Individual Reflection on Professional Accountant - Admission/Application Essay Example

Individual Reflection on Professional Accountant Table of Contents Table of Contents Introduction 3 Individual Reflection on Professional Accountant 4 Conclusion 12 References 13 Introduction Accounting is a process which helps us to keep the records of daily business transactions of a business unit. Moreover, it can be used for personnel purpose as well. In case of preparing the accounts, we have to maintain a few rules and regulations related to the subject. Through maintaining accounts, we can facilitate a business organization in various ways. For instance, it helps to balance business transactions along with aiding to find errors as well as through accounting knowledge we can also concentrate on a specific object among various objects (Eisen, 2007). Finance and accounting are highly essential constituents for an organisation. Through maintaining finance and accounts, a firm can evaluate, whether it is earning profit or not. Additionally, it is also helps to determine the invested capital, worth of asset, amount of debt and liabilities among others. In keeping with the comprehension of the value of accounting and finance for a business organization, the essay intends to replicate a reflective personal action plan which is going to address certain pertinent aspects related to working as a professional accountant. Individual Reflection on Professional Accountant According to my preference, I would like to work at Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) as a professional accountant. In this regard, it is worth mentioning that a career at ACCA as a professional account is a pragmatic career selection for me because it will provide me valuable opportunity to develop skills and knowledge which are relevant to the business firm. ACCA qualification focuses on professionalism, values along with ethics in accounting. Moreover, during the course gaining professional learning and qualifications at ACCA as a professional accountant, I will not only gain the opportunity to implement my learnt subject knowledge but will also have the chance of imbibing the invaluable professional learning and ethics that are the core elements uphold by each professional working at ACCA. I would also get an opportunity to learn how to execute auditing, taxation and financial planning, which will ensure a desirable respect from the society and self-satisfaction (ACCA, 2014). For being an Association of Chartered Certified Accountant, a number of skills have to be learnt and developed. According to my comprehension, ACCA is internationally recognised. Thus, it can be mentioned for being an ACCA, a candidate has to be good in value, ethics and culture. Moreover, a high focus on professionalism and a variety of experiences related to the updated accounting practices are also needed. In order to address the required requirement for being an ACCA member, I have to learn how auditing and taxation can be done. Besides, I also need to know about management, finance, accounting, law, organisational behaviour and organisational structure. These skills can be called as fundamental skills for ACCA. There are a few basic skills that are also needed including mathematics, awareness about business industries, English along with communication (ACCA, 2014). In this context, I would like to mention that I have made certain required progression towards attaining those skills. I also believe that my already gathered confidence in certain required skill areas would keep in good stead to ensure that I am able to present myself as a complete professional to work at ACCA. In terms of communication which a required skill for ACCA, I have already developed myself to a certain extent. During my learning and development activities in my educational field, I always focused on participating in activities that enable to develop my communication skills such as group and individual presentation. Subsequently, I have also gathered knowledge about law, management, ethics, finance and accounting. In order to progress my skills, I am also constantly concentrating on gaining organisational exposer to earn quantitate and qualitative knowledge. My objective and plan is to ensure my existence in the society as a professional accountant for a business firm. To ensure the fulfilment of this endeavour, I am constantly concentrating on my accounting papers to develop my subject knowledge. This plan for the placement or final year would be the decisive step towards gaining an entry to ACCA. As I realised earlier, the accounts papers’ were the most fundamental area for my profession. Financial accounting and cost accounting both are equally important for a professional accountant. I have developed a variety of skills which can help me to gain work. I have focused on developing different sorts of skills which does not merely concentrate on the subject area knowledge because I have understood that in order to work at ACCA I need to imbibe multifaceted learning about organisational structure and culture as well. For example, I have developed presentation of different types of accountants, business organization structure along with organizational culture. Particularly, I have emphasised to learn about single-entry system, double entry system, joint venture and partnership farm. Besides, I have also learnt final account, depreciation method, cash inflow, working