Do you picture accountants as stern, pen-wielding, suit wearing people who get all their kicks from crunching numbers? Perhaps you think they aren’t too much of a laugh and are more than a little dreary, too.
But hey, we have news for you if that’s the case, because accountants are just like everyone else. The team at Northants Accounting aren’t suggesting that every accountant you ever come across will be the most interesting person you’ll ever meet, but we’d like to think that we’re an interesting bunch.
Accountants are often an eclectic group of well-dressed, interesting people who are fanatical about making money work wonders for their clients, so what’s not to like?
So in spirit of this, Northants Accounting thought we’d tell you about some cool, surprising facts that we bet you didn’t know about accountants and their profession.
The people behind bringing down the Chicago crime boss ‘Al Capone’ were none other than, yes, you guessed it… accountants! Though deemed to be at fault for everything from breach of copyright to murder, Al Capone was eventually convicted and arrested for tax evasion.
The term bookkeeper and other words that are drawn from it, such as bookkeeping, are the only ones in English that have three successive sets of double letters.
Comedian Eddie Izzard, Mick Jagger and Robert Plant from the famous band Led Zeppelin are just some of the huge household names that once worked as accountants before their showbiz careers took off!
Most accountants also have a specialisation. While some of them teach higher education courses, others take up work in other sectors, such as health care, risk management and assurance services. Many accountants prefer to specialise in certain areas, which is why you’ll see that certain accountants specialise in things like chartered management accountancy.
Accounting as a profession has been around for longer than you and I can even comprehend. Tokens that date back over 7000 years were found in primeval Mesopotamia. All of these are considered to be the original documented records of products that were bought, sold, and received.
Accountants are the real heroes of the Oscars! Each year since 1935, accountants have put in an average of 1700 hours the night prior to the Oscars. All of those hours have been spent counting Academy Award votes manually.
Luca Pacioli, an Italian mathematician, is known to be the father of accounting. He issued his first ever book based on ‘double entry accounting’ in the year 1494. And guess who was one of his students? None other than Leonardo da Vinci!
The term “accounting” has been derived from the French word “compter”, which means to score or count. Other words, such as “credit”, “trusts” and “debit” all derive from the Latin language, too.
Accountants have always had their fair share of options when it comes to their career. For instance, public accountants are employed by government agencies, private individuals and large-scale businesses. These people deal with auditing and taxes, along with accounting.
On the contrary, internal auditors have their complete attention on the firm’s finances to keep an eye on mismanagement. External auditors pretty much perform similar tasks but are paid by an altogether different business.
Also, government accountants have to keep up with the records and documents of government agencies.
So, as you can see, accountants have more than just a few options ahead of them. Some choose to work for huge government departments, others decide to become small business accountants instead, but accountants collectively help individuals all over the world.
The accounting industry is full of people who are passionate about their work, which is why they do such an amazing job at it. Not to mention that their work is actually by no means boring.
It’s so much more than just crunching numbers, though of course, that plays a massive role in the profession.
If you want to know more about accountants and how they can help you and your business, then get in touch with us today!
