When I ask people what they think what accountants do, they usually respond with things such as recording or issuing invoices, making payments, or presenting taxes. The funny thing is when some say “anybody could do it. I did the accounting of my own business, but I hired an accountant to save time”.

Accounting, unfortunately, is a profession that is usually confused with pure administration work. There are even some companies where accountants are not required to have a minimun technical knowledge. “Nobody needs to know accounting to book an invoice”, I heard often.

However, I have to disagree with this statement.

Accounting covers a broad range of activities, from recording invoices or booking bank statements, to prepare cash flow and revenue forecasts, or reviewing the consistency of financial statements of a listed company in the stock market so that investors can make an investment decision. We could even go further than that. Some accountants, analyse financial risks, monitor the performance of certain business areas and are involved in defining processes.

Therefore, when somebody says “but processing an invoice is easy”, I can’t help but raise a brow of concern.

It is true that an invoice can be paid easily. You just log in in your bank account and make the payment. However, it is the first step in financial control of a business. When you receive an invoice, questions that could arise are:

• Is the fiscal data on the invoice correct?
• Is the gross amount, applied VAT and net amount correct?
• How do I record the VAT so that it’s declared correctly in VAT returns?
• How do I classify this type of expense?
• Does this purchase have to be capitalised?
• Did this supplier already invoiced us for this?
• Is there anybody in the company who can validate this?
• How much money do we owe to this specific supplier?

Today, many of these activities can be automised and AI tools may simplify this process and make it more efficient, and accurate, but the understanding and judgement of a finance professional to make sure the data is consistent, is always needed.

In the end, it is about keeping your finances under control and ensure the business is profitable. Who does not want that? Despite we accountants can be sometimes a bit annoying, our mission is not to bother or make business more difficult. On the contrary, our mission is to help a company succeed and survive in the long-term.