Show of hands!

kilburn

So all you qualified and semi qualified guys and gals !
I would like to do a spot check, a show of hands for the different institutes. Can you reply to this thread just with the name of the institute you studied with please? ACCA or ACA or CIMA or CPA

Lol this is how I am going to choose which institute. Cant decide argh !:o

thegoodgirl

Just finished my CIMA exams in Dublin. I did then with BPP and Dublin Business School depended on what timetable suited me best.

Clanket

ACA

Odats

ACA

Hackysack

ACA.

You'd probably get better results with a poll...

ari101

I'm ACCA.

Please note there are slight differences:

Do not do CIMA if you might want to become an Auditor you will not be sufficiently qualified.

For the others:

ACCA and ACA seem to have a better rep than CPA - this is not my opinion but opinions of a number of others I have heard, it may not be true

ACA is more open book than ACCA with certain documents being allowed in ACA exams and nothing in ACCA

Big 4 seem to go ACA in Ireland, but ACCA is more global.

Hopes this helps!

jockey#1

ari101 wrote: »

I'm ACCA.

Please note there are slight differences:

Do not do CIMA if you might want to become an Auditor you will not be sufficiently qualified.

For the others:

ACCA and ACA seem to have a better rep than CPA - this is not my opinion but opinions of a number of others I have heard, it may not be true

ACA is more open book than ACCA with certain documents being allowed in ACA exams and nothing in ACCA

Big 4 seem to go ACA in Ireland, but ACCA is more global.

Hopes this helps!

I am ACCA also. I know that ACCA prides itself on being the "global" qualification, couldn't be further from the truth :mad:

I am going to Australia shortly, to my horror I discovered that ACCA is not recognised down under. If I wanted to be qualified by Australian standards I would need to complete more exams i.e CPA or CA. If you plan on going to Australia then do ACA or CPA as both bodies have agreements with CPA and ICAA where you only have to do two exams, law and tax variant exams.

The only worthwhile agreement ACCA have is with CGA in Canada but you still have to complete further exams.

Rant over, sorry!!

Da GOAT

aca

SL10

ACA

Tommy_Vercetti

I am a newly qualified CPA. I did CPA for the exemptions, had to do only 5 exams, and was finished very quickly. One thing I have found is that CPA is not as well regarded as the other two and through my job hunting alot of bigger companies are only interested in ACA or ACCA qualified, but again thats only in my experience.

Cookie_Monster

wikipedia wrote:

Australia

* The ACCA qualification is statutory recognised as a prescribed body for insolvency purposes under the Corporation Act 2001, section 1282 and for audit purposes by ASIC under Practice Statement 180 Auditor recognition in Australia.
* For migration purposes, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia and National Institute of Accountants recognised the ACCA qualification with passing the Australian business law, corporation law and taxation subjects (Australian recognised universities) as sufficient to obtain a skill assessment as an Accountant for the purpose of migration to Australia.
* There is no mutual recognition agreement in place with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia (ICAA) or CPA Australia (CPAA).
* The ACCA qualification is recognised as at least equivalent to an Australian associate degree in accountancy (although not by CPA Australia). This allows ACCA members to obtain a direct entry to the examinations of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia or National Institute of Accountants.
* Subject to passing exams in Australian tax and law, ACCA members may obtain the Professional National Accountant (PNA) designation from the National Institute of Accountants. On the same basis, ACCA members can obtain direct entry to the CA Program of the ICAA.

acca wrote:

http://australia.accaglobal.com/

.

Acquiesce

I didn't expect there to be such a a wide margin.

I will be making this choice soon (going into third year), I'm edging towards ACCA, for a few reasons, first Dundalk have close links with them and I know I have been taught the ACCA way up to now and I really like the fact it's a very broad organisation, or at least that's the impression I got from the limited research I have done, it seems like it would be easier to alter my career path if I so wished.

I know ACCA is considered to have the higher reputation globally where as ACA is very highly thought of in Ireland, but I most interested in their relative worth in the UK since I would like to move there eventually.

And of course a big concern is how the difficulty of the exams compare, can anyone give me any advice on this aspect? The open book nature of the ACA exams sound great, but I'm well aware that doesn't necessarily make them easier then ACCA

tenchi-fan

jockey#1 wrote: »

The only worthwhile agreement ACCA have is with CGA in Canada but you still have to complete further exams.

