10 Myths of the Accounting Industry Debunked
Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes
A large chunk of the population probably believes that accounting is one of the most boring, lackluster, and male-dominated fields, composed of dull, introverted, and uncharismatic individuals who only care about taxes and math and spend their days locked in cramped cubicles.
However, if you actually believe any of these statements or know someone who believes any of them, then you or said person probably don’t know much about accounting. These statements—stereotypes and misconceptions—don’t represent what it is to be an accountant or work in accounting in our modern financial and business world. At Uncat, we’ve met and talked to thousands of accountants, and these false statements couldn’t be farther from the truth.
As a way to eliminate many of the stereotypes, misconceptions, and myths about the accounting industry, check out Uncat’s list debunking 10 myths of the accounting world:
Accountants only work with taxes
If you ask a stranger, one you might pass on the street, what they imagine when they think of accountants, they likely think of the office workers helping them file their returns during tax season. While tax-related work is associated with accounting, it is not the only area of work for accountants.
Accountants take on a multitude of duties in addition to taxes, including:
Analyzing financial operations or data to find the best practices, plans, and solutions
Advising clients on how to improve their revenue, boost profit, and reduce cost
Developing financial strategies
Preparing financial statements/reports
Conducting a risk analysis evaluation
Completing account reconciliations and examining the accuracy of financial documents
Ensuring compliance with laws and regulations
Updating account books and systems
Additionally, accountants work in almost any industry, from health care to IT.
Technology will render accountants useless
Technology is detrimental to the accounting profession. The advent of QuickBooks, cloud hosting, project and practice management software, expense management software, reporting and analytics software, and other technological developments has freed up time for accountants to prioritize their energy on other projects or duties that deserve their attention. However, just because technology is vital to the accounting industry doesn’t mean that accountants won’t be useful anymore. These technological tools still need human eyes to interpret information and make decisions based on the data the technology collects and processes.
With technology, today’s accountants aren’t burdened with task-oriented projects. Rather, technology has developed to automate tasks, allowing accountants to hone their advising skills on their clients. Today, accountants need to interpret data, provide good financial advice, suggest smart business decisions, and be more intricately involved in their client’s businesses. So, modern accountants aren’t just mathematical tools that might be replaced by technology. Technology and accounting now go hand in hand.
Accounting is an industry dominated by men
One of the biggest complaints by outsiders of the accounting profession is that accounting is a male-dominated profession. If you travel back to the mid-twentieth century, this statement was true. In 1930, only 1% of CPAs were women.
However, today, this is not the case. After the major social liberation movements of the 1970s and 1980s—such as exposing the gender pay gap and incorporating maternity leave policies—women in the accounting industry began to grow more rapidly. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women comprised 62% of all accountants and auditors in the United States in 2021.
There are still strides to be made, as according to a Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) 2014 report, only 19% of partners at major accounting firms are women. But, the public can feel assured that women are making their mark on the accounting industry.
Accountants LOVE spreadsheets
Well, for the most part, spreadsheets are great. It’s been nearly 60 years since the advent of the modern digital spreadsheet, and the spreadsheet still has its benefits as an accounting tool. Spreadsheets help store information, sort, slice, filter, and visualize data, and conduct numerical calculations.
However, spreadsheets can be a hassle when it comes to accountant-client communication, managing uncategorized transactions, tracking updates, and more.
With spreadsheets and uncategorized transactions, you have to download the spreadsheet, add information, save and send it, write out instructions in an email for your client, and repeat until you obtain all the information you need. But clients take too long to reply or fail to enter all the necessary information. So, by the time you collect all the information you need to categorize the transaction, weeks have passed.
Uncat is an alternative to spreadsheets. After connecting Uncat to your accounting software (QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero), Uncat syncs over uncategorized transactions into Uncat that have been reconciled from the bank feed in your accounting software. Uncat then notifies your client when there are transactions that need their attention. Through a one-click access Magic Link into Uncat, your client updates a description, uploads a receipt, and adds any other information you might require of them (customer, class, vendor…).
Then, Uncat notifies you—the accountant—so you can go into Uncat and categorize the transaction and add any other information necessary. Once you categorize the transaction, Uncat syncs the transaction back to your accounting software so you can close the books, analyze data, and advise your clients.
While you can still love and use spreadsheets in your practice, with Uncat, you don’t have to chase clients down for information on uncategorized transactions with dozens of spreadsheets. Uncat saves you time and money—an average of 12 hours and $238 per month on bookkeeping—and makes communication between you and your client that much easier.
Accountants = math geniuses
While most of the general public might assume that accounting and math are equivalent, contrary to popular belief, this isn’t true. Math is a component of accountancy, but being a math whiz is not a prerequisite for working in the accounting industry.
