Jobs Available for Those With an Online Associate’s Degree in Accounting

April 30th, 2008 • Filed Under

Accounting is a diverse field with many different career paths. Two areas within the field you will hear of the most are cost accounting and financial accounting. Those who get their associate’s degree in accounting will more than likely have to complete their liberal arts courses, some general business courses, and some accounting core courses. The online associate’s degree in accounting basically prepares you for entry-level employment in this important business career. With this two-year degree, you will more than likely work in an entry-level type of job within the field.

Let’s look at a few here:

An online associate’s degree in accounting can start you as a bookkeeper. Bookkeeping is a very important function necessary for accurate financial reporting in a company. The bookkeeper has the main responsibility of keeping the general ledger accounts up-to-date by recording debits and credits each day. These days, most of this work is done by computers however the bookkeeper needs to know that the transactions entered are in fact accurate. The online associate’s degree in this field will start the student out with things like double-entry accounting, T-accounts, and the chart of accounts.

There are also opportunities open to you as an accounts payable clerk. One of the most important functions of the accounts payable clerk in a business is to make sure supplier invoices get paid. Plus, most suppliers offer discounts if invoices are paid within a pre-determined number of days. Your online associate’s degree program in this field will teach you how to record these discounts correctly in the books. A good accounts payable clerk can actually save the business some money if the discount timing is tracked properly.

You can also work as an accounts receivable clerk. The accounts receivable area in a business is very important because it is the life blood for business health. Without the proper recording of incoming cash flow, businesses can have difficulty getting credit that is needed to pay suppliers in order to acquire inventory. Your online associate’s degree program in accounting will teach you the process of recording payments in customer accounts and the amount of credit that has been extended. Most accounts receivable functions are handled by sophisticated computer systems these days but the accounts receivable clerk has to know how to maintain customer records and what to look for if something is not reporting correctly.

Your online associate’s degree work can apply towards your bachelor’s degree. Make sure the work you do to fulfill the requirements of your online associate’s degree can be applied towards later work for an online bachelor’s and MBA degree in accounting. Most likely it will apply if the online associate’s degree program is fully-accredited. Usually, if you continue with the same school throughout the life of your education, your associate’s degree work in accounting will transfer just fine.

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