In the field of finance, accounting and banking, various operations are undertaken to make the operations of financial institutions run smoothly. However, there are also instances where employees such as accountants are faced with difficulty or challenges that may result in the conduction of discreditable acts. Senior partners in accounting firms are charged with the responsibility of ensuring new as well as continuing accountants in their farms are performing effectively and efficiently, as expected by their respective firms. The aim of this paper is to explain and describe how a senior partner(s) can prepare a guide based on the identification of potential situations in which a new accountant could face that would be termed to be a discreditable act as well as evaluating potentially discreditable acts and provision of ethical solutions for the same.
Potential situations in which a new accountant could face that would be considered a discreditable act;
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
• Ensure appropriation of revenues in financial reports. In the event a new accountant, for instance, a controller, while preparing financial statement reports allows top officials of the firm to misstate funds or any other revenues, it becomes an instance of a discreditable act.
• Ensure confidentiality according to the Firm’s stipulations. A newly employed accountant would be deemed as having broken the discreditable act code, when he or she fails to maintain the required amount of confidentiality, of information that is confidential, while working as an employee or volunteer for this particular firm. This is also expected in the event of termination of employment contract and subsequent employment in another similar
• Public accounting knowledge shall not be used for the bypassing of an audit process. Under no circumstance should a newly employed accountant, previously working in public accounting, use that information for the process of auditing at this firm or a similar firm, in the event of termination of the contract in this firm.
• A newly employed accountant should not knowingly participate in activities that result in the violation of internal controls. Should your superior engage in activities not charged to the company such as personal expenses under your watch, this would be an instance of a discreditable act (Whittington & Delaney, 2009).
Evaluation of potentially discreditable acts and provision of ethical solutions for the discreditable acts;
• Failure to maintain confidentiality. Some instances that are considered discreditable acts are necessary, which mostly occurs in the event of an internal conflict of interest. Accountants have the duty to report the misconduct of others, an unequivocal requirement, which is reported to senior officials in certain firms.
• Consultation of previous work during an attest engagement. When this happens, an accountant fails with regards to general standards, integrity and objectivity, since it is rather unethical.
• Failure to file a tax return or a tax liability under the pretext of company duties constraints. All accountants should be made aware that they have a responsibility to comply with existing local, federal as well as state laws on the timely filing of file returns. Such an employee should, therefore, be required to take the necessary steps towards correcting the issue without being hidden by his position as an accountant.
• Unrealistic time frames forcing one to engage in discreditable acts. Sometimes accountants are given unrealistic deadlines by their employers in a bid for the employers to cause accountants to engage in discreditable acts unknowingly. In the event of such an instance, an accountant is allowed to raise the issue of insufficient time instead of complying with having to bend some of the rules and codes of conduct (Larsen, 2006).
References
Larsen, E. J. (2006). Modern advanced accounting . New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Whittington, R., & Delaney, P. R. (2009). Wiley CPA exam review 2009 . Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
