Modern accounting is much more than just spreadsheets, bookkeeping, payroll, and tax preparation. Today’s accountants, particularly if they’re working in larger organizations, have to work against a backdrop of fraud risk, tightening regulations, complex transactions, and data-driven decision-making. In other words, the business world is continually growing more sophisticated, and so too the expectations for accountants.
Accountants who already have a bachelor’s degree and are looking to advance into a more important role might find themselves frustrated, or at least in need of further education. These higher-impact roles often call for deeper technical knowledge, stronger analytical skills and a broader understanding of business operations. To be able to move into (and thrive in) these more advanced roles, postgraduate study is often the key — but the rewards can be considerable.
With that in mind, here are four advanced accounting roles you could move into with the right qualifications — and some information on how to get there.
Fraud Detection and Prevention Specialist
Fraud risk is becoming a bigger issue every day across multiple industries. With the rise of digital payments, remote work, complex supply chains, and an overall interdependence of many modern financial systems, the opportunities for fraud are more numerous than ever. To help battle this threat, organizations are hiring specialists who can help prevent fraud by detecting irregularities.
Commercial Transactions and Regulatory Compliance Analyst
Modern businesses have to deal with vastly more complex legal and regulatory frameworks than the businesses of yesteryear. Today’s financial decisions are often inseparable from sophisticated legal obligations. That’s where commercial transactions and regulatory compliance analysts come in. They act as a sort of liaison for organizations, helping them understand commercial laws, ensure their practices comply with regulations, and assess the implications of contracts, mergers, and other big business decisions.
This role is particularly crucial in the fields of finance, healthcare, energy and manufacturing, where compliance with regulations is a big deal. Failure to comply could create not only fiscal penalties, but severe damage to one’s reputation. Accountants in these positions can expect to work closely with legal teams, executives, and other high-powered decision makers.
Operations Management and Cost Optimization Specialist
Efficiency is a major factor in keeping a business profitable, especially at a larger scale — and accounting plays a major role in how a business manages efficiency. Operations management and cost optimization specialists bring their expertise to bear to help businesses figure out how best to allocate their resources and bring down their costs, all while making sure not to sacrifice quality, output, or reputation.
This role involves things like analyzing cost behavior, developing budgets, evaluating the efficiency of various processes, and more. The role of a specialist is to help leadership understand in no uncertain terms how their money is being spent, why their costs might be rising, and how those costs can be brought down again with streamlining and optimization.
Data-Driven Accounting Roles and Business Analytics
Another way that accounting has changed in the last few decades: it’s more data-driven than ever. Accounting always had data at its heart, but the volume and sophistication of that data has exploded. Accountants are no longer expected to merely prepare reports, but also to extract insights from big datasets, support forecasting, and play a part in long-term strategic decision-making.
Data-driven accounting roles are focused on things like financial modeling, risk scoring, operational forecasting, and performance analytics. What does all that mean? It means using accounting data and business metrics together to help identify trends and predict outcomes. The ultimate goal is to take the resulting insights to leadership so they can decide on the best course of action for the organization.
With everything in business becoming increasingly more data-driven, employers are on the lookout for accountants who can combine traditional financial expertise with technical proficiency and analytical thinking.
What Education Do You Need?
There’s no doubt experience is key when it comes to accounting — but when it comes to the more advanced accounting roles, training beyond the graduate level is almost a necessity. For example, pursuing a master of accountancy online can give you a deeper experience with advanced auditing, compliance, analytics, and managerial accounting.
Completing a program like this makes you a much more attractive candidate for those advanced positions — and with an online master’s of accounting, you don’t necessarily have to step away from your career to expand your skill set — you can study in your off hours and even apply the lessons you learn to your current career.
Accounting is no longer the profession it once was — it’s expanded, and will continue to expand for the foreseeable future. As the complexity and sophistication of business increases, so will the need for specialized accountants who can tackle the niche (but still essential) tasks necessary to keep businesses running smoothly.
