Accounting courses offer more than just a way to expand career options. They provide real world skills that will enhance both your personal and professional life. Included in a well-rounded accounting degree are classes that will cultivate organization, accountant ethics, macro and micro financial perspectives, budgeting and financial projection techniques, and hands-on experience with computer programs that are used in virtually every office, industrial warehouse, and corporation worldwide. Choosing to further your accounting acumen is a holistic way to improve your intellect and your practical knowledge base as well as learn accounting.

Accountant requirements transfer to the real world in a more straightforward way than you might imagine. Here are some ways that your accountant studies relate to the everyday world.

Organization. A good accountant must be organized, and organization is one of those skills that transfers over into every aspect of your life. Your accounting classes will teach you how to keep up-to-date records in an efficient manner. You will learn a variety of filing systems, both paper and electronic, enabling you to select a method that works best for you. Part of being organized involves sticking to deadlines. Quarterly taxes, pay periods, and timely billing and payment practices help businesses run efficiently and profitably, whether that business is a multi-national corporation or a very busy family household.

Balanced Perspective. A good bookkeeper or accountant must be able to hold two visions at once: the small day-to-day financial responsibilities as well as the larger “big picture” financial perspective, which projects how today’s actions will affect tomorrow’s bottom line. In business, this can mean keeping track of inventory, creating cost cutting procedures, and ensuring paperwork is filed on time to avoid penalty fees or high interest rates. In the real world, this means learning to budget now to save for tomorrow. It can mean having the restraint to pay off credit cards before going out and applying for a new car loan. Having sound micro- and macro-perspectives leads to holistic financial well-being.

Budgeting. Many students who pursue accounting degrees are balancing school, work, and family life. That kind of juggling requires sharp budgeting skills or one can become quickly overwhelmed. Budgeting enables companies to do two things: do business within their means, and make projections into the future in order to make decisions about hiring new staff, or cutting back on superfluous labor costs. Creating a balanced budget allows companies to set realistic goals and determine where business practices could be improved in order to make those goals a reality. Accounting courses provide the resources and instruction to learn budgeting techniques and skills that will make you an asset in both your personal financial life as well as the business sector.

Technological Savvy. It is virtually impossible to get a job these days without a fundamental knowledge of basic computer skills. For accounting positions, these skills are even more important. This is why accounting courses offer training in the latest accounting and bookkeeping software applications. These skills allow you to pursue jobs with companies who apply the latest and greatest technology. It can also make you an asset for companies who are lagging and need a professional to help guide them into the modern era. With a solid background in accounting, you are qualified for a variety of professional capacities in which your technical skills will provide business solutions.

Ready to enhance your skills? Contact Bryant & Stratton College for more information about accounting education that will elevate your professional expertise to a new level and increase your marketability in the real world.

BUFFALO, NY (May 31, 2011) – Bryant & Stratton College Online announced today the formation of Student Veterans of Bryant & Stratton College Online, a support network for students who have served in the U.S. military, are currently serving, their families and civilian supporters. The student-led group will focus on building upon available resources that make success in the classroom and workplace more attainable.

The group is being started by student and veteran Shay Leech, who served in the U.S. Navy. Leech saw the opportunity to start a peer-to-peer network that would provide resources, support and advocacy to her military classmates and their families. She is currently pursuing an Associate’s degree in Medical Reimbursement and Coding at Bryant & Stratton College Online.

 “Too often veterans who start college drop out because of a lack of support. While Bryant & Stratton College Online already provides resources to help military students and veterans continue with their education, I wanted to form a group so veterans and active duty students would have a community where we could support each other as well,” said Leech. “In my experience it is hard to be in college as a mother, but it is even harder to be a veteran, since it is difficult for others to relate to what you’ve been through unless they’ve gone through it too. Student Veterans of Bryant & Stratton College Online will provide that extra fellowship and understanding for students who know what it is like being active duty or veterans.”

The goal of Student Veterans of Bryant & Stratton College Online is to assist and guide military and veteran students through their education and career. The group’s meetings will focus on advocacy, social opportunities and recreational activities as a means of fostering camaraderie among the students. Student Veterans will also work with the college administration to meet the needs of current and prospective student veterans as well as increase community awareness of veterans’ experiences. Students interested in becoming members are encouraged to join the group on LinkedIn, which is where Student Veterans will be connecting online.

“We are committed to supporting our military and veteran students that have given so much for this country,” said Ed Dennis, Military Relations Manager at Bryant & Stratton College Online. “Student Veterans of Bryant & Stratton College Online will be a touchstone for these students, a support network they can count on to help them succeed.”

Once Student Veterans of Bryant & Stratton College Online is established, Leech plans to apply to make the group an official chapter of Student Veterans of America, a coalition of student veterans groups on college campuses across the United States. Bryant & Stratton College Online is proud to support the troops and their families. Last fall, G.I. Jobs Magazine named Bryant & Stratton College Online a 2011 Military Friendly School. As a member of the Service members Opportunities College (SOC) consortium*, Bryant & Stratton College is also an approved institution for the training of U.S. veterans and their family in accordance with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Bryant & Stratton College Online is CLEP, DANTES, ECE and other SOC Colleges approved. In April, Bryant & Stratton College Online launched www.SalutetoSpouses.com, a career and education information resource website for military spouses. SalutetoSpouses.com is the home of the college’s Salute to Spouses Scholarship, which awards $6,000 towards a Bryant & Stratton College Online degree to spouses of active duty military personnel. The expansion of the site builds on the success of the scholarship and increases the resources available to military spouses interested in earning their degree or building a sustainable career. 

