Acca or CA

Kaku

If I'm looking at making a career change and get into accountanty & finance, which (ACCA or CA) will be a better option to go for..???

considering the fact that i'm currently planning a family & would like to gear up for an accountancy career after spending around an year's time with my little one..

snappieT

Welcome to boards! You'd probably be better asking on the Accountancy forum, those are the folks who will have the answer.

dudara

Moved to the Accountancy Forum.

dudara

djdeclan

I'm going to be cynical here and suggest that you don't change career. Thats a pretty bold statement to make but having read your post I have the following thoughts:
You are planning on having a family; studying for accounting exams (whether ACCA or ACA) is primarily done in the evenings/weekends, thus you are left with no free time to spend with your family.
Leaving aside the study accountancy itself is a slog, especially when you are training. The pay is poor, the hours are long (bordering on ridiculous) and you are generally under a lot of pressure when you are a trainee - which is generally for 3 or 3.5 years depending on what type of contract you enter into which in turn depends on what exemptions you have from the exams of your chosen body. If you have a business/accounting degree you could find that you only have a couple of sets of exams to do, if you have an unrelated degree or no third level qualification you could be facing into 5 years of training and exams; not really ideal when trying to raise a young family.
On the subject of ACA vs ACCA: this has been done to death on several occaisions on the forum, both have views on the other (mostly ill-informed). Having been a student member of both associations I will say this much:
Watch out for the exemptions (if any) you get from each body, this will dictate how many exams you have to do before qualification.
The amount of experience required for ACCA is (or used to be) 3 years, it's 3.5 for ACA provided you don't have a post grad, 3 years if you do.
ACCA training contracts are more flexible in relation to actual experience gained, you can switch employer more easily, ACA do allow this but they are not as flexible.
This next point will spark controversy but the hell with it, ACCA exams are more difficult than ACA exams. (I can see people getting annoyed already!). I have sat the finals at both levels so I speak with some experience, ACA exams are structured to help students to pass, ACCA exams, both individually and collectively, are structured to ensure that only the top few will qualify.
One other point I will make is that in my experience and in the experience of my work colleagues, ACA are not an overly helpful body to deal with, so if you find that you have problems with them during registration/exams etc don't worry - they are like that with everyone!
God that ended up a long post!

Bren1609

This post has been covered numerous times before.

CPA is another option...

swanvill

Hi kaku,
Sorry to be negative but it is a big commitment to study for professional exams. I suggest that you read the accountancy board thoroughly. I did it the easy way I studied full time for four years AAT & then ACCA and passed every exam first time. After my full time study I worked and sat my finals at the same time. In addition to holding down a full time job (40 - 50hrs a week), I studied 3 - 4 hours every night except Friday, I did approx 8 -10 hours on Sat & 3 hours on Sunday. I did that for nine months, I actually took my annual leave and used it to study. I ate the books, exam papers and worked my ass off just to ensure that I passed. The examiners are ruthless, I worked with a guy that took him 3 years to pass an ACCA audit paper. He failed five times, the score he got was 47%, 48%, 45% & 49% twice..... you need 50% to pass, he did it on his sixth attempt. I never seen anyone celebrate like him
I would not contemplate studying & starting a family as it will be hard on your partner left raising a kid while you study but that is just my opinion. Just consider very carefully why you want to do it & what you are willing to sacrifice to achieve it.
Best of luck.

Kaku

Thanks a mill for the above...all these diff opinions are giving me food for thought...to think from a broarder prespective..!!