Impact of Globalization on Accounting Education

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Globalization’s Impact on Accounting Education

Accounting is the process of recording a company’s financial information and relaying relevant information to managers and shareholders. There are two guidelines for relaying this information: the FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board) and the IFRS (Internal Financial Reporting Standards). The FASB is mainly used in the United States while the IFRS is used globally. Globalization is the process of integrating different cultures and their respective economies through communication and trade. The difficult with globalization is the fact that each culture is different. Each culture has a unique way of doing things and both cultures will have to adapt in order to successfully integrate. From an accounting standpoint, the main difference here is the way accounting is taught through the FASB and the IFRS. With globalization constantly growing, it is imperative that the impact of globalization on accounting education should be addressed.

The most apparent changes from globalization in accounting education are the changes in policies. This means that the accounting concepts would have to be taught differently because of the differences in cultures. Some main accounting concepts that would have to change would be: the FASB, the IFRS, GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). This also includes accounting for importing/exporting, exchange rates, and ethics. The convergence of the FASB and the IFRS is slowly occurring. This convergence is important because it creates a unity among the cultures interacting, which requires students to be aware and knowledgeable of other cultures and their economies. This merging is scheduled to be completed and initiated by 2015. Kathleen Casey, the President of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 2006-2011, is quoted as saying “It [a formed plan to merge the FASB and IFRS] would serve to help ease the transition to IFRS and minimize the impact of any obstacles along the way.” This plan to merge will ideally be beneficial to the global economy, but it will not come without positive and negative effects on global education.

A positive effect on global education is increased option of travel for jobs. American students will have more opportunities to travel to other countries to work, while students from other countries can come to America for work. Negative effects may include a large increase of foreign workers coming to America, and a smaller increase of Americans going to foreign countries. An example of this being a negative would be in a comparison of the populations of China to America. Statistically speaking; the ratio of more people coming into America to Americans leaving for other jobs can cause an imbalance in the job market. This could further increase unemployment in the United States. While there are both positives and negatives, from the perspective of education there will be major changes in the way accounting is taught.

As students and workers of today become familiarized with the US GAAP accounting standards, a change to the IFRS will cause the way these topics are taught greatly. Extra language classes will be required for students. In addition to this, text books will have to be rewritten and purchased by students. For the professors, they will have to learn how to account for the IFRS through seminars in order to teach it. This can also be a problem for accountants that have been in their profession for a long time. They would have to adapt to the change which would temporarily hinder their working abilities. A way to deter this would be to extend the date of the IFRS merge by a specific amount of time. This would allow current students, teachers, and accountants to prepare for the shift.

Globalization of Accounting Education is something that will ultimately benefit the global market and the respective cultures within it. The main goal of the change is to have a method of accounting that is used globally. While this concept is ideal, the process of adapting to the change will not be as easy. Some of the problems with changing include a re-evaluation of the GAAP, FASB, and IFRS rules. The benefit of this would be creating a unified method of accounting that could be used worldwide. The effects on global education would ultimately be positive because of the creation of opportunities for American students to travel to other countries for educational and work experience. The downside to this would be the possibility of more people entering America for work than leaving. The effects on global education include the re-writing of text-books and creation of new ones along with additional language course requirements. This will also force professors and working accountants to attend lectures so they may be updated on the current method of accounting. The adaption process may be difficult in the short-run, but in the long-run it creates a medium through which all cultures can communicate.

10 Features Every Social Media Dashboard Must Have

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A Social Media Dashboard can be an invaluable tool for businesses that are spending any amount of time utilizing it’s platforms for building their brand and marketing to potential & existing customers. And because this type of tool can deliver so much value, there’s no shortage of companies who offer one. However, it’s important to understand that not all Social Media Dashboards are equal in terms of what they can do for your business.

If your business is currently utilizing platforms but you aren’t using a dashboard to track social activity, here are the ten features you’ll want to make sure a dashboard has before signing up for it:

Easy to Use

Simply put, if a dashboard is cumbersome or unintuitive, it’s going to hold your efforts back instead of propelling them forward.

Comprehensive Coverage

A big part of why this type of dashboard is so useful is because it allows you to handle all your social media management from a central location. Since a dashboard is only as good as the platforms it allows you to manage, be sure to choose one that has enough resources behind it to support all of the platforms you currently utilize.

Multiple Layouts

Different tasks require different information to be emphasized. A dashboard that allows you to customize what you see to your current task will save you a lot of time.

Helps You Stay Organized

You’ll want to choose a dashboard that makes it dead simple to perform tasks like searching for something you previously shared.

Emphasizes Relevancy

One of the biggest challenges with it’s Analytics is separating meaningful signals from noise. By choosing a dashboard that has features that help to do this type of work, you can avoid drowning in too much data.