capital management and capital budgeting. During the learning process, I gathered knowledge about the concept of each of these areas and have also practiced how to evaluate the entire process. On the other hand, I have also learnt about organizational behaviour and structure theoretically (Baligh, 2006). Thus, I believe that these skills will be valuable for me to gain work at ACCA, my desired place to explore myself as a professional. According to my concern, I have gained certain important skills that I did not have before such as knowledge about Honey and Mumford learning style. In accordance with Honey and Mumford’s identification, learning style is classified into four discrete parts. These include Activist, Theorist, Pragmatist and Reflector (Mobbs, 2003). These are the learning approaches Honey and Mumford recommended for learning in order to gain much experience and knowledge to become a successful professional. According to the observation of Honey and Mumford, through learning style activist, a person can develop group working skills and interactive communication skills. During the learning process of Theorist, it can help to capture the concept of theories and it can also facilitate in group discussion. At the same time, pragmatist learning approach may help an individual in problem based learning and reflector also can aid professional accountant in presenting any concept and group discussion (Mobbs, 2003). The other skill that I have now which I did not have before is the art of motivating individuals and groups. In case of management principle, motivation is one of the key factors which can affect an organisation as well as it can also influence supply and distribution model. Motivation can be defined as an activity which can influence the human occurrence or it can be described as a process through which a human being can initiate others in a goal oriented process (Beck, 2005). It can be done in couple of ways. For example, motivating individuals and motivating teams. It has been observed over the years that management of an organisation always aims to motivate its team or group of people to perform its responsibility competently. It has also been viewed that leaders’ desire to motivate an individual member to perform better. Thus, it can be asserted that learning and practicing about motivation of group and individuals is quite essential for a professional accountant who desires to work at ACCA. This is because inspiring other people to perform ethically and competently would invariably turn out to be a key requirement in my desired job role in future. Moreover, building team or team formation is one of the most crucial constituents from an organisational point of view. An organisation always refers to a group of individuals. Subsequently, for performing quality services or activities, an organisation has to perform altogether or as a team. Forming a team is also a difficult task for a firm, but it has to be done efficiently. It has been observed that a professional accountant has to take initiatives to build a team in the organisation. Moreover, the skill of development and management is also required for a professional account which I have garnered at present through dedicated focus on task at hand. Through constant development and proper management, a firm can ensure its stability in market and also capture higher market share. In order to achieve stability in market and also capture higher market share, professional accountant has to take certain crucial initiatives towards the firm. Thus, it can be suggested that development and management is one of the key factors of learning and practice. Honey and Mumford learning style can help me in several ways, from understanding the concept to analysis the topic. As per my opinion, to be a professional accountant, a person has to understand the situation and circumstances of an organisation. Furthermore, to work at ACCA, my responsibility would also be to discuss about the specific topics with the other members of the organisation. Besides, analysis of these topics in a prompt manner along with providing an official presentation through interactive session would also be my job responsibilities. Altogether, at time of presenting and decision making a professional accountant has to keep the organisational structure and behaviour in his mind. Otherwise, it can cause future conflicts. Learning about motivating can help me in future to motivate others in the organisation. Through motivating others, I can assure a certain amount of positive performance which can help the organisation to achieve oriented goals. I have developed the team building skill through learning and practice. I have identified that a professional accountant should know about team building. It will help to achieve the organisational goals quickly and easily. Moreover, knowing about management and development process is also required, which will help me in future as a professional accountant. In order to develop certain required skills in future, I should learn the notion of leadership, leadership theories and styles and I also should be aware about how to develop strategies on leadership. Leadership is a process which influences the perspective of other people and inspires them to do well for achieving the organisational goals. I have identified the skills required for a professional accountant as explained below: Clever/ Intelligent: A professional