Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Monday, July 16, 2007

HAY RIVER - Many people don't view accounting as the most exciting of careers.

Even Hay River's Tod Ashton, an accountant himself, recognizes it is a common perception that accountants simply sit at a desk and crunch numbers.

However, he said there is much more to being an accountant.

"Your experiences are so varied," said the partner with Ashton Chartered Accountants.

For instance, recently he received a call from a person who wanted help in planning the sale of a business, and he was doing tax planning to help another client reorganize a business.

Overall, Ashton said accountants are an important part of the business community.

Ashton said there is no simple way to describe what a chartered accountant's work actually involves.

"It's sort of like asking what the job of a doctor involves," he explained. "There are so many areas you can specialize in these days."

In Hay River, he said an accountant primarily deals with small business and helps in a number of areas, such as financial counselling, tax planning and cash flow projections.

"The area that I enjoy the most is basically helping small business owners run a successful company," he said.

Ashton also does a lot of auditing work for such organizations as the Town of Hay River and the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority. That involves verifying financial statements prepared in accordance with accepted practices.

In addition, Ashton's firm does a fair number of tax returns for individuals.

"We do 600-700 tax returns a year," he said, although he noted that's only about 10 per cent of the firm's business and condensed to March and April.

Ashton, 35, has been a chartered accountant since 1998, following in the footsteps of his father, Barry.

"As a kid, I was good in the subjects you typically associate with accounting - math, algebra and calculus," he said.

In university, he liked business-related courses, such as management and accounting, and decided to pursue a Bachelor of Commerce degree.

To become a chartered accountant, a person usually starts with a university degree and continues with articling. That involves 30 months of practical experience accompanied by six modules of further education. Each module, either online or in a classroom, lasts from 10-12 weeks.

After all that, Ashton said a person writes a national exam to earn certification as a chartered accountant.

Ashton said there are several keys to being a successful accountant.

"You've got to be able to meet your clients' needs," he said. "That's the biggest thing."

An accountant has to find out what a client requires and figure out how to achieve that goal, he said. "You've got to be able to communicate with your clients."

Most accountants are pretty busy people, so they must prioritize tasks, he said. "You've got to be able to organize things."

Ashton added an accountant also has to be able to work with numbers.

"Being good with numbers is just a given," he said, "If you're not good with numbers, you wouldn't be an accountant in the first place."