Job Responsibilities of an Accountant
As the career prospects of online accounting degrees clearly indicates, the job responsibilities of an accountant is no more limited to the maintenance of balance sheet and  ledger book. The career prospects of online accounting degrees are huge in regard to the wide array of job responsibilities in the present day business scenario. The primary job responsibilities of an accountant include, preparing profit and loss statements,

• maintaining entries of vouchers,
• accounting ledger book maintenance,
• documentation of business transactions,
• explaining billing invoices and accounting policies to staff, vendors and clients,
• resolving accounting loopholes and discrepancies,
• taking initiative with auditors to complete internal as well as external audits, etc.

Apart from these basic job responsibilities, there can be numerous special job responsibilities assigned to the accountant. Some of these responsibilities include various management decisions in relation to fiscal aspects of various company initiative and programs, preparing  budget for the company, financial advisory responsibilities and multiple management decisions and assigned tasks.

List of career prospects of an online accounting degree
The second important aspect of career prospects of online accounting degrees is the numerous job positions or career available with a online accounting degree. The major areas of career prospects of an online accounting degree are introduced here below:

Public Accountant
Public accountant is an independent professional career which serves the public for their diverse accounting needs and is paid in accordance with his service. A public accountant is mainly sought after for the professional service of taxation, accounts book keeping and auditing.

Government Accountant
Government accountant mainly looks after the accounting, cost analysis and budgetary responsibilities of government institutions.

Personal Accountant
A personal accountant is basically a professional job position in the service of an individual proprietor or higher level of management positions of business. This position is  mainly responsible for various types of personal accounts maintenance and audit works.

Internal Auditor
This accountant position is mainly responsible for audit of the company accounts and checking and rechecking of various factors of accounting information to meet the compliance norms of the organisation.

Financial Accountant
This career prospect of online accounting degrees is one of the top professional position in the practice of accounting which collaborates with both the disciplines of finance and accounting. A financial accountant normally works with the responsibility of evaluating financial position and performance of a company by analysing the financial data of the company.

Accountant Salary and Remuneration
According to the recent salary survey which has been conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the average annual salary of an accountant with a bachelor degree is $48,993 and for an master degree candidate it is $49,786, which is really a lucrative sum in comparison to many other professions.

The career prospects of online accounting degrees is enormous, specially in the recession driven time of cost cutting. An academic degree with a rigorous focus on expanding professional responsibilities is what is most required to avail these career prospects and growth paths.

Right kind of education and an eye for detail are essential to become an accountant. Different degrees and skills are essential to work at different levels of accounting jobs. Typically, online courses can be taken for obtaining accounting certificates and bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The accounting curriculum does not require hands-on training or laboratory work and hence online courses can be offered without much of a problem. An accounting course offered online comprises of lectures, presentations, classroom discussions, online tests, etc. Parents staying at home, returning students and those in full-time employment can take advantage of the technology to learn and share information. The subjects covered in online accounting courses are same as that offered in regular institutions and include financial accounting, accounting theory, contemporary auditing and project management, among many others.

Most accounting jobs require at least a bachelor’s degree due to the fact that fundamental accounting standards are covered in the curriculum. Online institutions offer a two-year associate degree as a technical skill and a traditional four-year bachelor’s degree. It is important that those opting for associate degree support it with internship experience. Internship is a great way to get hands-on experience for aspiring accountants. Many accounting firms offer internship programs with the expectation that the trained students will come back to them after graduation for employment. Some accounting firms pay the interns for the work they do.

Some of the accredited online accounting schools and colleges are listed below:

• Associate in applied science degree in accounting offered by Everest University Online trains students for entry-level jobs as bookkeepers, junior accountants, etc. Everest University Online is accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools. The university provides round the clock support for online students and offers financial aid as well.
• Colorado Technical University Online offers a 15-month bachelor of science in accounting degree program, highlighting subjects such as taxation, government and non-profit accounting. Students who already have an associate’s degree or equivalent can apply for this course. High school graduates or GED holders can complete the program in 2 years and six months. Colorado Technical University Online is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
• The associate of arts in accounting degree course offered by Brookline College prepares first-time accounting students for prospective careers in the field. Brookline College has been accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools. Students are required to earn a total of 62 credits to successfully complete the course.
• Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona, offers an online master of business degree in accounting program accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, emphasizing the business practices in the global marketplace and the application of soft skills to become successful in the financial world.
• Capella University, accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and based Minnesota, offers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in accounting. The online courses can be accessed any time and from anywhere. Duration of the programs vary based on the number of classes taken per semester.

Having completed an undergraduate and a graduate or master’s degree in accounting, it is important to obtain the right certifications for landing the right job and enjoying a career growth. This is because most accounting firms and corporations give preference to those certified by an accounting standards board. Candidates can opt to become a certified public accountant (CPA) or a certified managerial accountant (CMA).

The core responsibility of an accountant is to ensure that the business transactions of a company are recorded accurately and presented to the investors. However, the scope of job of an accountant may also include preparation of tax, auditing, consulting, analysis of budget, etc. Accountants are given different titles to handle such broad scope of responsibilities. A public accountant does these jobs for clients like individuals, corporations or governments. Accountants are paid to audit individual corporations.  Public accountants work for individuals in preparing their income tax returns. Typically, managerial accountants handle accounting tasks for the companies where they are employed. Internal auditors are accountants hired by corporations as full-time employees. They check the company’s balance sheets and accounts for fraud and inefficiencies.

