In addition, all types of insurance policies must be written to provide protection for company property against fire and theft, for employees against injuries incurred while on duty, and for the public against any accidents they might experience while they are on company property.
Generally a broker places the insurance with various underwriters, but someone in the airline must direct the broker and be responsible for seeing that adequate insurance of all kinds is in force. The insurance section must also investigate all claims and keep detailed records relating to accidents or other problems that may involve a potential settlement by an insurance company. This calls for specialists who either learn on the job over the years or gradually grow into more responsible positions, or men and women who have had special training in all phases of insurance at college.
TAX ADMINISTRATION
Corporation tax laws change frequently and are so complicated that only a person who has specialized in tax matters can interpret tax legislation and decide efficiently how the company can best plan its financial affairs and operating policies in order to minimize its taxes and take advantage of all the special exemptions provided by law. Companies pay millions of dollars in taxes, and, therefore, it is important that the tax section be staffed with the best experts available.
An airline that operates in several states may be liable for taxes to each of the states as well as to some of the cities that it serves. Because of this, the tax section must know about every possible tax that has been levied against the company in every locality it serves. For example, the tax section may decide that it would be advantageous from a tax point of view to buy all airplane fuel only in certain states. Although this would save money it would require rescheduling aircraft so that they would no longer fuel in the states that charge higher fuel taxes. In some places city and state sales taxes may make it necessary to avoid buying expensive equipment. When selling airplanes it may be necessary to fly them several thousand miles to a remote airport in a state where there are no taxes imposed on such a sale.
Essentially the tax experts are responsible for keeping up-to-date on all tax laws-federal, state, county, and municipal-to make certain that everything is done to keep the airline's tax bill as low as possible. These men and women can save the company millions of dollars and earn their salaries many times over. You can see why the tax section is so important in today's economy.
If this work sounds interesting you should consider going to graduate business school or at least taking as many courses in business, finance, and taxes as you can in college. Ideally the best-prepared tax experts are those who have a master of business administration as well as a law degree. This is more education than many young men and women can afford, but it is possible to obtain your legal education at night school, an achievement that, though it can require six or seven years, is one way of preparing thoroughly for the job. Competent tax experts will always be in demand; hence it will be a very worthwhile educational investment.
BUDGET
If you budget your personal income and expenses you know what a tremendous help it is in planning for your financial future. Budgeting is just as important to any business because if it is to be successful, there must be a plan or statement of its financial position for a definite period of time based on estimates of its income and expenditures. A good budget shows how much money is expected to be available for certain listed expenses and where that money will come from. In an airline a budget section may report directly to the president or be part of the finance department on which it must rely for much of its financial information.
An annual airline budget is prepared by estimating what the income will be for the coming year from passenger, freight, and mail revenues. These estimates are prepared by economists who study business trends, economic indicators, and other data to come up with the best possible forecast of how much business the airline will do.
To determine what future expenses an airline company will have, every department is required to submit a detailed budget for the coming year that shows salaries and every other kind of expense, as well as how much any expense has increased over the past year and why. The budget section then matches the estimated income with the total projected departmental expenses, and the difference tells the expected profit or loss. If it is a loss, each department may be instructed to cut its expenses by a certain percentage so that the red ink can be turned into black. The budget section watches all expenditures during the next year and prepares monthly reports for each department to show how well it adhered to its budget. Most departments have their own budget supervisor who prepares and administers the departmental budget.
The work of this section is critical. The financial health of the airline may depend on how well these specialists do their jobs estimating income and monitoring the expenses as the year progresses. Thus the section is busy keeping statistics on all departments, revising income estimates, watching expenditures, and reporting when expenses get out of line.
The responsibility for projecting income and expenses is certainly the most challenging part of this work and one that calls for the skills of competent economists. A broad knowledge of economics as well as an understanding of the airline business in general is vital. Economists with a master of business administration degree are ideal candidates for working in this department. As with the tax experts, economists who chalk up good records are always able to find employment.
It is impossible to describe here the many clerical and bookkeeping positions that may be found in the finance department. Accounting clerks, sometimes called bookkeeping clerks, perform a variety of routine duties that may include recording details of business transactions; filing; preparing vouchers, invoices, and other financial documents; posting accounts; computing data; checking the work of others for accuracy; and compiling reports. Some of these positions, especially in smaller airlines, may require typewriting ability; others call for legible handwriting. Where computers are widely used there is less or no need to post records by hand in accounting departments.
The work in many clerical and accounting positions is repetitive and may not be especially stimulating. This need not discourage you if you are looking forward to a long career. Once you have demonstrated ability and have worked on the same job for a reasonable time, you can request a transfer if you think you is in a dead-end job.
