0_Wizard
I am an accountant. It's called the language of business!
Accounting, which has been called the "language of business", measures the results of an organization's economic activities and conveys this information to a variety of users, including investors, creditors, management, and regulators.
chosen_Accounting_0
Accounting
chosen_topic_0_Accounting
Accountant
An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy, which is the measurement, disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers, investors, tax authorities and others make decisions about allocating resource(s). In many jurisdictions, professional accounting bodies maintain standards of practice and evaluations for professionals. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certified Accountant or Certified Public Accountant.
Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is the national professional accounting body of India. It was established on 1 July 1949 as a statutory body under the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 enacted by the Parliament (acting as the provisional Parliament of India) to regulate the profession of Chartered Accountancy in India. ICAI is the second largest professional Accounting & Finance body in the world. However, the rapid growth and autonomy of the ACCA in the early 2000s, soon made ICAI the third largest in terms of membership, the first being the ACCA. ICAI is the only licensing cum regulating body of the financial audit and accountancy profession in India.
Chartered accountant
Chartered Accountants were the first accountants to form a professional accounting body, initially established in Scotland in 1854. The Edinburgh Society of Accountants (1854), the Glasgow Institute of Accountants and Actuaries (1854) and the Aberdeen Society of Accountants (1867) were each granted a royal charter almost from their inception. The title is an internationally recognised professional designation; the American certified public accountant designation is generally equivalent to it. Chartered accountants work in all fields of business and finance, including audit, taxation, financial and general management.
J. Lee Nicholson
Jerome Lee (J. Lee) Nicholson (1863 - November 2, 1924) was an American accountant, industrial consultant, author and educator at the New York University and Columbia University, known as pioneer in cost accounting. He is considered in the United States to be the "father of cost accounting." Nicholson most important contributions to cost accounting consisted of "emphasizing "cost centres" and the "measuring of profits for individual departments" based on machine hour rates." Also he helped establishing the National Association of Cost Accountants (NACA) in 1920, which resulted into the Institute of Management Accountants.
Certified Public Accountant
Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. In the United States, the CPA is a license to provide accounting services to the public. It is awarded by each of the 50 states for practice in that state. Additionally, almost every state (49 out of 50) has passed mobility laws to allow CPAs from other states to practice in their state. State licensing requirements vary, but the minimum standard requirements include passing the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination, 150 semester units of college education, and one year of accounting related experience.
Forensic accountant
Forensic accountants are experienced auditors, accountants, and investigators of legal and financial documents that are hired to look into possible suspicions of fraudulent activity within a company; or are hired by a company who may just want to prevent fraudulent activities from occurring. They also provide services in areas such as accounting, antitrust, damages, analysis, valuation, and general consulting. Forensic accountants have also been used in divorces, bankruptcy, insurance claims, personal injury claims, fraudulent claims, construction, royalty audits, and tracking terrorism by investigating financial records.
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
Founded in 1904, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) is the global professional accounting body offering the Chartered Certified Accountant qualification (ACCA or FCCA). From Dec 2017, ACCA recorded that it has 200,000 members and 486,000 students in 180 countries. ACCA's headquarters are in London with principal administrative office in Glasgow. ACCA works through a network of over 100 offices and centres and more than 7,200 Approved Employers worldwide, who provide employee development. The term 'Chartered' in ACCA qualification refers to the Royal Charter granted in 1974.
1_Apprentice
Interesting.  What kind of things do you account for?
0_Wizard
Well I process, measure, and communicate financial information about entities. Do you know any accountants?
Accounting or accountancy is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations.
chosen_Accounting_0
Accounting
chosen_topic_0_Accounting
Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is the national professional accounting body of India. It was established on 1 July 1949 as a statutory body under the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 enacted by the Parliament (acting as the provisional Parliament of India) to regulate the profession of Chartered Accountancy in India. ICAI is the second largest professional Accounting & Finance body in the world. However, the rapid growth and autonomy of the ACCA in the early 2000s, soon made ICAI the third largest in terms of membership, the first being the ACCA. ICAI is the only licensing cum regulating body of the financial audit and accountancy profession in India.
Accounting
Accounting or accountancy is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. The modern field was established by the Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli in 1494. Accounting, which has been called the "language of business", measures the results of an organization's economic activities and conveys this information to a variety of users, including investors, creditors, management, and regulators. Practitioners of accounting are known as accountants. The terms "accounting" and "financial reporting" are often used as synonyms.
Regulation S-X
Regulation S-X is a prescribed regulation in the United States of America that lays out the specific form and content of financial reports, specifically the financial statements of public companies. It is cited as 17 C.F.R. Part 210; the name of the part is "Form and Content of and Requirements for Financial Statements, Securities Act of 1933, Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, Investment Company Act of 1940, Investment Advisers Act of 1940, and Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975". Regulation S-X and the Financial Reporting Releases (Staff Accounting Bulletins) set forth the form and content of and requirements for financial statements required to be filed as a part of (a) registration statements under the Securities Act of 1933 and (b) registration statements under section 12, annual or other reports under sections 13 and 15(d) and proxy and information statements under section 14 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934; except as otherwise specifically provided in the forms.
Panama Papers
The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. The documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by, and taken from, Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, and were leaked in 2015 by an anonymous source. The documents contain personal financial information about wealthy individuals and public officials that had previously been kept private. While offshore business entities are legal (see Offshore Magic Circle), reporters found that some of the Mossack Fonseca shell corporations were used for illegal purposes, including fraud, tax evasion, and evading international sanctions.
