Avoiding spelling mistakes

All students in the Thammasat University Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy are familiar with the faculty members in the Department of Accounting. Accounting is also called accountancy. It involves measuring, processing, and communicating financial information about businesses and corporations. Accounting has a logn and distinguished history in modern times, dating back to an Italian mathematician in the 1400s. Accounting has been called the language of business. So it is especially important that this word be spelled correctly. Yet in Thai English writing, instead of the correct spelling of accounting, we sometimes see the wrong spellings accouting or accountin or acconting. In all of these incorrect spellings, a letter is omitted, so these human errors may be due to carelessness. As often happens, if we are too confident that we know how to spell a word, we may not concentrate and pay full attention when we write it. If our computer or Word document has a spell check program, this sort of mistake will be caught. In some cases, however, we must be aware of what we are writing to prevent errors. Since accounting is a detailed profession where even apparently small matters can make a big difference, if we are writing a thesis or academic research paper about accounting, and spell the word accounting wrong, this can give a poor impression to readers. They may think that we are not careful researchers, or that we do not pay attention to details. Obviously it is better to spell the word correctly.

If we consider the origins of the word accounting, it may help us to avoid two of the most common wrong spellings, accouting and acconting. Both of these variations leave out an important element of the word accounting. To word means to add up numbers, derived from the term account, from an old French term meaning to count. As we see, we cannot write the word accounting without the word count that is found inside it. Each time we write the word accounting, we should look for the familiar word count in it, and if we do not see it, as in the wrong spellings accouting and acconting, then we know there is a problem.

Sometimes, avoiding wrong spellings is just a matter to going with the odds, even without thinking of why we use a certain technique. In Thai English, it appears that the English word accounting is spelled wrong far more often than the word accountancy. To reduce wrong spellings, it may be easiest for students to use the word accountancy as often as possible, instead of accounting. That way, the odds may be better that the spelling will be correct. When it is absolutely necessary to write the word accounting, then we must look for the word count within the word. To avoid another wrong spelling, accountin, it is necessary to keep in mind that accounting is one of many words in English ending with the letters ing. For different reasons, students of Thai English have many problems with words ending in ing. They are rarely used in Thai English writing, which can create a problem when they must be spelled correctly, since many are not familiar. Without going into all the different kinds of word in English that end with the letters ing, we should try to think of why the word cannot be spelled accountin. If we have a good reason for why this is not correct, then if we see that we have written this, our eye may catch the mistake. There are many words in English that end with the letters in, but accounting is not one of them. To remind us that accounting should end with the letters ing, we may invent a sentence using some of the other words ending with the letters counting:

After discounting the price of his services, the accounting student made the mistake of miscounting the data, making a recounting necessary.

Some usage examples:

• The subcommittee on education measures to reduce the impact from the adoption of new accounting standards of financial instruments (IFRS9) has agreed to collaborate with the Bank of Thailand and the Federation of Accounting Processions, under the Royal Patronage of His Majesty the King, to minimise the disruption to businesses and decide the date of implementation.
• New accounting standard postponed. IFRS 9 rules won’t be enforced until 2020
• The government has decided to delay implementation of stringent new accounting rules for another year to prevent any adverse impact on businesses. Nuntawan Sakuntanaga, the commerce permanent secretary and chairwoman of the Oversight Committee on Accounting Professions, said Ocap agreed to delay the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standard 9 (IFRS 9) to January 2020.
• Banks await accounting rules switch. Commercial banks and financial institutions across the country are required to implement a new international financial reporting standard from the beginning of 2020, according to the National Accountancy Body (NAB).
• Accounting firms and businesses must prepare for significant challenges stemming from emerging technologies, accounting rules changes and geopolitical developments around the world if they want to thrive, according to PwC Thailand. “Although the principles under which accounting is performed are likely to remain the same, technology will change the way we process and make use of accounting information,” CEO Sira Intarakum-thornchai told yesterday’s 14th annual conference on financial reporting. Over the past year, digital technology has significantly altered the way businesses operate. The accounting industry – among those most at risk from automation – is not immune to this change.
• SMEs given more time for accounting change. The Bank of Thailand has extended the period for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to adjust to single-accounting by three more years to 2021. According to Surat Leelataviwat, executive vice president of Kasikornbank, the Thai Bankers’ Association recently discussed with the central bank the possible impacts from the single-accounting measure and the central bank agreed to the relaxation to allow SMEs more time to adjust themselves.
• Milestone for accounting start-up. A Thai company offering online accounting services to small business has taken a stride forward by raising $1.15 million (Bt38.1 million) in funding.
• THAI appoints executive vice president for finance and accounting. Thai Airways International Plc’s August 10 board meeting passed a resolution to appoint Sumeth Damrongchaitham, president, as acting executive vice president for finance and accounting.
• Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth, the owner and major shareholder of Bangkok Airways Plc, has outstripped his business peers in gains this year from the value of his personal holdings in companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. The value of Prasert’s holdings jumped 21.41 per cent from last year to Bt77.12 billion in 2018, according to a report by Money and Banking magazine, which conducted a survey with the Accounting Faculty of Chulalongkorn University.
• Accounting graduate dyes her way to high growth online with eye on exports. Building on her initial success producing and distributing tie-dye dresses and clothes for average revenues of Bt100,000 a month through her web page and Facebook, Rinrada Kmoll, now 37, is planning to export her products overseas with a focus on European and Asian markets. “Most of our customers are domestic, and also foreigners who visit Lampang province. Some of our foreign buyers told their Thai friends to buy and send clothes to them after they went back home from Thailand. This inspired us to expand our products for export through social media, both Facebook and our web page, that now have 3,000 followers. Most of them also place orders to buy our products every month,” Rinrada said in a recent interview with The Nation.  Rinrada started her life in business after graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in accounting from Lampang Rajabhat University in 2009.
• Accounting standard revision brings change to financial reporting environment. Suphamit Techamontrikul clarifies the expected updates to Thai accounting standards and their impact on financial reporting. What changes would you expect to see in financial statements for the first quarter of 2013?Several accounting standards have been recently revised and will become effective this year, including those related to income tax, operating segments, foreign-currency translation and government grants. Each of these changes has both quantitative and qualitative implications for financial statements. Let’s look at each of them separately.
• Brain drain may have limited impact on Thai accounting.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)