Professional Services

Accountant, or Qualified Accountant, or Professional Accountant, is a certified accountancy and financial expert in the jurisdiction of many countries. Such as other legally-restricted professions including medical doctors and lawyers, different countries have their own training and examination systems to maintain the practice quality and restrict the number of qualified accountants in their jurisdictions.

Accountants originally worked only in public practice, selling advice and services to other individuals and businesses, but today, in addition, many work within private corporations, the financial industry and various government bodies.

Accountancy is the measurement, disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers, investors, tax authorities and other decision makers make resource allocation decisions.

Practitioners of accountancy are known as accountants. There are many professional bodies for accountants throughout the world, some of them are legally recognized in their jurisdictions. Such as British qualified accountants including Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA or FCCA), Chartered Accountant (CA, ACA or FCA), International Accountant (FAIA or AAIA), Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA or FCMA), Canadian qualified accountants such as Chartered Accountants, Certified Management Accountants, Certified General Accountants and Registered Public Accountants (CA, CMA, CGA or RPA)as well as American qualified accountants such as Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

The Certified Management Accountant (CMA) designation is unusual in the United States in that it does not have a statutory basis. However it is accepted by industry and by its peer associations. In Canada the Canadian CMA designation is recognised under provincial/territorial legislation.

A solicitor is a type of lawyer in many common law jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Republic of Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and in a few regions of the United States. In most common law countries the legal profession is split between solicitors who represent and advise clients, and a barrister who is retained by a solicitor to advocate in a legal hearing or to render a legal opinion.

However in most Australian States (the formal exception being Queensland, but in practice also New South Wales and Victoria), as well as in Canada, the legal profession is "fused" which means that a lawyer can be a solicitor, barrister, and proctor.

Where the legal profession is not "fused" in cases where a trial is necessary a client must retain a solicitor, who will advise him or her and then may deliver a brief to a barrister to act on the solicitor's instructions.

A secretary is either an administrative assistant in business office administration, or a certain type of mid- or high-level governmental position, such as a Secretary of State.

The office title refers to a person who performs administrative or personal tasks for a superior. The executive secretary (sometimes called administrative associate) is responsible for a myriad of responsibilities. Originally when there were only typewriters the secretary spent much of the time typing handwritten documents into typed form and xeroxing. Today with computers the amount of time doing word processing has been significantly reduced.

As a result the executive secretary or assistant today has a myriad of administrative duties. Often this might include managing budgets and doing bookkeeping. They might manage all the administrative details of running a high level conference. They need to have skills to update and maintain web sites. Often executives will ask their assistant to write original documents for review and also to collaborate with others. They manage simple to highly complex travel arrangements. They may also do personnel paperwork which used to be thought of as a Human Relations function; this might also include understanding the complex rules regarding Visa and Immigration. To be an executive secretary today a good understanding of the computer is important. A large part of the day may be in writing and responding to email communications. There is also phone communications. The executive assistant also arranges for catering for a diverse workplace. To be successful today the executive assistant must have a broad level of skills and be creative in managing new situations. As such a 4 year degree (Bachelors of Arts) is often preferred and a 2 year degree is a requirement.

The current salary curve for this position http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Executive_Assistant/Salary

The governmental title usually refers to a department-head type of position, though positions such as that of the United Nations Secretary-General may also describe the leader of an organisation.