The math needed to be an accountant isn’t as much as one might think. Accounting only requires rudimentary math skills, and it's not much more than addition, subtraction, some occasional multiplication and division, and following rules and basic formulas. Accounting may be a math-focused sect of the business world, but it isn’t a branch of mathematics.
Rather, especially with the implementation of accounting technology and software to automate many basic processes—including computation—and tasks today, much of accounting prioritizes analyzing and evaluating data/information, knowledge of accounting and business practices, and advising clients on financial decisions for their businesses.
So while some general understanding of math—like algebra, statistics, or maybe calculus—is expected as an accounting major in college/university, accountants don’t use extensive math skills beyond basic algebra. Though, it’s a nice thought to think that others perceive accountants as math geniuses.
Small businesses don’t need an accountant
Many small business owners neglect to hire an accountant because they see adding an accountant to their ongoing list of expenses would be too much money wasted.
However, having an accountant can help small business owners improve their business’s profitability while saving time, energy, and money at the same time. Accountants can assist small businesses with managing data, analyzing finances, producing financial reports, and ensuring the business abides by compliance regulations with its accounting practices—which many small businesses fail to do on their own or don’t have the time to do.
Accounting is boring
Though much of the world might perceive accounting as a boring field to work in, accountants can have outgoing and public personalities, as many well-known celebrities actually studied accounting in college:
Janet Jackson studied accounting in college
Mick Jagger studied finance and accounting at the London School of Economics as his backup plan if singing in a band didn’t work out
Robert Plant, the lead singer of Led Zeppelin, worked two weeks as a chartered accountant before going back to college to pursue music
Julia Sweeney, known for her role as a Saturday Night Live cast member in the early 1990s and work in “The Coneheads” and “Pulp Fiction,” was also an accountant for Columbia Pictures and United Artists after she studied economics at the University of Washington
As you can see, accountants don’t have to be introverted, quiet, or shy of the spotlight
Additionally, the industry of accounting has so many fields, career paths, and branches, ensuring that you can find something that interests you and engages your skills:
Forensic accounting
Tax accounting
Cost accounting
Auditing (external or internal)
Financial accounting
Accounting Information Systems
Fiduciary accounting
Governmental accounting
Managerial accounting
International accounting
Project accounting
Some unique accounting specializations include sports accountants, environmental accountants, personal financial advisors, and fashion accountants.
Accounting means wasting your days away in a cubicle
If you ask anyone outside of the accounting industry what an average day of an accountant looks like, they’ll probably picture an individual hunched over their desk, crunching numbers every day inside their cubicle, surrounded by piles of paper and spreadsheets. However, while using spreadsheets, conducting basic calculations, and filing paperwork are aspects of accounting, there are other overlooked sides of accounting.
For example, accountants need to be able to communicate information and professionally advise their clients, collaborate with other sects of their business or their client’s business, and learn new technology. Beyond sitting at a desk, accountants will also attend client meetings, create and analyze financial reports, or even travel.
Accountants are introverted and avoid human interaction
While accountants can be introverted, this isn’t a prerequisite of being an accountant. Whether you’re an introverted or extroverted accountant isn’t relevant to your job, as, for all accountants, interaction and communication with others are key elements of being an accountant. Onboarding, maintaining and advising clients, and human interaction and communication are unavoidable for accountants.
And as we mentioned earlier, many celebrities who sought out the spotlight of stardom were accountants or studied accounting at one point. So, despite the stereotypical image of an accountant as a besuited office worker crammed into their cubicle and is rarely the life of the party, accountancy attracts a diverse range of people—whether introverted and dull or extroverted and loud—like any other field. To paint every accountant with the same brush is an injustice to all accountants and their work. Don’t fall for the myths.
Accountants are stuck in the corporate and accounting world
Many people entering accounting careers might believe that they’re signing their lives away until they retire as accountants. However, this myth is entirely false.
Accountants are integral parts of businesses, making important decisions and acting as strategic business partners. Interpreting financial data and advising stakeholders on how to grow and optimize their businesses means accountants have the skills to work in practically any field they want to.
Specifically, accountants have historically made great entrepreneurs. For example, John D. Rockefeller, the first American billionaire and the wealthiest American of all time, started as an assistant bookkeeper for a shipping firm before he skyrocketed into wealth in the oil business. Additionally, going a bit further back in time, Josiah Wedgewood, a leading entrepreneur of the Industrial Revolution, was an accountant too. This goes to show that accountants can expand their horizons into many different industries with their skills, abilities, and motivation.
Thanks for reading! But after reading this post, maybe there are some other myths that you’ve heard about being an accountant or bookkeeper? Feel free to share any myths or stereotypes with us, and we can add them to the list!
Ready abandon those spreadsheets and see how Uncat can save you time and money? Book a demo or start your free trial today!