See full profile: Cosmos City Accountant - UARIPFA NEMUKULA
Were you always planning to be an accountant and why?
I can answer yes to that, from a young age from about the time I was doing my Secondary School I loved commercial subjects and everything that has to do with running a business and related administration and the thought of having to take sound business decisions (or advising someone who has to) intrigued me, and, of course, the prestige and respectability of being a responsible professional such as a Chartered Accountant.
When meeting with clients, do they mostly come to your premises or do you mostly go to theirs?
I am a fully remote based Accountant currently.
What is your preferred mode of communication with your clients?
Have you ever done an online video call with a client?
No
What do you love most about accounting?
Summarizing a lot of information and data into simplified, easy-to-understand and handle insights and detail about a business for different necessary users in different situations.
Would you recommend accounting as a career for school-leavers, and why?
No, I would not recommend accounting to a school leaver because I believe that excellent accountants must be properly trained and always be willing to develop their professional knowledge to match the current legislation, regulations and standards as most of the statutes that as Accountants we have to work with continuously keep on being updated, so a school leaver may fall behind with catching up with latest trends and end up compromising the quality of the accounting work thereby bringing the profession into disrepute and loss of respect for most of us hard-working learned accountants.
What qualities should South African business people be looking for in their accountant?
High level of integrity, honesty and ethics and not willing to compromise where there is anything that may need to be reported (reportable irregularities) to relevant authorities without fear of any intimidation that may be posed to the professional.
What is the biggest challenge facing accountants today?
Unethical clients who may wish their accountants to compromise on their work to outsmart regulatory bodies such as SARS in order to gain some sort of tax reduction or income to their businesses. Clients that may not want to pay their accountants timeously as per agreement. Accountants that may be intimidated into not reporting any irregularity they have discovered.
What aspects of accounting do you focus on most?
Recording and classifying financial transactions.
Describe your average client:
Small and medium-sized corporation.
How far away from your premises is your furthest client?
Not applicable as I am currently a fully remote based accountant.
From your accounting experience, if you could cite one of the biggest reasons SMEs in SA fail, what would it be?
Poor cash flow management and lack of sufficient internal controls thereof,
What accounting software do you like best?
Sage Accounting
What other software, online services or apps do you use?
Oracle
Do you think the coming wave of automation in the next few years will steal some accounting jobs and why/why not?
I don't think automation and artificial intelligence (AI) can fully replace the work of accountants as manual verification of source documents and certain assets by a human being will remain mandatory in order to ensure that no accountants cooks up non-existent figures that can't be justified.
What is your opinion on Bitcoin?
Growing very skeptical now about it, initially when launched it was a good idea for someone to invest in it but recently I believe it is losing value with more people wanting to invest in it for "quick returns" and "hopes for riches".
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Listening to my favorite music and watching good YouTube videos.
What is the most interesting thing on your bucket list?
Travelling and exploring different parts of the world
What has your experience been on FindanAccountant?
Still hopeful for clients
See how our other local South African accountants have answered the above questions.
