What is a Accountant?

What an accountant does

An accountant works at a higher level than day-to-day record keeping — interpreting your numbers, minimising tax and advising on decisions. Typical work includes:

• Preparing and lodging income tax returns
• Tax planning and legally minimising liabilities
• Advising on business structure (sole trader, company, trust, partnership)
• Preparing financial statements and analysing performance
• Cash flow, growth and end-of-financial-year strategy
• Often payroll, superannuation and BAS, or oversight of a bookkeeper who runs them

Accountant vs bookkeeper

The two roles overlap but do different jobs. A bookkeeper handles the ongoing, transactional side — recording income and expenses, reconciling accounts, running payroll and lodging BAS. An accountant interprets those records for tax and strategy. Many businesses use a bookkeeper through the year and an accountant for tax and advice; clean bookkeeping makes the accountant's job faster and cheaper. Our guide on accountant vs bookkeeper covers the full comparison.

Qualifications and designations

Most professional accountants in Australia belong to one of three bodies, each signalling ongoing training and a code of conduct:

Membership isn't a strict legal requirement, but it's a good sign. What is required: to charge for preparing a tax return, an accountant must be a registered tax agent; to charge for lodging a BAS, a registered BAS agent. Both are listed on the Tax Practitioners Board register.

Do you need an accountant?

It depends on your stage. A brand-new sole trader with simple affairs may only need an accountant at tax time. A business with staff, invoices and BAS obligations usually benefits from ongoing support — especially around payroll, where getting penalty rates and overtime right under the relevant modern award is where the biggest risk lives. When you're ready to find one, our directory of RosterElf-partner accountants lists accredited practices who are strong on payroll and award compliance. Accountants can explore RosterElf for accountants.

Key takeaways

An accountant interprets your finances for tax, structure and strategy, and lodges your returns — a step above the day-to-day record keeping a bookkeeper handles. To charge for tax work in Australia they must be TPB-registered. Most hold a CPA, CA or IPA designation. For anything involving staff pay, choose one who is confident with payroll and award interpretation.