Process Flowcharting: A Skill That Adds Value

Abstract

The education gap between important required skills and the competence level of accounting recruits in corporations has been reported to be the largest for skills such as ability to understand the business and familiarity with “business processes.”  To alleviate this gap the starting point is the accounting curriculum.  One skill that should prove valuable is an ability to analyze and reengineer business processes.  Process flowcharting or process mapping facilitates analysis and eventually design and/or reengineering of the operations and process under study.  This paper recommends and promotes process mapping as one of the value adding skills that should be included in accounting curricula to close the gap between accounting graduates competencies and the demands of the profession. Three examples of possible assignments are presented in this paper that may be suitable for presentation to students at different levels in the accounting curriculum.