Accountancy and business services: Overview

search for » job vacancies in finance and management consultancy

The accounting sector is enormous and covers many areas, including:

• audit and advisory work;
• taxation;
• business consulting;
• insurance;
• actuarpracial work;
• management accounting.

There are plenty of different areas for graduates, but competition is fierce.

Ads by Google

• According to the Professional Oversight Board for Accountancy, there are 270,000 qualified accountants in the UK;
• 170,000 students are currently working towards achieving an accountancy qualification. (Key Facts and Trends in the Accountancy Profession, Financial Reporting Council (FRC), 2007).
• 265,000 graduates expect to be competing for 95,000 specific positions (UK Graduate Careers Survey, High Fliers, 2007).
• Competition is even more severe for prestigious graduate schemes, with up to 50 applications per place.

Accountancy and business services is a flourishing sector in the UK. The UK is seen as a world leader in financial reporting, audit, taxation and business advisory services. The sector is viewed as considerably stable, as there will always be the need for high-quality accounting.

However, accountancy has come under attack through the credit crunch and wider slowdown in economy (2007-08), providing the biggest shift in accounting thinking over the past 20 years ('Service sector downbeat amid decline in demand', Financial Times, 5 March 2008). Graduate recruiters say that numbers of new hires will not change. The sector is considered to be stronger than other sectors, such as financial services.

What kind of work can I do?

Public practice

The majority of Chartered Accountants work in public practice, also known as professional services. These accountancy firms offer fee-paying clients a range of services from audit to management consultancy. There are three broad categories of firms:

• The ‘Big Four’ accountancy firms - Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) - style themselves as professional services providers. They present themselves to clients as advisers, offering solutions to all of their business problems.
• Large to medium-sized firms vary significantly in terms of numbers of partners, offices and employees. They offer similar services to the ‘Big Four’, with client lists that vary from independent businesses to household name companies across all sectors.
• Small firms provide all-around service to clients. Small firms tend to deal with small businesses and private clients.

The main career opportunities within public practice are:

• Assurance and audit - inspecting accounting records and procedures of a business, government or other organisation, and verify the accuracy and completeness of the records.
• Corporate finance - working with mergers and acquisitions of organisations, fund-raising and public/private partnerships.
• Corporate recovery/insolvency - helping businesses recover from and overcome financial difficulties.
• Environmental auditing - a growth area, examining how companies may avoid wastage and looking at costs of setting up environmental controls, such as recycling.
• Forensic accounting - quantifying losses from thefts, frauds and accidents and advising on disputes that may arise from mergers and acquisitions.
• Taxation - includes two main areas, tax compliance (completing and submitting tax returns) and tax advisory and planning (analyzing and recommending changes on how organisations structure their finances).
• Financial outsourcing - providing the total finance function and payroll services for a business.
• Management consultancy - the ‘Big Four’ may also offer actuarial services, insurance and pensions services, human resources/people services and IT solutions in addition to services mentioned above.

Internal providers

This includes public sector companies as well as industry and commerce. Multinationals, charities, NHS Trusts, local authorities, educational institutions, banks, insurance companies and manufacturers have internal accountants. They provide some or all of the following services:

• Internal audit; produce audit reports and recommendations. Practitioners do not have to be members of a Recognised Qualifying Body (RQB).
• Financial accounting; involves keeping track of all financial transactions and preparing accounts.
• Management accounting; providing management with information needed to make decisions as well as financial support to business divisions, preparing and controlling budgets, financial management reports, etc.

What’s it like working in this sector?

• Hard work, long hours, and high reward - traditionally these words have summed up the sector.
• Graduates entering the profession must be prepared to devote a great deal of time and self-discipline to study for the various professional exams required through the early years of their career.
• Work/life balance has become an issue in recent years. Some larger employers are taking steps to address this, offering flexible working, for example.
• Due to the high profile of the profession, dress code is usually formal.
• Salaries vary considerably depending on location, size of company and specialisation. Starting salaries range from £20,000 - £32,000 (salary data collected June 2008).
• Graduate employers recognise the importance of diversity in the performance of their teams and implement various diversity initiatives during the recruitment process.

How big is this sector?

• There are over 440,000 accountancy students and practitioners in the UK.
• The UK accountancy market is dominated by four global accountancy firms (the `Big Four’), which audit almost all of the top 100 public limited companies (PLCs) and most of the top 350 PLCs

Where can I work?

• Given that London is a global financial centre, the majority of jobs are located in London and the South East, but roles may be found throughout the UK.
• Some of the accounting qualifications (e.g. ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) are recognised in over 170 countries. It is possible to train and work anywhere in the world. Multinational companies and international employers have offices overseas.
• For more information on international vacancies, visit opportunities abroad.