Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activities and conveys this information to a variety of stakeholders, including investors, creditors, management, and regulators. Practitioners of accounting are known as accountants. The terms "accounting" and "financial reporting" are often used interchangeably.
An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certified Accountant or Certified Public Accountant, or Registered Public Accountant. Such professionals are granted certain responsibilities by statute, such as the ability to certify an organization's financial statements, and may be held liable for professional misconduct. Non-qualified accountants may be employed by a qualified accountant, or may work independently without statutory privileges and obligations.
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) is the national professional organization of Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) in the United States, with more than 428,000 members in 130 countries. Founded in 1887 as the American Association of Public Accountants (AAPA), the organization sets ethical standards and U.S. auditing standards. It also develops and grades the Uniform CPA Examination. The AICPA maintains offices in New York City; Washington, DC; Durham, NC; and Ewing, NJ.
Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United States, the CPA is a license to provide accounting services to the public. It is awarded by each of the 50 states for practice in that state. Additionally, all states except Hawaii have passed mobility laws to allow CPAs from other states to practice in their state. State licensing requirements vary, but the minimum standard requirements include passing the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination, 150 semester units of college education, and one year of accounting-related experience.
The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) is the global professional management accounting body based in the UK. CIMA offers training and qualification in management accountancy and related subjects. It is focused on accountants working in industry and provides ongoing support and training for members.
Founded in 1904, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) is the global professional accounting body offering the Chartered Certified Accountant qualification (ACCA). It has 240,952 members and 541,930 future members worldwide. ACCA's headquarters are in London with principal administrative office in Glasgow. ACCA works through a network of over 110 offices and centres in 51 countries - with 346 Approved Learning Partners (ALP) and more than 7,600 Approved Employers worldwide, who provide employee development.
QuickBooks is an accounting software package developed and marketed by Intuit. First introduced in 1992, QuickBooks products are geared mainly toward small and medium-sized businesses and offer on-premises accounting applications as well as cloud-based versions that accept business payments, manage and pay bills, and payroll functions.
A tax advisor or tax consultant is a person with advanced training and knowledge of tax law. The services of a tax advisor are usually retained in order to minimize taxation while remaining compliant with the law in complicated financial situations. Tax Advisors are also retained to represent clients before tax authorities and tax courts to resolve tax issues.
The Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants is a statewide professional association that provides leadership, training, advocacy and resources for its nearly 10,000 certified public accountant-members, who are employed in private practice, industry, government, and education.
The Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants (FICPA) is a professional membership organization headquartered in Orlando. The FICPA represents approximately 18,500 CPAs and accounting professionals in Florida and beyond. Shelly Weir is the FICPA's president Julian Dozier, CPA, is the institute's 2022–2023 Board Chair.
SpeedTax is a sales tax automation SaaS product. As a software as a service product, it allows businesses to automate the core elements of sales tax compliance: research, calculation, collection, reporting, filing and remittance of sales tax.. SpeedTax also provides management tools to enable snapshot views of reporting, treasury management and audit responsiveness.
Accounting Today is a trade magazine servicing the public accounting profession in the United States serving a community of professionals who provide tax preparation, bookkeeping, auditing, financial planning, and business advisory and consulting services to individuals and businesses.
The Progressive Accountant is an ad driven online ezine oriented exclusively to the accounting industry. It is run from the Progressive Media Group's main office in Middletown, New Jersey, USA and provides news and information in real time. The Progressive Accountant offers podcasts, libraries of white papers about firm marketing and technological operations, a software demo page for accounting firms, and Continuing Professional Education, or CPE, webinars.
Greg LaFollette is a CPA, CGMA, and an AICPA credentialed CITP in Sioux Falls, SD., the president and CEO of LaFollette Consulting LLC. He travels nationally as a consultant and conference speaker on the topic of technology in accountancy, his acknowledged area of expertise.
Teaspiller was a US-based web application for customers to find accountants and hire them to do their taxes and accounting online. In 2013 the company was acquired by Intuit, Inc and added to its TurboTax product line. The Teaspiller employees and code were all acquired and the product was renamed as "TurboTax CPA select".
The Registered Professional Accountant (RPA) is a Canadian accounting designation granted by the Society of Professional Accountants of Canada (SPAC), a federally chartered non profit organization. The designation requires completion of university or college courses set by SPAC and passing four Mandatory Professional Exams (MPE): Financial Accounting, Management Accounting, Taxation, and Data Analytics and Technology. The Registered Professional Accountant has five pathways to designation, making it an accessible choice for accounting students.
The National Society of Public Accountants (NSPA), later shortened to National Society of Accountants (NSA), is a professional association for tax and accounting professionals; NSA and its state affiliates represent more than 30,000 independent practitioners who provide accounting, tax, auditing, financial and estate planning, and management services to 19 million individuals and businesses. NSA's mission is to provide national leadership in the profession of accountancy and taxation through the advocacy of practice rights, and by the establishment and promotion of high standards in ethics, education, and professional excellence.
Aplos Software is a privately held company that specializes in software as a service for nonprofit organizations. Their primary focus is simple software to manage the essential nonprofit tasks of fund accounting, nonprofit tax preparation and donor management for small, mid-sized, and large non-profit organizations.
CPA Magazine is a tax and technology resource for accounting and tax professionals delivered in online digital, email and print versions. The headquarters of the magazine is in Southlake, Texas.
Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada is the national organization representing the Canadian accounting profession through the unification of the three largest accounting organizations: the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA), the Society of Management Accountants of Canada and Certified General Accountants of Canada (CGA-Canada), as well as the 40 national and provincial accounting bodies. It is one of the largest organizations of its type in the world, with over 217,000 Chartered Professional Accountants in Canada and around the world.