What is an accountant? Why are they the people who form and compile the formal account records, whether they are for a large or small business. They keep track of money, entry and exit, the legal part of business transactions. While their jobs may be quiet, we need them to keep things running smoothly, so these are just a few of the terms we all need to know when it comes to accounting.

If an accountant is responsible for the accounts, an account is a formal record that represents the resources of a company or business. This includes transactions, events, and whatever results in changes to that resource.

We may all know what an acquisition is in other terms, like you acquired a vase from Great Aunt Mildred, but on a professional scale, the term means that one company is acquiring a majority stake in another company. They are acquiring it along with its assets.

Companies that are acquired by others become affiliated companies. Being affiliated with each other means that they are related through common ownership or management control.

As with most careers, accountants belong to a national professional membership organization that represents them. Accountants belong to the AICPA, which stands for American Institute of Chartered Public Accountants. This organization is responsible for the codes of conduct and rules governing the profession.

If you are someone who works in a brokerage house or a bank and your job is to study companies and make buy and sell recommendations on the securities of those companies, you are called an analyst. Accountants may need to obtain information from such analysts and perhaps even give them access to such information, depending on the scenario. But who better than the accountant to know the ins and outs of a company and its assets?

Many think of accountants as just paper salesmen who sit in the back all day and pore over the numbers. For whatever reason, the profession somehow gets a bad rap, but in reality, accountants keep the business running day-to-day and are always there to analyze and decipher information for the good of the business. If anyone knows where the money is going, where it should go and who controls it, it is the accountants.