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September 09, 2005
Not what they seem
When I considered studying accounting, I was expecting that it would be a straightforward, cut-and-dried discipline that would dovetail nicely with my background in technical writing. As it turns out, I think the latter will prove true -- but not the former.
In accounting, there is hardly ever one "correct" answer -- in my tax class, the first thing Dr. Kilpatrick inculcated us with, on Day 1, was that the correct answer to any tax question is, "It depends."
Beyond that, in financial accounting, there are many tasks for which there are multiple, perfectly acceptable, ways to proceed. And in areas like revenue recognition, there are all kinds of ways to massage the numbers -- without doing anything illegal -- depending on what kind of spin you want to put on them.
This is frustrating at times, because as a technical writer and editor, I'm always looking for the best way to do whatever it is I'm doing. Accounting, however, allows for many "best" ways to do things -- this can get you into trouble, as we've seen with all the accounting scandals of recent years (Enron, Parmalat, etc.). Because when greedy executives put pressure on accountants to make the numbers turn out a certain way, it's tough to say no.
At my age, I like to think I'll be able to stand up to any superior who wants me to bend my sense of ethics to achieve a financial goal on paper. But it is not at all hard to see how some people have fallen short, when there are multiple "right" or "almost right" ways to account for business transactions.
Posted by Urbie at September 9, 2005 02:32 PM