Accounting Departments are usually structured along functional lines: Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Payroll, General Ledger, Sales Transactions, Inventory, etc. A small company may have one person performing more than one (sometimes all) of the functions. In this case, there needs to be financial controls to reduce the probability of theft or embezzlement. In a large company, there could be many people working in one functional area; and in that case, that function might be broken down to smaller components.