I am an accountant.
Contrary to popular belief, accountants are not mathematicians. Really, the only math you have to know is arithmetic. Just some adding, subtracting, and percentages. And our handy-dandy ten-key calculators do that for us!
Accounting is more like grammar. And if you knew that, I bet you wouldn’t be surprised that I am an accountant.
Just like sentences have nouns, verbs, and direct objects, accounting has assets, liabilities, and expenses. There is a correct sentence structure that the parts of speech must be in order to make sense. In the same way, there is proper structure for accounts to be categorized. Accounting is a lot about organization, and our organization must follow the rules set forward by GAAP, General Accepted Accounting Principles.
Of course, it is MUCH more complicated than I have described it here. This is the bare bones of accounting. If you add tax law, audit procedures, and a company with over 100 accounts, it’s a whole bunch of fun.
There are two sides of accounting: tax and attest services. I won’t go into the differences, but all you really need to know is…I have a preference for tax. (But I will dabble in both for the next couple years!)
Attest services verify that a company is doing their accounting according to GAAP, while tax deals with everything that must go to the government.
I work for AKT CPAs and Business Consultants in Salem, OR. It is a public accounting firm, which means that we are a third-party firm that businesses/individuals pay to audit their financial statements, prepare their taxes, and/or for business consulting and wealth advising. I am a full-time staff accountant, the bottom of the food chain. This is the preparer level. Accounting is unique in the fact that the lowest level does the “work,” while those higher on the food chain “review the work.” Don’t get me wrong, our partners work harder and longer than anyone in accounting - because they must ensure that what we send out the door to our client is the very best. They have to draw from their incredible wealth of knowledge concerning ANYTHING we may have missed or not considered when preparing the tax returns or performing the review or audit.
AKT’s motto is “helping our clients achieve their goals.” This focus trickles down from the very top, from our highest paid partner to our busy-season interns.
My goal is to become an expert tax planner for individuals and small businesses. That means, I would be able to tell you how to strategically pay less taxes. Right now, I plug numbers into the tax returns. Glorious huh? But in every tax return, the partners of the firm remind us to think about the client on the other side. We are doing tax returns for real people. This is something very special about AKT. And why I am thrilled to go to work each morning!
AKT has a sense of camaraderie. We are a team, all in this together. Partners and staff accountants work together for the betterment of the client. In the largest accounting firms in the nation, an intern might never say one word to a partner. At AKT, I can enter a partner’s office at any time to ask a question about a client, or stop a partner in the hall to ask how his/her weekend was.
I believe in AKT. I believe in their morals and values. I believe in their goals and their focus. I believe in the culture. That’s why it is easy for now to sit in a cubicle and plug numbers into a computer screen – because I know I am contributing work to a larger cause, to a greater picture, to an important and valued client.
So that’s what I do.
And so far, I love every minute of it.