International Financial Reporting Standards
International Financial Reporting Standards, usually called the IFRS Standards, are standards issued by the IFRS Foundation and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to provide a common global language for business affairs so that company accounts are understandable and comparable across international boundaries. They are a consequence of growing international shareholding and trade and are particularly important for companies that have dealings in several countries. They are progressively replacing the many different national accounting standards. They are the rules to be followed by accountants to maintain books of accounts which are comparable, understandable, reliable and relevant as per the users internal or external.
Philosophy of accounting
The philosophy of accounting is the conceptual framework for the professional preparation and auditing of financial statements and accounts. The issues which arise include the difficulty of establishing a "true and fair" value of an enterprise and its assets; the moral basis of disclosure and discretion; the standards and laws required to satisfy the political needs of investors, employees and other stakeholders. The discipline of accounting insists that transparency is achievable. Fairness has an important role in the practice of accounting. Accordingly, it seems appropriate that philosophy as a relevant way of understanding truth and fairness in accounting is well considered.
Audit
An audit is a systematic and independent examination of books, accounts, statutory records, documents and vouchers of an organization to ascertain how far the financial statements as well as non-financial disclosures present a true and fair view of the concern. It also attempts to ensure that the books of accounts are properly maintained by the concern as required by law. Auditing has become such a ubiquitous phenomenon in the corporate and the public sector that academics started identifying an "Audit Society". The auditor perceives and recognises the propositions before them for examination, obtains evidence, evaluates the same and formulates an opinion on the basis of his judgement which is communicated through their audit report.
1_Apprentice
I can't say that I do.  Sounds slightly droll.  How long did it take to become an accountant?
0_Wizard
Several years! Specifically I am in the field of financial accounting.
Accounting can be divided into several fields including financial accounting, management accounting, external auditing, tax accounting and cost accounting.
chosen_Accounting_0
Accounting
chosen_topic_0_Accounting
Accounting
Accounting or accountancy is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. The modern field was established by the Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli in 1494. Accounting, which has been called the "language of business", measures the results of an organization's economic activities and conveys this information to a variety of users, including investors, creditors, management, and regulators. Practitioners of accounting are known as accountants. The terms "accounting" and "financial reporting" are often used as synonyms.
Management accounting principles
Management accounting principles (MAP) were developed to serve the core needs of internal management to improve decision support objectives, internal business processes, resource application, customer value, and capacity utilization needed to achieve corporate goals in an optimal manner. Another term often used for management accounting principles for these purposes is managerial costing principles. The two management accounting principles are:   These two principles serve the management accounting community and its customers – the management of businesses. The above principles are incorporated into the Managerial Costing Conceptual Framework (MCCF) along with concepts and constraints to help govern the management accounting practice.
Financial Accounting Standards Board
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is a private, non-profit organization standard setting body whose primary purpose is to establish and improve generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) within the United States in the public's interest. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) designated the FASB as the organization responsible for setting accounting standards for public companies in the U.S. The FASB replaced the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' (AICPA) Accounting Principles Board (APB) on July 1, 1973. In 2009 Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and others claimed that the FASB succumbed to "political pressure" and lobbyists and tweaked mark-to-market accounting to accommodate "banks with toxic assets on their books."
Financial accounting
Financial accounting (or financial accountancy) is the field of accounting concerned with the summary, analysis and reporting of financial transactions pertaining to a business. This involves the preparation of financial statements available for public consumption. Stockholders, suppliers, banks, employees, government agencies, business owners, and other stakeholders are examples of people interested in receiving such information for decision making purposes. Financial accountancy is governed by both local and international accounting standards. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is the standard framework of guidelines for financial accounting used in any given jurisdiction.
Sustainability accounting
Sustainability accounting (also known as social accounting, social and environmental accounting, corporate social reporting, corporate social responsibility reporting, or non-financial reporting) was originated about 20 years ago and is considered a subcategory of financial accounting that focus on the disclosure of non-financial information about a firm's performance to external parties such as capital holders, mainly to stakeholders, creditors and other authorities. These represent the activities that have a direct impact on society, environment, and economic performance of an organisation. Sustainability accounting in managerial accounting contrasts with financial accounting in that managerial accounting is used for internal decision making and the creation of new policies that will have an effect on the organisation's performance at economic, ecological, and social (known as the triple bottom line or Triple-P's; People, Planet, Profit) level.
Mark-to-market accounting
Mark-to-market (MTM or M2M) or fair value accounting refers to accounting for the "fair value" of an asset or liability based on the current market price, or for similar assets and liabilities, or based on another objectively assessed "fair" value. Fair value accounting has been a part of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in the United States since the early 1990s, and is now regarded as the "gold standard" in some circles. Failure to use it is viewed as the cause of the Orange County Bankruptcy, even though its use is considered to be one of the reasons for the Enron scandal and the eventual bankruptcy of the company and the closure of the accounting firm Arthur Andersen.
Jeffrey Gramlich
Jeffrey D. Gramlich is Professor of Accounting, Howard D. and B. Phyllis Hoops Endowed Chair in Accounting and Director of the Hoops Institute of Taxation Research and Policy at Washington State University. From 2003 to 2014 Professor Gramlich served as the L.L. Bean/Lee Surace Endowed Chair at the University of Southern Maine. He has been a Guest Professor at Copenhagen Business School on several occasions since his initial visit in 1996. From 2001 to 2003 he was a visiting professor at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, preceded by 11 years as a professor at the University of Hawaii's Shidler College of Business Administration.
1_Apprentice
Interesting.  What kind of salary do you make if you don't mind me asking.  Perhaps it would be a field I'd be interested in.