in order to manage a home officially many a housewife keeps track of the family's money by keeping a household budget book she writes down the amount of money earned and the amount spent for shelter food clothing the family car and so forth at the end of the month he adds all the expenses together and subtract them from the family income by means of this simple form of bookkeeping the household knows exactly how it stands financially and can plan it spending and saving fundamentally the same plan is followed by all business organizations large and small but of course keeping their books is much more complicated and requires trained bookkeepers and accountants bookkeepers job is to keep records of all time sec and to prepare financial statements which are a summary of the records of the accounting obvious to analyze the bookkeepers financial statements and interpret them so that the company will know its true financial condition the results and be able to plan accordingly although an accountant must know bookkeeping from a to z is true work begins where the bookkeepers ams in a small business where one person does all the bookkeeping duties include a variety of work in addition to keeping records the bookkeeper checks all orders and bills for possible errors he counts the cash receipts he makes off deposit slips for all money paid into the company and sees that it is put into the bank against these funds he prepares to x way to okayed by the proper authority by use for paying the company bills and salaries in some firms he is responsible for granting credit to customers so he must find out what each one's credit rating is and keep the information on hand at the end of the month bails are sent to all customers and after balancing the books the book keeper prepares a financial statement so his company will have a clear picture of its condition at that time and the results of its operations for the period the bookkeeper in a small business may have other duties but the ones mentioned are a fair sample of a one man job a large business has an accounting department where the bookkeeping is divided among many employees under department heads one man will handle accounts payable on other accounts receivable and so on down the line each one of these men is responsible for seeing that the specialized work of his department is done efficiently and accurately most of it is accomplished with the aid of calculating and bookkeeping machines all of the employees including the department heads are supervised by a t v accountant sometimes called an auditor or controller he coordinates all phases of the bookkeeping and prepares an interpreter statements and reports needed by the company such men are called private accountants because they work only for one organization public accountants do similar work but for many different companies for instance it is standard practice for certified public accountants commonly called c to be called in to audit a private conference records the accounting firm assigns a senior accountant with one or more junior assistance depending on the size of the job the senior has outlined in the vans the portions of the audit he wages each assistant to perform a suitable place where the books may be examined is provided the senior supervisor of the work make sure that all facts are collected correctly but i thought a good deal of this field work is routine and nature and takes considerable time he may have his assistant start while he goes on to other duties however he must keep in touch with the assistance to handle any problems which may arise usually honest and have neither the necessary experience nor authority to discuss important aspects of the audit with the client is tense a promotion depends a great deal on how well he fits into the team work which is essential in making an audit public accountants work requires that he be acquainted with many types business he may be working on the books of a large corporation and those of a bookkeeper in a small business at the same time because his job takes him from place to place where he meets all kinds of people he must have a pleasing personality to be successful he must also keep all confidential information to himself never devolving it in any manner to others but strong moral character is absolutely essential auditing books is just one type of service offered by an accountant public or private another type of devising new or improved bookkeeping systems companies often outgrow their old record farms so they have an account and study the problem devise a new system and supervise its operation until the company employees can carry on alone another type of service is cost accounting for manuf i time and motion studies are made and new techniques work out which will lower the cost of production accountants doing this work must be thoroughly familiar with the manufacturing processes involved they must be able to devise record systems which will give complete and accurate information concerning the cost of even the smallest item in the product it is not easy to determine the cost of making a certain product is nicely of the factories also turning out many other articles ye if the business is to be conducted efficiently and profitably the company must have such information this highly specialized field sometimes called for an engineering background in fact cost accounting and sometimes operate under the the engineers perhaps the most colorful accounting work is that of making special investigations the federal bureau of investigation has on its staff a large number of operatives trained as accountants their job is to aid and tracking down and incriminating dishonest people by examining their bank accounts and other records not all of my full investigations are criminal in nature however as often such accountants are called into a arrive at the fact when records are incomplete or lost investigations are also undertaken in connection with the sale of a business that is when the prospect of buyer wants to find out it's through financial condition there are many other reasons for conducting special investigations all of which call for research and services requiring up top notch accountant many a cow then specialize in aiding individuals and businesses and the preparation of tax returns the demands of federal state and local governments for greater revenues the complexity of the requirements and constantly changing laws have made it difficult for people to determine their correct tax liability  well equipped to meet this problem because of his understanding of what constitutes income and expense to be offset against such income to determine profit a good deal of the public accountants time is spent in his own offices where he prepares reports on it he and his assistants made for various clients making a report calls for a broad knowledge of business principles and lots of good judgment because the client depends on it as an accurate analysis of the state his business bookkeeping and the various fields in accounting offer excellent opportunities with a good income or young men and women who are really suited to the work perhaps the first question you should ask yourself is do i really enjoy doing figures if you have a distaste for mathematics it is not the work for you to be a bookkeeper besides being good at figures you should have a legible handwriting and an average command of english you should take a book keeping course in high school or commercial college and learn how to record business plans actions in their proper form you should be able to operate the various adding calculating and bookkeeping machines which are found in the offices of all up with a business organizations to be an accountant you must know bookkeeping thoroughly and have taken a specialized accounting course you must be able to analyze a business by examining its records and keep such material confidential open mindedness and a willingness to undergo intensive study and hard work are necessary if you expect to pass the state examinations board certified public accountants if you have the aptitude and personal qualities or either bookkeeping or accounting it would be well for you to investigate the possibilities now each of us is suited to less certain type of work perhaps your future is in bookkeeping and accounting