1.1.
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Corporate
Financial organizations are setup with the principal objective of creating
wealth for their shareholders. Corporate Financial organizations are
increasingly becoming more complex (and in many cases global) thereby
engendering the need for complete, transparent, reliable and accurate
information that can be accessed quickly. This is particularly germane as the
gulf between ownership and management has grown wider in line with global best
practices and most large business organizations are owned by a broad and
disparate set of shareholders.
Businesses
in much of the 18th and 19th centuries according for Fowokan (1997) were small,
with restricted owner-manager teams as capital was produced by a tightly-knit
family of investors, and management was carried out solely by owners. In such a
setting, there was no external pressure to increase the quantity and quality of
corporate reports.
However,
as businesses grew, widely dispersed number of small time owners pooled
resources for investment, and delegated management to a professional crop of
experts. The need to report to the owners became a necessity and an
indispensable requirement for remaining in business. Such reports are usually
rendered by book-keepers. However at the onset of the 20th century’, according
to Onukagha (1993) a number of interrelated factors sped forth rapid
development in corporate reporting, as a result of which the business community
accepted, the need for some basic and common accounting and reporting
standards. Hence, the emergence of Accountant.
Accountant
occupies a very unique position in any Corporate Financial organization as, he
is always referred to as thelife-wire of his establishment. Accounting as a
profession has come of age and currentdevelopments demand of Accountant to go
an extra mile before he could be adjudged as an achiever. However, since the
Accountant does not operate in a vacuum, he has several forces to contend with
if only he is to succeed in this environment that is saddled with political and
economic manipulations, moreso, several developments within the profession
coupled with the ever- changing environment in which the Accountant operates
has brought to light that, there is more to it than that. This is because there
are lots of refinements and sophistication which the Accountant has to contend
with in the daily performance of his duties.
According
to Susan Davis (2015), an accountant is a person who performs financial
functions related to the collection, accuracy, recording, analysis and
presentation of a business, organization or company's financial operations. The
accountant usually has a variety of administrative roles within a company's
operations. In a smaller business, an accountant's role may consist of
primarily financial data collection, entry and report generation. Middle to
larger sized companies may utilize an accountant as an adviser and financial
interpreter, who may present the company's financial data to people within and
outside of the business. Generally, the accountant can also deal with third
parties, such as vendors, customers and financial institutions.
Out
of all the known professionals, the Accountant seems the most mobile as he is
unavoidable in almost all the facets of human endeavours. While most of the
other professionals are restricted to their areas of operations such that, the
Medical Doctor is found in the hospital, the Lawyer in the Chamber or Court,
and the Engineer in the factory or workshop. In the case of the Accountant, he
is everywhere and hence we have, hospital Accountant, factory/workshop
Accountant, Accountant in government service, industry, academia and of course
consultancy and professional services. It is no gainsaying that, what blood is
to the body is what money is to business and by inference what the Accountant
(the custodian of money) is to his organisation and indeed, the Nation.
While
it is widely believed that the accountant in any corporate financial
institution can serve many roles, from overseeing the preparation of all
financial documents related to the company to implementing financial strategies
created by management or making investment decisions for the organisation. As a
chief accountant in the accounting department, you may sit on the upper
management team to play an integral part in developing long-term goals. In a
larger business, you might also supervise a team of financial professionals.
Indeed,
the modern business environment has changed drastically in a short time.
Business technology has advanced business functions and operations to levels
not previously believed possible. The role of accounting and business is
perhaps one of the most reliable functions in any business organisations.
While
a few basic procedures or methods have changed, the purpose of accounting
remains the same. Business owners often use accounting to measure the financial
performance of their companies and make business decisions. (Vitez2015).
For
the enhancement of the performance of his duties according to Edet (2001),
Accountant has to undertake the followings: record keeping (book keeping); cost
accumulation for decision making (performance evaluation, control, predictions
and crises management); auditing and investigation: tax management and other
management advisory services such as: liquidation, acquisition and mergers,
privatization and commercialization. In conducting or performing those duties,
the profession is governed by rules of conduct which include: independence;
prudence; consistency and objectivity.
As
a result of this, this study intends to explore more on the artificial and
natural roles of Accountant in a corporate financial organisation.
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