Essay Example - Business Law for Accountants

Business law is a fundamental knowledge that accountants should equip themselves with as they work for different companies or organizations. Business law helps companies detect problems or the legal changes that they might face as they carry on their operations. Business law entails a lot to most accountants from business enterprises, to contract law, and employment law. Business law helps accountants from a different perspective, and it provides legal ways through which various issues facing business can be addressed. Through business laws, accountants can meet the challenges that are correctly facing business before their financial impacts are felt by the organization (Garbowski, 2019). Some of the areas that can be addressed include contract management, issues related to employees, and bankruptcy from the company. Accountants need to have the business laws at their fingertips so that they can be of use to the company when the company is experiencing financial challenges. They should not only offer advice to the company on the financial impacts but also provide legal implications and legal solutions to the issues.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

I got an opportunity to interview Juan Rafael, an employer at one of the most larges religious groups in the world. Juan works as a treasurer at the Seventh Day Adventist church. The church is the second-largest in the world, according to its finances and the assets. The church has invested in schools and hospitals, Rafael being the chief accountant to the institution he has more experience with the business laws to help him appropriately run the institution.

My first question to Rafael was, what are his roles as a chief accountant to the institution? Rafael audit books of the accounts from his fellow junior accountants in the institution. He is working on all the deals that have a financial impact on the church. Rafael offers financial advice to the management of the church on the progress of the development of the church and how to better the financial status of the church. Rafael also advised the church on the management of employees and their wages to make sure that the business plans of the church are not interfered with at any point. Rafael was mandated by the church management on their behalf to balance the books of account and to make sure that the church achieves its financial obligations to the government by paying all the taxes, rates and rents.

My second question to Rafael was, how the knowledge of business law enables him to deliver what he is required of the church. Rafael being able to provide this to the church business law, has a significant impact on his practice as a chief accountant to the church. Rafael being the church accountant he has some of his juniors that help him to deliver his roles to the church, he must make sure that he serves as an experience to his juniors through his experience on how he handles his duties (McCourt et al., 2017). Some of the areas that he focused on to make sure that he delivers his best is the employment laws. These are laws that control the relationship between the employer and the employees, so he makes sure that there is a good relationship between the employer and the employees in terms of performance and wages. The second area is the contract law that entails the agreements about the financial impacts and, lastly is the tort liability. According to Rafael, these are the essential areas that he focused on enabling him to deliver to the church.

My third question to Rafael was to explain how the contract law works and what it entails. Things are changing in the modern world, and an accountant who deals with the contractual agreements need to be very careful on they come into terms. Nothing can be trusted in the current times, and the contract law is fundamental when making agreements because it makes the deal durable. The contract law facilitates an agreement. If it is not for the law, then contracts would have been violated. Contract law is to make everything complete without any party complaining. The primary role of the contract law is to the accountants in sealing the deals and to make sure all the sealed deals have legal security.

My last question to Rafael was, are there any other functions of accountants apart from the once he listed at the beginning of the interview and what are the procedures to terminate the contract of an employee and what are the circumstances when the termination can be done. According to Rafael, apart from offering advice about financial impacts, accountants are also allowed to deal with employees directly. At some point, the organization may be forced to cut the wage bills for employees, and this can be done by cutting down a few employees in the company. The contract of the employee cannot be terminated before it is mature according to employment law. The accountant will offer the company advice on the legal impacts in case they terminate the employee's contract before it is mature (Miller,2016). The accountant will explain to the company impacts in case the company is in that situation. Just avoid putting the company in more trouble. In case the company needs to terminate the contract of the employee before it expires, then they will be forced to choose the expensive option, which includes compensation of the employee. The company will have to settle all the wages of the employee until the contract expires. The company will always try to choose the cheapest alternative so that it cannot violate the employment law.

Rafael is an experienced chief accountant. His experience in business law has enabled him to deliver his best for the institutions. The way he shares his knowledge and mentor’s young accountants is excellent. Rafael working in a large institution with braches almost across the whole world has made him gain the necessary expertise about the business and being aware of what the company needs from him. Business law entails three critical aspects that are the business enterprises, contract law, and employment that any professional accountant should be aware of as they deliver their duties to different organizations. As an accountant, the most important thing is to be familiar with the business to help you deliver the best services to the organization. At any point when an organization fails to achieve its financial obligations, it is the accountant working at the company to be blamed for failing to advise the company appropriately. Organizations will always rely on their accountants for financial advice, and the accountant has the experience to detect any financial impact that the company might face as they focus on their activities. From Rafael’s, I have learnt more that will help me in my first job or internship to any company that will be able to work with when I complete my studies.

References

Garbowski, M., Drobyazko, S., Matveeva, V., Kyiashko, O., & Dmytrovska, V. (2019). Financial accounting of E-business enterprises. Academy of Accounting and Financial Studies Journal, 23, 1-5.

McCourt, A., Low, M., & Tappin, E. (2017). Business Law in the Accounting Curriculum: An Exploratory Study. e-Journal of Business Education and Scholarship of Teaching, 11(1), 1-18.

Miller, R. L. (2016). Business Law: Text & Cases-Commercial Law for Accountants. Cengage Learning.