You have to do a test on local tax and regulation.. you're talking a day or two's study as far as I know.. hardly "further exams"!

djk1000

Not a very clever way of deciding to be honest, it's a decision that will stay with you for a long long time. Why don't you try asking some questions about the differences between the bodies? Or look back through this forum, there's lots of good information.

From experience of this forum, it has more CA's than anything else, that doesn't mean that you should be a CA. Have you actually done much research? are you more interested in practice or industry? Does ACCA or CA give you better exemptions with your particular degree? Are you sure you can commit to a 3.5 year contract or do you want some freedom?

smcgiff

The ICAEW is the sister organisation of the CAI (formerly ICAI). You would be entitled to take on ICAEW membership on application, unfortunately you would need to keep up membership of both bodies, which isn't cheap.

You could do the ACCA exams which have their global HQ in the UK. Not that many have, but after five years membership of ACCA you can become a ICAEW member, and the ICAEW would only be too delighted for you to drop your ACCA membership.

Oh, I'm ACCA but haven't taken the poll

CIMA

kilburn

I am amazed at the number differences.

Has anyone here done ACA by home study.
You cants seem to do CAP 1 in Limerick.

Odats

kilburn wrote: »

I am amazed at the number differences.

Has anyone here done ACA by home study.
You cants seem to do CAP 1 in Limerick.

Cannot do ACA by home study you have to pay or if in contract employer pay the course and exam fees (1st sitting only). As an alternative you could sit CAP1 as an external candidate if you want to save on cost and somehow get the exam texts, past papers etc.
AFAIK you can do CAP1 in Limerick check CAI website for CAP1 application form for 2010/11 year and see if Limerick is on it as a course centre.

kilburn

Odats wrote: »

Cannot do ACA by home study you have to pay or if in contract employer pay the course and exam fees (1st sitting only). As an alternative you could sit CAP1 as an external candidate if you want to save on cost and somehow get the exam texts, past papers etc.
AFAIK you can do CAP1 in Limerick check CAI website for CAP1 application form for 2010/11 year and see if Limerick is on it as a course centre.

Thanks for that, just checked it out

EDudder

smcgiff wrote: »

The ICAEW is the sister organisation of the CAI (formerly ICAI). You would be entitled to take on ICAEW membership on application, unfortunately you would need to keep up membership of both bodies, which isn't cheap.

You could do the ACCA exams which have their global HQ in the UK. Not that many have, but after five years membership of ACCA you can become a ICAEW member, and the ICAEW would only be too delighted for you to drop your ACCA membership.

Oh, I'm ACCA but haven't taken the poll

I was genuinely not aware of that. Really disappointed by that.

Also from what I can gather I wouldn't say ACCA is a better path for someone that wants to end up in industry. Its more that you'll likely be doing ACCA if your training in industry.

boredatwork82

CIMA

If you want to work in Industry do CIMA, for everything else do ACA or ACCA.

browne_rob5

EDudder wrote: »

I was genuinely not aware of that. Really disappointed by that.

Also from what I can gather I wouldn't say ACCA is a better path for someone that wants to end up in industry. Its more that you'll likely be doing ACCA if your training in industry.

There is no need to become a member of the ICAEW when working in the UK. Your CAI qualification is recognised so I cant see the need.

EDudder

Would most firms in England be happy enough to take you on with the CAI? Would it just be a matter of doing a tax/law exam and then your in the same position as everyone else or what? I know that sometimes 'recognised' is a long way from being treated the same if you know what I mean.

browne_rob5

EDudder wrote: »

Would most firms in England be happy enough to take you on with the CAI? Would it just be a matter of doing a tax/law exam and then your in the same position as everyone else or what? I know that sometimes 'recognised' is a long way from being treated the same if you know what I mean.

Well if you are going into the big four as pure audit you would be in the same position as someone with ICAEW.

If you were working with a medium sized or small firm they would just be interested in the type of firm you trained with so that your previous experience would fit in with their firm. They wouldn't mind too much if you were ACA or ACCA.

I am working in the Channel Islands and there is a mix of ACCA and ACA working in my firm. The trainees in my firm all study ACCA just cause I think they have a bigger presence on the island. All the CPD courses our firm sends us on are ACCA aswell.

I am ACA myself. OP if I were you I would probably do ACCA cause they are far more flexible with when you can sit exams. The ACA course also changed a couple of years back and the pass rates seem to have gone down alot since.

daheff

CIMA - not qualified yet though!