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Accounting is god awful boring. ... number cruncher.
Why anyone would do it ... is beyond me.
That is because accountants are boring.
I remember a statistic in the 1980's that just over 25% of CPAs
drove a Chevy Caprice/Impala. For those that don't remember
the car of the 80's it was economical, square, and conservative.
CPA = Cut Paste and Add
< or >
CPA = Constant Pain in the Arse
A balloonist, lost, landed in a field and asked a passer-by if he could tell him
where he was. The passer-by said "You are in a balloon in the middle of a field."
The balloonist then said, you must be a CPA. The passer-by responded with
"Yes I am. How did you know?" To this, the balloonist said that everything
you told me was complete true and accurate, but of absolutely no use to me.
Accountants do that kind of work because they enjoy it. Their personality suits
them to the work. People that go out and get an accounting degree who are not
suited for that work, do something else. ( Of course, that's true of most professions. )
How Church's Chicken Outsourced Its Accounting to India
By Linda L. Briggs
Can a large US-based restaurant company with sales of over $1 billion a year securely outsource its entire accounting functions to a provider in India -- and in doing so slice accounting costs in half?
"My accounting staff is a controller and an assistant controller... necessary to manage the [outsourcing] contract," according to Dusty Profumo, CFO of Church's Chicken, a fast-food company with 1,546 locations -- some franchised, some directly owned -- in the United States and 16 other countries. Under a new outsourcing contract, Profumo now works not with US staff, but with 30 or so employees of an India-based service provider.
In January 2007, Church's finalized its move to outsource its entire finance and accounting systems to WNS Global Services, a company that provides offshore business process outsourcing services, most of it through facilities in India.
....Still, he concedes, there's a price in having essentially the entire accounting department offshore. "It's not the same as having them right down the hall, believe me," Profumo acknowledges. "I've been in those situations and I prefer to have them right down the hall, but you can't [do that] and expect the savings that we're getting. It's just not going to work. It's a small price to pay for a very significant economic saving."
WOW. Will all the businesses do this with their accounting services?
It looks like the only safe careers are the careers linked to the health care industry. Especially since so many people have a bachelor's degree now, and even people with master's degrees are having trouble finding jobs. Now, when it comes to getting a degree, it will pretty much be supply and demand from an economic standpoint. If a business can outsource a job to an accounting firm in India for 1/2 the cost, why would they deal with CPAs who want higher wages here?
I work as a government finance director. They won't be outsourcing my job anytime soon. I suggest you kids look into government accounting. It is very interesting. I don't have my CPA yet but once I do I know I'll have more opportunities as far as going to larger governments or consulting firms.
Also, I have a friend who is a CPA and does international taxation with Price Waterhouse? He makes over $130K!! Another friend is a forensic accountant working for the government. Great careers.
Well, although I will agree that accounting probably won't be very profitable for most graduates; most won't make $45,000 when the graduate at first. But I don't think it matters because I can't even imagine why $45,000 is needed when you first graduate. Most recent college graduates don't have kids or a mortgage.
But accounting opens a lot of doors. Everyone I know that has an accounting degree has benefited from it somehow. It is typically the degree that allows someone to become an office manager, which can pay a lot and it is the degree to have if you want to become a controller, which easily pays 6 digits for most companies, no matter where you are. But these are positions people hold as they progress in their career.
In my opinion, $18 would and should be enough for recent graduates.
It looks like the only safe careers are the careers linked to the health care industry.
Not so much.
You see, due to the weak economy, there isn't any money
available to actually hire health care workers. There is a
need, but no money. They are getting rid of people in the
hospital where my wife works.
Once the US has no money, we won't be able to afford to hire
the Indian accountants or buy the Chinese products at Wal Mart.
The sky is falling! Your job will be sent to India! Run for the hills!!!!!!!
Seriously, you could say these things about any profession. The number of accounting jobs is expected to go up and it's still considered to be a safe profession. There's tons of accounting that needs to be done, and companies are reluctant to outsource such important activities to unknown people halfway around the world. Even if that chicken company did. It's not like document review for lawyers, because that is mind-numbing work, where they just click to decide if some random emails are needed in a lawsuit. If they miss a few there it's not a big deal. But if there are accounting errors that has serious consequences.
But if there are accounting errors that has serious consequences.
Very good point. People can go to jail when there are accounting issues. While I'm sure some companies will go this direction to save some money I'm also sure there are probably quite a few CFOs who aren't willing to live with that kind of risk.
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