Prof.

El Ghouati
School of Law and Economics
Hassan II Mohammadia University

Text I

Read the text and identify the jobs in accounting

When deciding on a future career a lot of people don't give accountancy a second thought.
Most people don't realize how varied the world of accounting is and in fact it is often seen
as boring. The truth is that accounting is the backbone of any organization and offers a
wide number of attractive careers within it.

Below you will hear about just some of the more common careers in the field of
accountancy, there are of course many more, but we don't have time to talk about all of
them.

When we consider the accounts team within a company, we generally think about clerks,
both sales ledger clerks and purchase ledger clerks recording the financial information from
all transactions the company makes. Other roles include the payroll clerk responsible for
processing staff salaries and the tax which occurs from them. Higher up the hierarchy we
have the management accountant who finalizes the accounts and prepares the annual
financial statements. The people doing these jobs make sure that the directors or owners of
the company always know its true financial position.

However, accounting is more than just reporting financial data. A good accounts team
actually works to save the company money by minimizing the tax payable and delaying
payments so companies can earn interest from their banks.

These job roles are not so clear in smaller accounting practices, where the accounting staff
often need to perform various tasks from meeting clients to helping with loan applications.
Often the majority of the work in these smaller practices is done by bookkeepers.
Generally, the owner of the practice is the most senior accountant and is usually a chartered
accountant, which means that their signature is accepted on the financial statements.

The job opportunities for accountants don't stop there: auditors are the police of the
accounting world and when they are called into a company it is their job to ensure that the
accounts were done in the correct way and that everything was accounted for. The most
feared of these auditors are the government auditors who are sent to companies suspected
of somehow breaking the rules. Working as an auditor is very different from other
accountancy work as there is no routine; you work in many locations and have contact with
many people. Although, you should be thick-skinned as often the accounting staff in
companies do not like the idea of being audited.

Career progression within accountancy often results from a specialist knowledge in a

particular area, tax advisors are able to help their clients lower their tax bill thanks to their
in-depth knowledge of taxation law and specifically what a client can off-set against tax.

As you can see the world of accountancy offers various careers, but in all of these areas
there are some qualities that a potential accountant should have. Firstly, as accounting is the
process of collecting and classifying financial data all accountants need to be perfectionists
unwilling to accept anything less than an exact result. Also, as accountants deal with large
volumes of data they need to have a good eye for detail and a real love of numbers.

A talented accountant will also be able to advise their clients on the best course of action to
take so as to save money and at the same time stay within the local accounting standards.

Accountants have to follow very strict rules and codes of conduct in order to make sure that
they do everything in a legal way. If an accountant breaks these rules they could face severe
punishment, but some accountants practice creative accounting to get around rules without
breaking them. Confidentiality is obligatory for all people working with accounts as the
financial data could be very sensitive.

Whether working in the public or private sector, accountants can expect to earn very good
salaries and also gain valuable knowledge on topics like income tax, value added tax
(VAT) and pension schemes which can help them in their life outside of work.

Exercise 1: Match the words in A with their definitions in B

A B
Auditor
Bookkeeper
VAT (value added tax)
CA (chartered accountant)
Code of conduct
Local accounting standards
Confidentiality
Income tax
Annual financial statements
Purchase ledger clerk
Payroll clerk
Management accountant
Sales ledger clerk
A tax advisor
1) the set of accounts which are prepared each year
2) a specialist whose job is to carefully check the accounts
and accounting practices of a company
3) a person, who may or may not be qualified, that records
the financial transactions of a business
4) a fully qualified accountant, holding current
certification
5) a set of rules (often used within a company) which show
the correct way to behave.
6) the state of being secret and/or kept secret
7) the tax which is due on personal earnings
8) the set of rules and laws for a country which govern
how accounts should be prepared
9) a senior member of the accounting team, who keeps a
close relationship with company owners / directors and
advises on the financial aspects of any planned action
10) the member of the accounting team who deals with
employees
11) (U.S. accounts payable) the member of the accounting
team who deals with suppliers, issues payment for goods
and services and keeps track of expenditure
12 (U.S. accounts receivable) the member of the
accounting team who deals with sales, raises invoices and
collects payment.
13) a specialist who is able to give advice on matters of
taxation
14) the tax which is due on the difference between the
value of a product or service and the cost of its production
Exercise 2: English Vocabulary for Accounting

Designed to teach you accounting, bookkeeping, and other vocabulary for financial record
keeping, while polishing your grammar skills.

