Professional Presence Interview

Professional Presence

Unit 7

July 28, 2014

Accounting Cultures

In the accounting world, there are many different types and kinds of accounting work people do. For instance, some people only do Accounts Payable, while others only work in Accounts Receivable. Some people do tax accounting; some are the financial controllers of the company. Even with so many different fields of accounting, everyone across the nation does the work the same. “The size and atmosphere of accounting firms varies greatly across the spectrum of jobs in the industry, from running your own business at home to working for one of the “Big Four” firms. Some aspects of the job, however, remain the same across firms and regions.” (Kamilia Kaczar, 2014)

Accounting practices such as detecting misstatements, preparing financial statement disclosures and other accounting activities may appear to be equal across the world as they follow identical or similar standards. Besides the differences that occur due to the IFRS or GAAP, there should not be any other variable in the accounting practices between companies. However, these practices could contain multiple differences as influenced by the cultural dimensions in which they are performed. Accounting standards are formed by accounting practices, the implied rules of accounting in a particular culture. These rules develop differently due to the way the business relationships evolve across various cultures. Business relationships differ due to the environment or culture in which eh relationship is formed, including outside factors such as different laws, economic state and political climate. If the accounting standards come from accounting practices and the practices are developed by culture through business relationships, then accounting is highly driven by the culture.

A person’s nationality is the initial thought that comes to mind when culture is mentioned. It does not define the cultural influences, but does have some...