Certified accountants work for auditing firms, companies or as self-employed professionals. Technology firms and commercial banks are also major employers of accountants. There is a high demand for accountants with the tremendous growth seen in healthcare and insurance sectors.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a 22% growth is expected in the number of jobs available for accountants during the period 2008 – 2018, driven by an increase in the number of businesses and a change in the financial standards in the US. The demand for greater levels of accountability and transparency by investors and corporations is also fueling growth.

The average salary earned by accountants and auditors is around $70,000 a year, with the less-experienced ones and those employed in non-profit organizations earning about $40,000 annually and the top professionals making more than $105,000 per year. If the salaries are analyzed location and industry wise, accountants and auditors in Colorado and Delaware earn salaries that match with the national average, while those in Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, and Washington D.C earned salaries above average.

On an average bookkeepers and accounting clerks earn around $40,000 a year. However, it can range from $30,000 at entry level to $55,000 based on experience, qualification, etc. In terms of location, South Dakota is one of the lowest paying states due to lower cost of living and higher availability of bookkeepers. Alaska, Massachusetts, and Maryland pay higher salaries with Washington D.C. paying the highest.

Twitterholic
This site provides a financial expert data about most popular people on Twitter and data which can be used to assess common habit or other related data among those users. The twittastic robots can scan the Twitter public timeline data for new twits to tweet. This can be further understood as that data and stat is read on Twitter user pages. And list for data is constantly updated many times a day to check out the most popular twitter user.

TweetStats
This application keeps track of tweets from per hour tweets to per month tweets. All these stat is collected from using Gnip. Presently, Gnip crawls through nearly 2 million tweets per day.  And basis of all that collected data it creates graphics to be further utilized.

Twitter Grader
This is a tool which can effectively measure power of any Twitter profile. After evaluating a profile on the basis of a number of factors like followers, power of those followers and their engagement in the community it generate a free report within seconds.

Twitter Counter
It is a completely analytical web application that projects reports on the basis of collected data from Twitter like the most popular users and others. The Twitter Counter was started in June 12, 2008.

Twist
See trends on Twitter; find out what’s hot and what people are saying about it.

TweetRush
TweetRush provides estimated statistics on Twitter usage over a period of time.

Tweetwasters
This is interesting twitter tool which tells about estimated time spend on over Twitter by a Twitter account holder. And this application has word press plug to display its result on one’s blog.

Open Courseware puts together educational material from the top most educational institutions across the globe for free. It includes everything that you would be entitled to in a conventional degree program. The only difference is that you do not have to travel to your college each day and attend long classes.

The entire course is put online. Open Courseware provides you with complete syllabus, assignments, online course material that can be easily downloaded on your computer, streaming videos etc to make the process of learning much easier and simpler.

So what do you have to do to avail the online education offered by Open Courseware? NOTHING. There are no pesky registrations or enrollment fees involved here. All you need is a computer and get started right away.

Yes, it is true that the Open Courseware does not grant you a formal degree, as to say. And neither does it offer you one on one channels of communication with the faculty. But nevertheless, there is so much that Open Courseware has in store of you and i.e. knowledge.

Come to think of it, you are sitting in a boardroom meeting where your colleagues are tossing out complicated financial terms. What do you do then? Keep acting like a dumb head and say nothing? Or may be you could act smarter by taking the help of the Open Courseware Consortium. Research those financial terms and the next time these terms pop up, you could tell your colleagues who is actually smarter.

Open Courseware may not entitle you with a degree but it does give you a chance to be a part of the intelligentsia. And there is absolutely no harm in adding to your existing pool of knowledge.

In terms of offerings, there is quiet a lot that Open Courseware serves you with. This consortium puts together online courses from over 160 higher education institutions. A shred model is used to impart this vast pool of information in an easily comprehensible manner.

Today Open Courseware allows access to over 5,000 courses. These courses have been translated to various foreign languages such as Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese and Thai to allow more and more people access to these courses.

And the best part is that all this comes for free. You could probably have the same knowledge and education for quiet a sum had you enrolled in any formal business degree course.

If you find that you cannot afford to pay for the online degrees, there are a number of scholarships available for you. You can get scholarships from organizations, private trusts and government organizations. Most sponsors ask for a good academic record from those who apply for the scholarships. Although the scholarship opportunities are quite many, they are also highly competitive. You have to work very hard to get a piece of the cake.

The internet is a good place to start looking if you want an online accounting degree scholarship. You can also get sponsors by asking around or reading scholarship journals and books from your nearest library. Scholarships are a good way to get through your education without having to worry about financial constraints. They are also better than loans in that you do not have to repay your sponsors.

Accounting major college grants are also available if you fail to get a scholarship. Organizational, governmental and institutional grants are available. These grants con cover all your college needs, from tuition to boarding expenses.

When looking for a top accounting degree it is important to make sure that you enroll in a credible accounting school. There are many dubious institutions that are purporting to offer competitive accounting degrees through the internet when they all they are out there to do is to defraud you. The online degree you apply for should be properly accredited.

If you want to advance your accounting career then it is high time that you enrolled for a top online accounting degree in a top accounting school. Choose an accounting major that will catapult your career to greater heights.