(Choose the best response for each one)

1. I ______________________ our profits for the previous accounting period.

called / gathered / calculated

2. Your job will be to ___________________and maintain financial records.

promise / prepare/ make

3. An accounting period is a period of time over which ____________ are calculated.

prophets/ profits/ profiteering

4. Accounts ____________________ refers to the money that is owed to the company by

its clients/customers.
receivable/ receptive/ respected

5. To accrue means to accumulate or _________________.

decrease/ regret/ increase

6. My house has _____________ ( = increased in value) by 10% in the past 9 months.

appreciated/ depreciated/ approximated

7. I indicated all the accrued expenses on your balance _______________________.

sheet/ paper/ note

8. These expenses are typically _____________________. ( = they occur regularly)

prodigal/ pragmatic/ periodic

9. Another word for accounting is ____________________.

finance/ bookkeeping/ money counting

10. A good accountant will help you keep _____________of your business's finances.
track/ trace/ score

3) Mixed verb tenses 1

Fill in each blank with the best response

1. If he doesn't come in the next 10 minutes, we __________________________ without

him.
started
would start
will start
2. He __________________________ a manager when he was 25.
has become
became
was becoming

3. __________________________ the details of the proposed merger.

Let's to discuss
Let's discuss
Let's be discussing

4. Our distributor called while I __________________________ to Jim. (I'm no longer

talking to Jim)
was talking
have been talking
would be talking

5. I thought about your proposal, and I think we __________________________ it.

accept
will have accepted
will accept

6. How long _________________ in sales?

B or C
have you worked
have you been working

7. I have _________________ your proposal, and I'm quite impressed.

reviewed
reviewing
review

8. The mayor failed __________________________ the striking workers to return to

contract talks.
persuade
A or C
to persuade

9. The union __________________________ on Tuesday to resume contract talks.

was being agreed to
 agreed
has been agreeing

10. Negotiations __________________________ to continue into the weekend.

are expected
are expecting
expect

4) Mixed verb tenses 2

Fill in each blank with the best response

1. __________________________ a strike, the company gave in to the workers' demands.

Hoping to prevent
Hoped to prevent
Hope to prevent

2. Our employees __________________________ our strongest asset.

are being
are
to be

3. __________________________ that for another meeting.

Let's to leave
Let's be leaving
Let's leave

4. Our office usually __________________________ at 5:00 PM, but today we're staying
open until 6.
closes
is closing
closed

5. __________________________ business in third-world countries can be a frustrating

experience.
To do
Having done
Doing
6. Please ask Robert _________________to the meeting.
to be coming
to come
come

7. By the time my boss gets here, I _________________ my report.

will have finished
would be finished
finish

8. From now on, we __________________________ things differently.

will be doing
A or C
will do

9. If he had told me about this earlier, I __________________________ someone else.

will have hired
would have hired
will hire

10. I __________________________ those changes last week.

have implemented
have been implementing
implemented

5) Articles

Use: A/ The/ no article

(Choose the best response for each stentence)
1. Oil prices have risen to __________________________ record levels in the past three
years.

2. Q: Is he a clerk? A: No, he's __________________________ manager. (There's only one

manager)

3. Q: Is he a clerk? A: No, he's __________________________ manager. (There's more

than one manager)

4. Many of __________________________ programmers that started last year have quit.

5. Many _________________ programmers that started last year have quit.

6. We hope to make _________________ big advances during the early stages of this
project.

7. Take a look at this report. _________________ findings are really surprising.

8. Q: What are you working on? A: I'm trying to finish __________________________

presentation that I told you about this morning.

9. Q: What are you working on? A: I'm working on __________________________

presentation for today's meeting. (The person asking the question doesn't know about this
presentation)

10. This is _________________________ very challenging task.