Alison Ruthen works as an accountant for Enterprise Rent-A-Car and is studying for a qualification with the ACCA, the global body for professional accountants.
Before joining Enterprise I worked for a small publishing company where the production of the accounts was outsourced to a local accountancy practice. A professional accountancy firm was then brought in by the company and I was made responsible for producing all the accounts. It was at that point I decided I wanted a career in accountancy.
When I moved to Enterprise, other members of my team were studying with ACCA. After reading the information on their website, I also chose ACCA. Their qualification is transferable across the board within the accountancy industry and also very useful in different industries.
Accountants make a great contribution to business and industry. In Enterprise, the accounts department are also called the Business Management Department, which shows how important we are to the business. Not only do we pay invoices, but we also help to manage each individual department's finances.
Being an accountant means being part of a respectable profession that is recognised and highly regarded worldwide. As an ACCA member you have an accountancy qualification that is globally acknowledged.
I am responsible for executing a timely and accurate month-end process by co-ordinating with all departments. This includes completing the preparation of the entire financial statement and supervising the collection of other processes that are used in the preparation process.
I complete month-end schedules and review the schedules completed by others. In my role I need to use analytical skills to evaluate the group's profit centres during and after the statement process. The ACCA course is very relevant to the work I do on a day to day basis. I use many of the basics skills I heave learned, such as debits, credits, P&L and balance sheet accounts.
As I move up the career ladder within the accounts department at Enterprise, my level of studying also increases in line with this. I'm particularly interested in audit and I've decided to choose it as a topic when I pick my subject options for the last papers.
I'd definitely recommend the ACCA to people looking into accountancy. A career in accountancy requires a lot of training but it's worthwhile. If you're thinking about it then the advice I would give is that it isn't all 'number crunching'. If you choose to become ACCA qualified, all the hard work will be worth it in the end.