Real-Time Monitoring

Since social media is all about the now, it only makes sense that the Monitoring provided by a dashboard should be capable of keeping up with conversations in real-time. And since you’re a busy person who simply can’t sit in front of the dashboard throughout the entire day, it’s important for it to have a notification system. This will ensure that even if an important conversation seems to come out of the blue, you will know about it right away.

Streamlined Publishing

A great dashboard shouldn’t just help you keep up with what’s being said about your business. It should also have features that make Social Media Posting even easier. By choosing a dashboard that streamlines publishing, you can ensure that your brand is always part of relevant conversations.

Collaboration Features

The most successful business social media strategies are those that utilize every member of a business. A dashboard that allows you to give different levels of permission to various members of your team will save you a lot of time and stress.

Focused on Community

Because social media is such a powerful tool for building an active online community, be sure that the dashboard you’re considering is going to be able to support that type of activity.

Ties Into Other Marketing Efforts

Social media isn’t something that should exist in a silo. That’s why features like automated reports that can be shared with clients, team members or email subscribers are an essential component of a great dashboard.

Now that you know exactly what makes a truly useful social media dashboard, you’ll be able to pick the one that’s right for your business, which in turn will allow you to take your social media branding and marketing efforts to the next level!

French Landscape Painter & Impressionist – Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

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Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, one of the most admired French landscape painters and printmakers, was born into an affluent bourgeois family in Rue du Bac, Paris on July 17, 1796. Camille’s father was a wig maker and mother, a milliner. Unlike most artists who show precocious sign of artistry, the follower of the ‘Barbizon School of France,’ Corot realized his true calling only by 1815, when he began drawing classes at Atelier Suisse. After the Corots shifted to a new house in 1817, Jean took a room on the third floor that also later became his first studio. Ever well off, the artist was educated at Rouen and was apprenticed as a draper.

Though, Camille Corot did not like commerce, yet he pursued the trade for six years. Despite the aversion with the line, the painter gathered the aesthetics of the elements (especially colors) of art, during these business years. At twenty-six however, he finally decided to build a career in arts. Achille-Etna Michallon, a landscape painter, under whom Corot sought training for a year (1821-1822), was a great influence on his paintings. Along with the different art forms, Michallon introduced Corot to the concept of ‘French Neo-Classicism.’ After Michallon, Corot joined the tutelage of his teacher, Jean-Victor Bertin.

In 1825, the artist made the first of his many trips to Italy and in a span of three years, accomplished over 200 drawings and 150 paintings. He learnt the elements of ‘Italian Renaissance’ painting, such as volumizing, solidity, light & shadow, thick & thin highlights, and figuration. Two of his paintings here, “Forum (1826)” and “the Bridge of Narni (1827),” are exposited at the Louvre, Paris. Corot’s approach towards landscape painting shuffled between ‘Neoclassical’ and ‘Northern Realism,’ coupled with the technique of ‘Plein-air’ of ‘Impressionism.’ This was followed by touch ups in the studio, for all his works. Corot, was unique not due to his painting technique but because of a thematic rebelliousness that bordered on hearsay. This considering the fact that he was a devout Christian, was in itself a tribute to the artist in him.

By 1827, the artist started featuring regularly at the Salon, beginning with “View at Narni (1827).” With “Agar dans le desert (Hagar in the Wilderness)” in 1835 at the Salon, Corot impressed his critics. “Venise, La Piazetta (1835),” “Macbeth and the Witches (1859),” “Wallace Collection,” “L’Arbre brisé (1865),” “Ville d’Avray (1867),” “Femme Lisant (1869),” “Biblis (1875),” “Souvenir de Mortefontaine (1864)” at Louvre, “Meadow by the Swamp” at the National Museum of Serbia, and “Pastorale – Souvenir d’Italie (1873)” at the Glasgow Art Gallery, are a few of his much celebrated masterpieces. Apart from landscapes, Camille created several competent portraits as well.

By 1865, Corot advanced to a distinct style of painting, characterized by the precision of the sketched structure on a background filled with natural light, highlighting the romantic ambience brought by the soft brushstrokes. Corot received the cross of the Légion d’Honneur by the French government, in 1846. Elected as jury and awarded a second-class gold medal in 1848 at the Salon, the artist was later promoted as an officer of the Salon in 1867. Corot breathed his last on February 22, 1875, and was buried at Père Lachaise. Being a kind hearted and good-natured man, his list of admirers runs long, including the likes of Camille Pissarro, Eugène Boudin, Berthe Morisot, Stanislas Lépine, Antoine Chintreuil, François-Louis Français, Charles Le Roux, and Alexandre DeFaux.