Accountants in today's organizations have manifold roles to perform. With the advent of software programs for accounts preparation, accountants no longer only deal with finalizing of accounts or preparation of tax returns. There roles have evolved from reporters to those of finance and investment planners and advisers. The job opportunities for accountants in all types of public and private sector organizations continue to grow.

Accountants are strategic providers of financial information on the basis of which decisions are taken. However at present they not only are the providers of information regarding the past performance, they are the evaluators of performance in order to set benchmarks for future. Performance evaluation is one of the most important roles of an accountant which relates to interpretation of sales and profit information to help the executives to take important decisions.

Another well known role of an accountant is cost and productivity management. They help in investigating various fixed and variable costs and thus avoiding any sort of wastage of resources. They help in optimum utilization of money, machinery, men and material. Information generated by accountants ensures increased productivity by maintaining acceptable levels of credit, stock, labor time and material usage. Accountants with the help of cost analysis not only help in controlling costs but also determine which operations are least or most profitable and take decisions regarding resource commitment.

They are increasingly involved in formulating policies for organization which defines their responsibility in budgeting and planning. An accountant plays a significant role in product pricing decisions. Their contributions in taking decisions regarding techniques like just in time and total quality management are highly recognized. Management accountants now form a part of teams involved in strategic planning or proposing budgets for the coming year. They are involved in deciding remedies in case of variances between actual and budgeted performance.

Accountants are increasingly acting as personal advisers or consultants. They help clients with legal and other regulatory compliance, personal finance, investment and asset management. They have an important role in formulating new business plans, recommendations on sources of financing and all kinds of other financial needs related to critical business decisions. With the development of accounting packages, accountants have an additional technical role of developing the system according to organizations unique needs, implementing and controlling it.

Therefore accountants play an important role in evaluating current performance, monitoring and controlling costs, budgeting, forecasting and financial advising. To sum up while accountants used to only deal with compiling accounts under strict standards, in present day they use financial accounts to help take critical decisions for success of an organization.

Learn more about this author, Aditi M.
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