Why isn’t Accounting Software taught at business schools?
The ivy tower of ignorance
Recently Plus & Minus hired an accountant who just graduated from a large public university in the Houston area. This person had a very thorough 4-year education in the subject of accounting, but NOT ONE credit hour, not one iota of time in the subject of accounting software. Hmm, is accounting still done using those gigantic 13-column tablets? Are No. 2 pencils still the rage in accounting departments? Hey! Nice pencil sharpener. Does it come in any other colors?
Why don’t accounting students get experience working and learning on real accounting software? I know of schools where students use actual income tax software to learn how to apply their education on taxes. I have also heard of students studying QuickBooks. That’s a good start, but it’s a lightweight program.
Is the study of accounting software too “blue-collarish?” Should it only be studied in community colleges? Trade schools?
And yet, when a freshly minted accountant starts at a company, I would presume that management would expect the employee to know something about the general ledger, how to record entries, how the financial transactions flow among accounts, why journals are used for recordings, whether the transactions impact the Income Statement or Balance Sheet, and other presumptions. But all these transactions use accounting software, and the new employee has zero experience in such a program. Could you imagine a flight school graduating a pilot who never had to navigate a plane using in-flight GPS?
What a shame! Maybe accounting students should start a rebellion. Yeah, right.
