Accounting: Ethics Training
- 1). Enroll in an accounting course at a college or university that covers ethical principles in the accounting field. Note that an accounting ethics course typically is a requirement to earn a four-year bachelor's degree in fields such as accounting or business, as well as a two-year master's degree in any of these areas.
- 2). Study how to recognize an ethical situation and the ethical issues involved, using your personal ethics as well as an organization's written code of ethics. Also, review how to identify the stakeholders - the people who might be harmed or benefited as the result of an ethical situation - and determine the responsibilities and organizations of the involved parties. Go over the most ethical alternatives in a given business situation and weigh the impact of each alternative on various stakeholders.
- 3). Review the importance of reporting accounting information that is relevant, meaning it would make a difference in a business decision. Also, study the fact that accounting information must be verifiable, which means you should be able to prove it is free of error.
- 4). Go over the accounting principle of consistency in financial reporting, in which a company must use the same accounting principles and methods from year to year. Also, learn about how the full-disclosure principle requires companies to disclose all circumstances and events that would make a difference to financial statement users, such as investors.
- 5). Study information on fraud and internal-control principles, such as the assigning of responsibility to specific employees and making different employees responsible for related financial activities. For example, master concepts, including not allowing an employee who handles ordering goods to also handle receipt of the goods and payment authorization so as to prevent the employee from being able to authorize payment for a fictitious invoice.
In addition, review the value of establishing human resource controls, such as bonding employees who handle cash and rotating employees' duties to deter employees from attempting thefts.
