Charted Accountant

As a Chartered Accountant, you will be the custodian of all financial information of an organization - including financial statements, tax records, internal budgeting, or cash flow management. You will inspect, audit and certify whether the financial records, accounts, financial statements, and related information are true and are presented as per the financial standards required in India.

Some companies in India, which are publicly listed (meaning, their shares are listed in stock exchanges like Bombay Stock Exchange), are required by Indian laws to publish their financial reports to the public after the reports are audited by a Chartered Accountant. Some other companies, which are Private Limited Companies (meaning their shares are not listed in stock exchanges), are required to submit their audited financial statements to tax authorities. These statements must be audited by a Chartered Accountant before submission. Besides the public and private limited companies, all other organizations except the proprietorship companies, are required to get their accounts audited by a Chartered Accountant and submit the audited reports to the tax authorities. Under Indian laws, only Chartered Accountants can audit and certify financial accounts and reports to be true. As a CA, you will be playing a very important role in financial governance and tax compliance in the country.

The core responsibilities of a CA are:

• Perform business analysis and play an active role in the financial decision-making of the company.
• Perform a budget analysis for the company.
• Maintain and keep track of the daily financial transactions and processes.
• Conduct timely audits (of both government and corporate organizations) by collaborating with internal and external auditors to keep financial complexities at bay.
• Develop reports and recommendations after completing the audit process.
• Provide actionable advice on mergers and acquisitions.
• Train and supervise junior colleagues.
• Offer strategic financial advice to company associates/partners and clients.

Key roles and responsibilities:

With the primary aim being maximizing the employer’s/client’s profits, a CA has to perform the following duties:

• Review the company's financial records and systems and analyze the risk factor.
• Prepare monthly/quarterly/yearly financial statements of the company.
• Help minimize the tax liability of the clients by offering advice on tax planning and other tax-related issues.
• Maintain the company’s accounting records and prepare accounts and management information reports.
• Detect, identify, and prevent fraud and embezzlement.
• Conduct timely tests to check the integrity and stability of the company’s financial infrastructure.

• Enterprising: You should have interests for Enterprising Occupations. Enterprising occupations involve taking initiatives, initiating actions, and planning to achieve goals, often business goals. These involve gathering resources and leading people to get things done. These require decision making, risk taking and action orientation.
• Conventional: You should have interests for Conventional Occupations. Conventional occupations involve repetitive and routine tasks as well as fixed processes or procedures for getting things done. These occupations involve working more with data, systems, and procedures and less with ideas or creativity.

Abilities

• Abstract Reasoning: The ability to understand ideas which are not expressed in words or numbers; the ability to understand concepts which are not clearly expressed verbally or otherwise.
• Articulation: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules and common logic to specific problems to produce answers that are logical and make sense. For example, understanding the reasons behind an event or a situation using general rules and common logic.
• Numerical Reasoning: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, divide, and perform other basic numerical calculations correctly.
• Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or innovative ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
• Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a long period of time without being distracted.
• Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
• Verbal Reasoning: The ability to think and reason with words; the ability to reason out ideas expressed in words.

Knowledge

• Accounting: Knowledge of various principles and methods for maintaining records of commercial and financial transactions and records, preparing various reports and statements, ensuring compliance with commercial and business laws and rules of a country, etc.

Skills

• Active Learning: Focused and continuous learning from various sources of information, observation and otherwise for application in getting work done.
• Active Listening: Giving full attention to what other people are saying, understanding the points being made by others, asking questions, etc.
• Coordination: Skills in working together with other people to get things done.
• Judgment and Decision Making: Skills in considering pros and cons of various decision alternatives; considering costs and benefits; taking appropriate and suitable decisions.
• Managing Financial Resources: Skills in determining how money should be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
• Negotiation: Skills in bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
• Persuasion: Skills in persuading others to change their minds or behaviour.
• Problem Solving: Skills in analysis and understanding of problems, evaluating various options to solve the problems and using the best option to solve the problems.
• Reading Comprehension: Skills in understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.

Personality

• You are always or mostly organised in your day-to-day life and activities.
• You always feel secure in your surroundings and in most situations.
• You are always self-satisfied or feel satisfied with your life in most situations.
• You are a soft-hearted person sometimes.
• You trust others sometimes but not always.
• You are helpful to others sometimes.