Work Styles

Achievement/Effort

Job requires establishing and maintaining personally challenging achievement goals and exerting effort toward mastering tasks.

Persistence

Initiative

Leadership

Cooperation

Concern for Others

Social Orientation

Self-Control

Stress Tolerance

Adaptability/Flexibility

Dependability

Attention to Detail

Integrity

Independence

Innovation

Analytical Thinking

Data Source: This page includes information from the O*NET 28.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. This page includes Employment Projections program, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.