International Accounting Day is celebrated on November 10 every year. The day is all about acknowledging the role of accountants in supporting businesses and the economy – at local, national and global levels.

ACCOUNTANTS SUPPORTING THE ECONOMY
Accountants are integral to any economy, as they:

• Enable strong, sustainable, and inclusive global economic growth through quality financial reporting, auditing, and ethical behaviour.
• A greater number of accountants correlates to better economic performance in each measure reviewed in IFAC research.
• Accountants who are members of professional accountancy organisations (like SAICA), make an even more meaningful contribution, correlating to even stronger performance on the economic indicators.

Source: The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC)

ACCOUNTANTS SUPPORTING BUSINESSES
At the risk of tooting our own horns, now seems a good time to remind you of the many ways that we help businesses to not only survive but also thrive. We can do this by:

• Translating companies’ financial data, so all stakeholders can “understand the numbers”, using accounting, aka the “language of business”.
• Monitoring, recording and reporting business performance.
• Keeping track of finances to help you manage cash flow.
• Enabling accurate budgeting.
• Ensuring compliance with laws and regulations to help you avoid penalties.
• Managing payrolls.
• Optimising your tax affairs.
• Facilitating informed, data-driven decisions by providing understandable financial reports that help you to:
  • identify the most profitable products or services
  • optimise spending
  • allocate resources to high-growth areas.
• Enabling accurate forecasting of revenue and expenses, and informed financial planning.
• Detecting and preventing fraud by identifying red flags and investigating suspicious transactions.