Bahrain Accountants Society (BAC) will continue to ensure the best accounting and financial reporting techniques as part of its commitment to the accounting community in the country, a top official at the Association revealed.
“Being a public accountant isn’t just about number crunching. Our clients today demand us to act as strategic business advisers in an ever-changing world,” Abbas A Radhi President and the Bahrain Accountants Association told the participants of the two-day workshop.
“Our responsibility is to maintain the skills and techniques to act as a modern business advisor and to relish the opportunity to help our clients meet new challenges.”
“BAA is committed to its members and the business community at large to keep them abreast with the current issues in accountings and to provide training on the usages of relevant techniques and tools of decisions making,” he said, adding that the purpose of this seminar was to equip the participants with the skills required to conduct meaningful financial analysis.
“The current economic scenario warrants proper comprehensive analysis and deep understanding of financial information of any entity. This is to provide comfort about the financial standings and performance of the said entity to its stakes holders, such as shareholders regulators, customers, investors and debt providers,” he explained.
“One of the key sources of financial data is financial statements. An ability to analyse the numbers with an eye for detail is crucial to enable appropriate conclusions about historical performance and future decisions.
“An entity’s statement of financial position, statement of financial performance, statement of cash flows and notes to the accounts provide most of the historical information for analysis purposes. In addition, the Director’s Report and Management Discussion and Analysis sections provide an overall picture of the external environment in which the entity operates. The importance of the analysis of the external environment cannot be underestimated as it has an impact on the financial performance of the entities operating in it and gives an indication of the market potential and future prospects.
“To facilitate easy analysis of financial data, experts have evolved techniques including ratio analysis, industry benchmarks to enable peer group comparisons and measures of the entity financial and market standing.
“Accountants and auditors have always played a key role in the economic and financial arena, not only for national and multi-national companies but they also help businessmen in their key decision making process through their valuable input and financial analysis.
“With regard to the skills and challenges that the profession faces today in particular with acting as a business advisor and is no longer appropriate to merely report on the numbers as well as to be useful and remain relevant we must offer our clients insight.”
“To succeed in today’s accounting and finance environments, professionals need a wider range of skills. This goes for practitioners at all levels and the two most important areas are: Communication: accountants need to communicate more effectively and efficiently with one another and with our clients so as to avoid misunderstandings; Analysis: Today’s successful accountant needs to be more analytical. They must be able to not only produce financial reports and perform complex calculations, but also to identify and explain what is meaningful in the data or findings. They need to be able to answer the “Why?” and “So what?” behind the numbers and business leaders and the wider community are placing greater emphasis on reliable and timely financial advice. Accountants and Auditors are expected to deliver and we need to rise to the challenge.