While accounting and bookkeeping have plenty in common, taking an accounting course will show you that it is a whole other field of work. While accounting is a more complex and higher-paying profession, it does not mean that studying accounting needs to be any more difficult!
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Take a look at the certified accounting courses you can study through The Learning Group:
Technical Financial Accountant
- ICB National Diploma: Technical Financial Accounting
- ICB Short Course: Technical Financial Accountant – Business Law and Accounting Control
- ICB Short Course: Technical Financial Accounting – Income Tax Returns
Certified Financial Accountant
- ICB National Diploma: Certified Financial Accounting
- ICB Short Course: Corporate Strategy
- ICB Short Course: Accounting Theory and Practice
- ICB Short Course: Financial Reporting and Regulatory Frameworks
- ICB Short Course: Management and Accounting Control Systems
What is the difference between accounting and bookkeeping?
Though accountants and bookkeepers both work in financial record keeping, there is a discernable difference between the two disciplines.
A bookkeeper is more concerned with the single function of keeping track of finances: recording income, expenses and other transactions in account books.
An accountant might have some bookkeeping duties, but will be more concerned with the interpretation of financial records. An accountant interprets and analyses bookkeeping data to see where there are deficiencies in a business’ finances. He or she then comes up with financial strategies and financial problem solving tactics.
Accountants are also usually more qualified than bookkeepers, as their skills are more specialised and their duties more complex.
What is financial accounting?
There is more than one type of accounting out there. The types include:
- General accounting
- Management accounting
- Forensic accounting
- Governmental accounting
Financial accounting is a specific field of accounting, distinct from others. This field is concerned with the preparation of financial documents and statements for decision making. Stockholders, banks, company owners, government agents and auditors will work with the documents prepared by a financial accountant.
Financial accountants work with certain guidelines, accounting principles and regulations when preparing financial documents and statements. A financial accountant will often use the data collected by a bookkeeper and then analyse and prepare it for external use.
A financial accountant’s duties go beyond any single function, however. A good course in financial accounting will teach you all the different things you’ll need to know to do your job:
- Stock control
- Management of accounting systems
- Liquidation account keeping
- Tax systems
- Corporate strategising
- SARS returns
- Bookkeeping
- Business literacy
- Costing systems
Taking an accounting course
Studying accounting can be very demanding. It is an extremely technical field and requires intense skills training. It is, however, a great direction to go into: accountants will always be in demand and they usually receive good salaries for their services.
If you are already working in accounting, you can also take a specialised short course to develop new accounting skills. When working in this industry, you will constantly need to improve your skills and build your CV if you want to move upwards.
Whether you take a general course or a short course in accounting, you will need to get trained and qualified before you’ll be able to get a real accounting job.
Where can I study financial accounting?
The Learning Group offers ICB-certified accounting courses through distance learning. This means that you can study accounting from home, in your own time, while keeping a full-time job!
The great thing about The Learning Group’s distance learning programme is that it makes it so much easier to study. It is less demanding, more accessible, and more flexible than traditional classroom learning, all without compromising educational quality.
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The Learning Group offers its courses to anyone, anywhere in South Africa! For over 30 years now, we’ve been bringing quality education to the doorsteps of thousands of South African citizens.