4 Accounting Career Paths and Why They Matter for ERP

When I first set out to earn a degree in accounting, I always figured I would become a tax accountant/CPA (certified public accountant). This is the type of job that people generally think of when you tell them you went to school for accounting, probably due to the fact that the only time most folks ever interact with an accountant is when they’re waiting in line at their door during tax season.

But the truth of the matter is that there are a lot of other non-tax career paths that those with accounting degrees can follow once they’ve honed the expertise. That in mind, I’d like to take a moment to dig into four different examples of accounting-based roles and explain why they matter for ERP:

• Accountant
• Finance
• Audit
• Financial Reporting

What’s more, each of these roles contain their own set of focused positions that contribute to the job of accounting as a whole. But before I dig into each of these any further, first I need to explain these areas are important.

Typically, there are many different stakeholders involved when a company is deciding to choose a new ERP, and if a representative from accounting/finance is not considered a stakeholder, then it’s important for the stakeholders to understand the different needs of accounting and finance teams. I gained my experience with each of these roles after spending 14 years as a financial external and internal auditor, throughout which I learned that the size of the company will dictate which roles are needed and to what degree, but it’s always helpful to have an understanding of these various roles, especially if you’re a part of a growing company and may need additional positions in the future.

Now, let’s dive a bit deeper into each of these roles.

Within the role of an “accountant” there are several variations of positions, but the overall theme of being an accountant is dealing with transactions that have already occurred and end up on the balance sheet. Accountants live in the past. Some roles within the broad category of accountant include:

• Tax accountant
• General ledger (GL) accountant
• Accounts payable (AP)
• Accounts receivable (AR)
• Accounting manager
• Controller
• Chief accounting officer

The balance sheet is an accumulation of all transactions that have ever occurred for a business. Accountants also need to be able to access the details of all of these transactions as these transactions make up the journal entries of the company. The accountants will need to work with the trial balance/general ledger, and at a bare minimum will need the detail of all subledger accounts, but ideally, the detail of all transactions that make up the account balances. Typically, most ERP solutions are able to provide this level of detail. What will vary is how accessible the data is.

The finance roles are concerned with the profit and loss/income statement and are generally more forward looking. Examples of finance or financial planning and analysis (FP&A) roles are:

• Financial Analyst
• Budget Analyst
• Finance Manager
• Vice President of Finance
• Chief Financial Officer

The finance team is traditionally concerned with budgeting and financial forecasts. Transaction level detail (sales and purchase data) is typically used to make predictions about the future. However, the information produced by finance teams is typically not available within the ERP and many times a separate application is used and integrated to the ERP.

Within the category of audit, there are both internal and external auditors. There are also various types of auditors, including:

• Financial Auditor
• Compliance Auditor
• Operational Auditor
• Control Auditor
• Information Technology (IT) Auditor

Typically, internal auditors are on staff at publicly traded companies, but it’s possible that medium-size companies may have internal audit or outsourced internal audit, especially if the organization is subject to an external audit for bank/loan purposes or regulatory compliance purposes.

Each type of auditor will want access to different information depending on the subject of the audit, but all auditors review transactions that have already occurred and thus live in the past like accountants. Financial statement auditors will be looking at the same data that accountants use, which is the detailed transactions that make up the general ledger of the company. Compliance, operational, and control auditors will want to see details of actual transactions in regards to the process being audited, which could include vendor bills or customer invoices.

The final career path that we are exploring is that of financial reporting. These positions are found at medium to large companies, and individuals in these roles are preparing reports for some sort of compliance purpose, generally for SEC requirements for a publicly traded company. The financial reporting folks look for detailed information that comprises the financial statements and the actual financial statements, and these financial statements typically include:

• Balance sheet
• Income statement (or profit and loss statement)
• Statement of cash flows
• Statement of shareholder’s equity (this final one is only if the company is publicly traded)

Most ERP systems will have these financial statements readily available in the system. It is important to understand how your company will want to review the financial statements, for example, by department or location, in order to ensure that the standard financial statements are able to meet your needs.

My hope is that you can walk away with a better understanding of the various positions that exist within the realm of accounting and have a deeper appreciation for the type of data that each role would need from a new ERP.

Here’s a quick overview of what was just covered:

Accountants/auditors - detailed transaction information from the balance sheet

Finance - detailed transaction information from the income statement

Financial reporting - financial statements, available in the detail used by the business to analyze the business

Of course, the accountant in me will always advise you to involve accounting and finance personnel from the beginning of your ERP search to ensure buy-in from the start.