From The Office to The Other Guys – What These Shows Get Right and Wrong About Accounting

If you don’t happen to know any accountants in your life, chances are that the only time you’ve seen them is at tax time, or through various TV shows and movies – where accountants haven’t quite gotten the accurate representation they deserve. In this article we’re going to go on a quick tour through accounting as seen by Hollywood to see what they got wrong, and how they can bring their depictions into the here and now. 

Ben Wyatt: Parks and Recreation

Who is Ben Wyatt? 

Ben is an accountant by trade who originally comes to Pawnee as a state auditor with Chris Traeger, but finds himself using his keen eye for accounting and business acumen to work a whole range of incredible jobs. Just take a look at this list of occupations from Wikipedia (spoilers btw): 

How does Ben stack up to a real accountant?

One of the first things that Parks and Rec gets right is that accountants are often people with many talents. People sometimes think that accountants are just maths nerds, but in reality, accountants are communicators, creatives, leaders and supporters too. Ben was the inventor of board game The Cones of Dunshire, and director and producer of his stop-motion film Requiem for a Tuesday. 

Plus, accountants achieve great things. As his resumé above shows you, people with accounting skills such as strategy, business acumen and money management are constantly in-demand, and not just for jobs in accounting.  

In fact, 7 in 10 C-Suite employees (think CEOs, CFOs, Founders and other heads of companies) have some kind of accounting background. That’s because accounting teaches you to think strategically, understand how businesses work and always think about how to grow the bottom line. 

You can see a bit of this in action in the episode ‘Ron and Tammys’, where Ben advises Tom and Jean-Ralphio on their new business venture. Despite not being able to save their business from their love of luxury, he actually dispenses some pretty solid advice about needing to keep your cash flow high and your expenses low. 

Who knows – in another universe where Tom and Jean-Ralphio listened to Ben, they might have achieved their dreams of Entertainment 720 becoming the worldwide sensation they always dreamed of. 
 

Overall accuracy rating: 8/10

Allen Gamble: The Other Guys

Who is Allen? 

Allen Gamble, played by US national treasure Will Ferrell, is a mild-mannered forensic accountant who is constantly overlooked in the NYPD – that is, until he and his partner Terry Hoitz are assigned to a string of high-profile crimes that rock the city. Allen and Terry unexpectedly find themselves thrust into the spotlight, proving that even the most ordinary people can become extraordinary heroes.
 

How does The Other Guys stack up against the real thing?

The Other Guys starts out on strong feet by giving the spotlight to a lesser-known specialisation in accounting – forensic accounting. Some of the most notorious gangsters and criminals have been taken down with the help of forensic accountants, so they do have a pretty big role to play in fighting crime. 

Allen definitely has the right stuff to be a forensic accountant. He’s got great attention to detail, being able to spot errors and suspicious quirks in financial data.  

But, we’d be a bit slack if we didn’t mention that high-speed chases, explosions and shootouts aren‘t part of a forensic accountant’s career either. In the movie, Allen Gamble seems to be able to uncover complex financial crimes in a matter of hours, finding single-obvious mistakes. Real forensic accountants use advanced techniques and software to spot complex and well-hidden financial crimes. As far as chasing bad guys goes, while forensic accountants might come along to interviews or site visits, if you’re jumping into action as a forensic accountant, things have clearly gone pretty pear-shaped. 

Rating: 4/10 

Oscar Martinez, The Office

Who is Oscar?

Oscar works as an accountant in the Pennsylvania paper company Dunder Mifflin with his co-workers Kevin and Angela in (arguably) one of the greatest TV sitcoms of all time. Between The Office’s other accountants - Kevin’s straight-up incompetence and Angela’s many quirks, Oscar probably represents the most well-balanced member of the Dunder Mifflin family, so we thought he’d be the best representative to put forward for our review.
 

What does The Office get right about accounting? 

While most of the attention of the show and the audience goes to Michael as the brand manager, Oscar is one of the rare employees who could actually be credited with helping to keep the lights on at the Scranton branch. 

In fact, he is constantly giving great advice to Michael, such as when he patiently explains the usefulness of a surplus in Season 5. Accountants such as Oscar work hard to analyse data to identify trends, potential problems and opportunities for improvement. 

There’s a great scene where Oscar is asked to explain to Michael what a surplus is and why he needs to spend it. It’s exaggerated and played up for humour in the show, but being able to communicate complex ideas is actually an important skills for any  accountant. 

Like many technical experts, you can spend so much time developing your skills in a field that you forget how to explain your decisions or recommendations to other team members, managers or people from other departments. Good accountants, on the other hand, are excellent communicators, taking the data before them and using it to tell a story which can help business leaders plot their next move. 

Oscar can be a little cynical or sarcastic at times, but it’s hard to imagine not getting a little jaded having Michael Scott as your boss. Our only other critique is that if you’ve only ever seen accountants in The Office, you might think that all of them work in firms like paper companies – but in reality, you’ll find accountants in just about any industry that you’re interested in, making it a great way to get involved in a career that you’re passionate about. 

Rating: 8/10 

If you’re keen to learn more about what accountants really do, and where a career in accounting could take you, why not check out our short free course Business Class? Who knows – your dream career could be just a click away! Take a look here.

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