AICPA Core Competency Assessment

Can I absolutely be a great accountant? This question has crossed my mind many times as I progress through the accounting curriculum. It began when I learned that being a good accountant is more than merely adding and subtracting receipts as a bookkeeper, and that the CPA examination is no easy feat to overcome. Contemplating the answer has cast doubt in me at times. Now knowing about and reviewing the AICPA Core Competency Framework has presented me with an excellent opportunity to look inward and reflect on what it takes to be a great and successful accounting professional. The framework does not encompass every aspect of accounting specifically, but nonetheless it provides an excellent foundation on which an accountant can build their

Looking at the framework, I find that I have strengths in some skills that are interrelated within the categories. First I relate to Decision Modeling in Functional, Problem Solving and Decision Making in Personal, and Strategic/Critical Thinking in Broad Business Perspective. These three important skills have a commonality, in that they pertain to taking in data or information and extrapolating key items or synthesizing them to have a better understanding to make correct and effective choices. I have developed these skills by employing them in my work. To demonstrate, in my previous experience as a general manager for a McDonald’s franchise on a weekly basis I needed to track the store’s daily sales, look at the past weekly sales trends and compare them to past year sales and make scheduling decisions, all while keeping in mind the sales and labor cost goals set by my supervisor. Understaffing could keep us from effectively reaching the sales targets, and yet the cost of labor would be low. Overstaffing would ensure we were ready to take in every sale opportunity that drove in or came through the doors, however increasing the cost of labor could hurt our bottom line as we were not being efficient. As can be seen, solving the dilemma of scheduling consists of taking in multiple pieces of information and data, bringing it all together to create a schedule of employee

I feel knowing how to conduct good research is very important, as being able to pull information from various sources and interpret it to have a better understanding of the topic at hand is essential in business. This skill comes in to use when I am confronted with a situation I know nothing about, and I have to make a decision. I will research, learn as much as I can and then make the choice I confidently feel has the most benefit. Currently at work, I use it when conducting investigations and do research to find information for my cases to get a grasp on the current status of businesses. As well, I research code sections to ensure that I am applying them appropriately when I write the report detailing the validity of the assessment. Hence, conducting good research to find the best information is important not just in business, but in much of daily