Are you interested in an accounting career? Then it’s essential to know as much as you can about this fascinating field. The specialties listed below may not be as well-known, but many accountants are passionate about them.
Forensic Accounting
If you eventually study for your CPA exam and pass it, you’ll learn about forensic accounting. Forensic accountants are the detectives of the accounting field.
They are the ones who look for accounting criminal activity, including embezzlement, money laundering, securities fraud, and credit card fraud. Forensic accounting can be exciting and rewarding work if you’re interested in both accounting and the law.
As a forensic accountant, you can help fight white-collar crime that is all too common throughout the country. For example, a former Boston bookkeeper was recently sentenced in federal court after embezzling at least $1.5 million from her two previous companies.
When you work on these types of criminal cases, you are helping to set an example that illegal activity in accounting results in heavy penalties.
Auditing
You can focus on either external or internal auditing. External auditing involves a third party going over a business’s financial documents to ensure they are in order and comply with sound accounting principles.
On the other hand, internal auditing involves how a company divides its accounting chores, which person is in charge of doing each task, and the policies and procedures that have been established.
Internal auditing is a passion for many accountants because it helps companies find fraud, mismanagement, and waste.
Fiduciary
This specialization involves management of property and funds for another business or person. As a fiduciary accountant, you’ll manage the activities and accounts related to property administration and guardianship.
Fiduciary accounting also deals with trust accounting, estate accounting, and receivership. In addition, fiduciary accounting shows every disbursement and receipt managed by the trustee or executor, ensuring there is a proper allocation of transactions between income and principal.
Three Major Types Of Accounting
The specialties mentioned above are fascinating for many accountants, but it’s also essential to know the three major types of accounting. You may find your passion in one of these areas, too:
Cost Accounting
Cost accounting involves determining the costs of making a product or service and reporting the information to company managers. This allows them to make better decisions, particularly about pricing.
Cost accounting usually involves companies that make products, but they also assign costs to produce services too. After the accountant determines the costs, management can set competitive prices.
Cost accounting is vital for businesses to stay in business, earn profits, and expand.
Financial Accounting
Financial accounting records, organizes, analyzes, and reports financial data created by an organization’s financial transactions each day.
The financial transactions that the company makes during a month or quarter are what the accountant uses to create its financial statements. From those statements, the accountant, manager, or business owner can do many financial analyses.
Managerial Accounting
Managerial accounting involves gathering, reporting, and organizing an organization’s financial information so managers can make effective business decisions.
Financial and cost accounting give financial information to company managers for essential decisions. For example, when they have the data that cost and financial accounting provide, executives can better understand how the company is financially performing.
The managerial accountant uses historical information that helps company managers see where the company has been financially so they can more effectively plan for the future.
Now that you know more about the different specialties and types of accounting, we hope you have a better idea about your career direction in this rewarding field.