Accounting is a significant service activity in business and is concerned along with collecting, evaluating, communicating and recording the results of past events. The history of accounting progress reflects its changing responsibility in response to the changing business and social requirements. Along with the emergence of management accounting, the focus of accounting has been moving from mere recording of transactions to which of aiding the management in decisions.
Accounting can be perceived like an information system that has its inputs, processing outputs and methods. The value of accounting lies in its capacity to offer information to different stakeholders in business so that they could arrive on the exact decisions.
The top accounting personnel are designated along with various nomenclatures. The practice in this regard differs in various companies. The organizational setting for accounting and finance function may also differ in various organizations, depending on their peculiarities, size and nature of business, structural form and technology. At the helm of affairs is generally the Director of Accounts and Finance who is a member of the Board of Directors. Fle is helped by a General Manager who in turn is assisted through Deputy General Manager's in-charge of different sub-functions as accounts, internal audit, finance and data processing, etc. Each of the sub-functions is additionally sub- divided in activities that are the duty of a subordinate manager.