Accounting career

[PlumGT]

I used to be a psychology major, but after taking an intro class for business, I find myself drawn to accounting. My question is: What math skills are needed for accounting? THanks!

[vct]

i would say intermediate math skills. you dont need the advance stuff.

accounting is half numbers and half words.

eg. accounting is applying/ intepreting legislation/standards (words) but theres also calcs and presenting data (numbers).

[ghost69]

basic college math skill i think. algebra and maybe some calculus requirements, and i think definitely some statistics. if you can understand those types of concepts, you will smoke through accounting easily.

[Red Fox]

I used to be a psychology major, but after taking an intro class for business, I find myself drawn to accounting. My question is: What math skills are needed for accounting? THanks!

 

I don't think the mathematics requirements are particularly heavy, but saying that you need a good basic grounding in mathematics. In the UK they will accept people onto the start of very high level professional accountancy qualifications (such as ACCA: link removed this is a globally recognised qualification) who have a C or a B in mathematics GCSE usually (in terms of the maths requirements only, other qualifications will be needed). GCSE exams are the exams you take at age 16 in the UK, and C is probably a good pass. So you can see the mathematics required to start with is not of a very high level.

 

The ACCA qualification is extremely difficult but most of the difficulty comes from not the level of mathematics required but understanding complex instructions, procedures, and applying them correctly. Some of the modules will not even use mathematics at all. For example an accountant needs a solid understanding of law (for example contract, employment, money laundering, fraud, corporations, tax and so on).

 

Possibly more important than mathematics would be the ability to think things through logically and thoroughly. For example when presented with an individuals taxable profit and loss figures for several years can you work out what rules for allowing loss relief in taxation apply? Can you evaluate all the applicable rules and decide what is the best and most tax efficient way of allocating losses? The mathematics involved is very simple in this case. The difficulty comes in remembering the rules, deciding what ones apply, working out the result in each case, and this is the decision making process which is the hard part.