The content on SalutetoSpouses.com, includes how to articles, tips, advice columns and personal accounts and is created and edited by military spouses. Bryant & Stratton College was founded in 1854 and is regionally accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. For more information about Bryant & Stratton College and its online degree programs, visit https://www.bryantstratton.edu/online-learning.

There are times when that “Meeting Monday” feeling lasts all week. Meetings can be time consuming and expensive, especially when you factor in salaries for the number of people around the table. Learning how to run meetings effectively is an import skill that is key to leadership development.

Using these 10 best practices, you’ll manage your meetings better, and bring people and ideas together in meaningful ways that meet deadlines and further your goals.

1. Understand your goals. This should be established before you set the agenda. Do you want participants to come to a decision? To generate ideas? Be clear about your overall goals before you set the agenda. Make sure the agenda items include only the most important and urgent items that need to be addressed.

2. Limit the agenda to 3-5 actionable items that match the mission or a goal shared by all members around the table. If the agenda item only matters to a subset of the group, save that conversation for a separate, specific meeting.

3. Share your objective-based agenda at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting to allow people to add necessary items, or think about how items fall within their frame of interests/values. Giving members advanced-notice enables more introverted people to share their ideas in ways that they may better be heard by the group. This will also prevent the same voices from dominating the conversation.

4. Check in with people at the start of the meeting. Use an open question to get to know people better and build trust. To build accountability and continuity over time, the question could relate to the goals established in the previous meeting. For regularly scheduled meetings, rotate the leader of the opening question to take attendees’ engagement to the next level.

5. Manage People and Time. If there are new faces at the table or if anyone is calling in via teleconference, be sure that everyone is familiar with the names and roles of people in the meeting. If certain voices are chiming in louder than others, be sure to ask for other opinions.

6. Set a time limit and focus on specific items that are urgent and important. Other “conversation” items can be addressed via email, phone, shared online documents, or in passing at the coffee machine. Effective meetings are as short as possible, while still engaging the attendants in meaningful ways and establishing clear, action-based outcomes.

7. Document the meeting clearly and effectively. Assign someone to take notes and email to the group or post to a shared content site so members can reflect back on the notes. This will also help you to track goals and understand how well you are achieving them over time.

8. Use action words and assign people with goals and deadlines. After an effective meeting people leave the room with a clear idea of their next steps and how their actions will support the overall project. These “next steps” should be noted in the meeting minutes in a clear and obvious way, with deadlines and responsibility delegated to specific people and/or particular teams.

9. Reflect actions/tasks back to overarching goals. Set action items that relate each person’s work to a goal. Even the most menial seeming tasks are critical to how well a project comes together.

10. Ask for Feedback. Employees will be more engaged with the work if they feel personally connected to the mission and the process. End the meeting by asking for feedback on two important metrics:

Follow these steps and you’ll enhance your skills as a leader. Being consistent and following these simple steps will increase the work you will be able to achieve during meetings and improve employee engagement in the process.

When Desiree Shealy was a child, she watched police officers in action on TV. And she loved what she saw.

She said watched them catch the bad guys, help the old lady get her purse back and ticket the speeder who was endangering everyone around him.

“I always thought it was so neat,” she said. “I always enjoyed the way people looked up to an officer as a friend, helper and protector.”

It was who she wanted to be. Now, thanks to her associate’s degree in Criminal Justice from Bryant & Stratton College, it is who she is.

Desiree is a corporal with the Newberry, S.C. police department.

But, is being an officer everything she hoped it would be?

On the job, her daily routine is anything but routine. There is no so-called typical day, she said. Instead, she is responds to calls that are varied in both need and level of danger.

Last week, while she was on duty, she responded to a scene where two men were shot, and one died, the possible result of gang-related activity. The next day, she responded to shots fired into an apartment.

Not every moment is action packed, however. Desiree said she begins her shift as the sun wakes at 5:45 a.m. and doesn’t return home until 6 p.m., at the earliest. There is paperwork to be completed and maintenance on her patrol car to be done. Desiree and her fellow officers also deliver meals to older or disabled people throughout the day and have to appear in court once a week to follow up on individuals who have been charged. She also ferries inmates from the jail to the courtroom and back to their cells.

And, her job can be tough. Desiree said it’s a difficult decision to decide when to go lightly and when to prosecute to the fullest extent. Not all crimes are cut and dry.
“People have some good stories and lies, so sometimes it’s hard to believe what is the most accurate version of the truth,” she said.
She said it is also hard to “work for a public that sometimes appears to be ungrateful and working for a department that often puts the budget before the employees.”
So what makes it the best job ever?

“The fact that no matter what you think of the police, we are the first people you call for help, and we always come. No matter how bad it is, we show up to help,” she said.

Desiree suggested that current criminal justice take their coursework seriously, even the topics that might seem, boring. She said classes in ethics, culture and law have all proven useful on a daily basis in her work.

“Do not take lightly what you learn in school. It will only help you when it is time to go through the criminal justice academy,” she said.

And, she said, never give up.

“It may take years to get hired or graduate from the criminal justice academy, but if you want it, someone will give you a chance.”