accountant has to be clever. In order to perform my duties, I will have to react cleverly with intelligence regarding different complex situations. Conceptually Skilled: According to my opinion, my fundamental concepts will have to be more apparent, otherwise it may create confusion in mind. Creative: Being a professional accountant, I will have to be creative in different aspects of my work. Knowledgeable About Group Task: I will have to be aware regarding how to react in a group. Fluent In Speaking: In order to serve as a professional accountant at ACCA, I should develop the skill of speaking like a professional individual. Apart from all of these, I should have to focus on a few common leadership skills; those include being confident about my-self, developing quick and stable decision making ability, upholding the responsibility of the team and focusing on time management among others (Northouse, 2012). To be an efficient professional, I will have to learn and practice these pre-described skills as a professional accountant. In order to develop my management and supervision skills regarding managing the consequences of ineffectiveness at work, I will have to develop myself in terms of experience. The term supervision denotes to providing proper direction to someone or a group of people/ individual performing any work. Being a professional accountant, I will have to look after on a few operations for example, cash and credit, payroll, salary, administrative expenses and various departmental expenses among others. Therefore, in these activities, supervising any kind of ineffective work consequences is quite essential. Subsequently, it is one of the most challenging jobs for an accountant (State of California, 2002). Thus, it can be asserted that I must have developed effective leadership quality and supervision capability to prevent any kind of negative impact on my working environment. In order to address the development of these pertinent skills, I need to ensure my focus on a proper action plan. In this regard, for developing leadership skills, I need to earn experience in industry interface. I should follow a few steps as well. Firstly, I aim to start motivating people around me. Secondly, I aim to focus on reading books about leadership. Moreover, I need to develop a personality wherein I will be looked upon as a role model. Besides, I will also aim to focus on being presentable for developing inter-personal skills in front of my followers by abiding the set dress codes and standards. Fifthly, to be a good leader, I need to start caring about people around me. Apart from work, I also intend to find time for sports/my hobbies along with keeping myself healthy. Finally, as a valuable aspect, I will try to listen to others carefully which will be valuable for enhancing my interpersonal skills (Pasmore, 2013). Altogether, I aim to focus on how to perform as a team in order to achieve organisational goals at ACCA (AIA, 2013). On the other hand, for developing my observation skills, I should learn to keep myself quiet for gaining an understanding about others’ behaviour. Apart from this, I desire to accrue knowledge about how to pay attention more and also I need exposer on the industry level as a trainee, for gathering experience. In terms of learning more about management, I should know what management is, what are the levels that are presence there and how does an organisation’ management acts in case of difficult circumstances (AIA, 2013). Conclusion During the entire discussion, the notion of finance and accounting has been identified. Subsequently, as a professional in the future I desire to work at ACCA as a professional accountant. Correspondingly, I have developed certain skills that are ought to be imbibed by an accounting professional at ACCA. These skills include motivating others, team building along with development and management. According to my observation, professional accounting is that kind of profession which will help me to develop my personality, working skills and lifestyle. However, I have realised that I need to develop certain decisive skills for presenting myself as a successful accounting professional at ACCA. References ACCA, 2014. Qualification of ACCA. Association of Chartered Certified Accountant. [Online] Available at: http://www.accaglobal.com/gb/en/qualifications.html [Accessed April 04, 2014]. AIA, 2013. Leadership Skills for Accountants. The Association of International Account. [Online] Available at: http://www.aiaworldwide.com/leadership-skills-accountants [Accessed April 04, 2014]. Baligh, H. H, 2006. Organization Structures: Theory and Design, Analysis and Prescription. Springer Science + Business Media. Beck, R. C, 2005, Motivation Theories and Principles. Pearson Education. Eisen, P. J., 2007. Accounting. Barrons Educational Series. Mobbs, R, 2003. Honey and Mumford Learning Styles. University of Leicester. [Online] Available at: http://www.le.ac.uk/users/rjm1/etutor/resources/learningtheories/honeymumford.html [Accessed April 04, 2014]. Northouse, P. G., 2012. Leadership Theories and Practices. SAGE Publication. Pasmore, W., 2013. Creating Leadership Strategy. Developing a Leadership Strategy. [Online] Available at: www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/LeadershipStrategy.pdf [Accessed April 04, 2014]. State of California, 2002. Supervising Accountant. Judicial Branch Administrative Office of the Courts. Vol. 3335. Read More