Accounting 101, Lesson #2: The Responsibilities of an Accountant

Hey guys, what's up?

Hope everything's fine

Last time we had a brief introduction into the series. (which you can see here)

This time I've just finished watching a movie. LOL

I just finished watching the movie Spider-man for the 96th time. I guess?

Well, uncle Ben's words of wisdom really blew me away.

"With great power comes great responsibility", very much true indeed.

Now, back to accounting. Today we're going to discuss the responsibilities of an accountant at least the business, ethical and social responsibilities.

Accountants have great powers, thus great responsibilities follow.

The integrity of certified public accountants has declined through the years mainly because of the scandals involved in the audited financial statements of corporate giants in the United States and Europe.

In that case, ethics and social responsibility comes in. A definition please:

Ethics - the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation

Social responsibility - is an ethical or ideological theory that an entity whether it is a government, corporation, organization or individual has a responsibility to society.

Simply put, ethics and social responsibility means giving due consideration to the society's well-being.

As the accountant tries to meet his ethical and social responsibilities, there are questions to be answered such as;

• To whom is the CPA accountable? - to the management, to the stockholders, to the government, to the general public.
• Is the CPA obliged to reveal the business activities and practices?
• What and how much information can he reveal?

The ethical and social responsibility of a CPA are among the biggest issue that concerns the accounting profession.

To be able to meet those responsibilities, the accountant must exercise proper judgment and posses a high level of professional maturity.

Well that's just it, we're done with Lesson #2. Next time we'll talk about the varied opportunities of an accountant.

With that I bid adieu to you,

Until then,