CPA v CIMA

Mrs W

Sorry for asking this again if it's been done before but I'm looking for some advice on which to study.
I have my degree in accounting & finance and started to do ACCA in my first year in practice, I was laid off after 1 year and ive been working in industry since.

Its a small enough company and i do all the books plus sales, wages, purchase orders with china etc so I want to do whichever one will be most relevant to my work, any suggestions?

galwaygal27

Mrs W wrote: »

Sorry for asking this again if it's been done before but I'm looking for some advice on which to study.
I have my degree in accounting & finance and started to do ACCA in my first year in practice, I was laid off after 1 year and ive been working in industry since.

Its a small enough company and i do all the books plus sales, wages, purchase orders with china etc so I want to do whichever one will be most relevant to my work, any suggestions?

Hi Mrs W, I am in industry and did ACCA, just qualified, so i'd advise you continue with ACCA. It is as relevant as the others. How many exams did you do with ACCA?

Mrs W

galwaygal27 wrote: »

Mrs W wrote: »

Sorry for asking this again if it's been done before but I'm looking for some advice on which to study.
I have my degree in accounting & finance and started to do ACCA in my first year in practice, I was laid off after 1 year and ive been working in industry since.

Its a small enough company and i do all the books plus sales, wages, purchase orders with china etc so I want to do whichever one will be most relevant to my work, any suggestions?

Hi Mrs W, I am in industry and did ACCA, just qualified, so i'd advise you continue with ACCA. It is as relevant as the others. How many exams did you do with ACCA?

I only did one but I have all my exemptions too. My problem is that I'm not working under an accountant to sign off on my experience. ACCA will have to send someone out to assess the proportion of my work that is related and I don't really want to do that.
Also I would rather do subjects that are relevant to the work I'm actually doing

smcgiff

Each body will expect verified experience.

Why did you choose acca in the first place?

Mrs W

smcgiff wrote: »

Each body will expect verified experience.

Why did you choose acca in the first place?

All the other students that started the same time as me did ACCA!
I suppose I just didn't look into it much, we were sort of expected to do the same.

Johnny_Fontane

I'd choose CIMA every time. I know it sounds harsh, but your career prospects as a CPA are not as good as if you were CIMA qualified.

12 years experience recruiting accountants (before you go and shoot me).

Alan Shore

Hi Johnny,

Is your comment the same for practice and industry? Surely the candidate is more than the institute they qualified in.

Alan CPA

Mollyd90

Whats wrong with CPA... everybody seems to look down its nose at it??:mad:

Mollyd90 CPA

ants09

Am going to get lambasted on this

Years ago CPA's were seen as a lesser qualification then ACA's, ACCA's or even Cima's !

TBH i dont think there is much difference now and i dont look down on CPA's as a lesser qualification.

I am ACCA and proud of it and if i was CPA i be proud of it also.

Johnny_Fontane

Definitely more industry/fs than practice, Alan.

A candidate is more than what institute they trained in, you are dead right, but unfortunately the market doesn't see it that way.

A high percentage of candidates who train in Practice do eventually move on to Industry/Financial Services and this is where it can be problematic.

There is no rhyme or reason to why the CPA is not seen as an equal qualification only to point out the following (having had a little chat amongst my colleagues here):

-CPA is a smaller institute than the other three.
-Being smaller, its market reach is limited, therefore there are more ACA/ACCA/CIMA qualified candidates in senior positions
-The bias seems to be (rightly or wrongly) driven by members of the other three qualifications (it therefore being self perpetuating)
-Accountants hire Accountants

Johnny_Fontane

ants09 wrote: »

Am going to get lambasted on this

Years ago CPA's were seen as a lesser qualification then ACA's, ACCA's or even Cima's !

TBH i dont think there is much difference now and i dont look down on CPA's as a lesser qualification.

I am ACCA and proud of it and if i was CPA i be proud of it also.

I place CPA's all the time, the only time its ever a problem is when they are looking for a job. Its a total joke, but its very difficult for us to convince someone (when they are the ones paying the fee for candidates)

ants09

Johnny_Fontane wrote: »

I place CPA's all the time, the only time its ever a problem is when they are looking for a job. Its a total joke, but its very difficult for us to convince someone (when they are the ones paying the fee for candidates)

I agree

My business partner is CA and he looks down at CPA's and was glad when his institute turned down the merger with the CPA's as he taught it would delute the chartered qualification.

But i totally opposite and it could be because the first practice i work in was a CPA one.

JD Dublin

The ACA Institute and the ACCA continue to look down their nose at the CPAs. They are all into self-perpetuation in these institutes - coz if they all merged like the Architects Institute, the Law Society and the Doctors ( Irish Medical Organisation ) then there would only be one President, one General Secretary etc.

Anything else they blow out their collective institutional a£$%" is total BS as far as I can see.

You can get good and bad ACCAs, ACAs, CPAs and CIMAs.

I'm in practise since 1988 and I have seen my fair share of all sides to all institutes.

Back on topic - OP you should stick with the ACCA if you are making any progress in exams, the actual letters wont make that much difference to you in the longer run. Once you're a qualified accountant.....nobody cares less.

Mrs W

Johnny_Fontane wrote: »

I'd choose CIMA every time. I know it sounds harsh, but your career prospects as a CPA are not as good as if you were CIMA qualified.

12 years experience recruiting accountants (before you go and shoot me).

Good enough for me!
I was thinking the same myself but I have 2 friends who did CPA who were trying to talk me into it
Thanks

kilburn

I dont see the problem the whinger had with Johnnys remarks.

The accountancy thread on boards is an invaluable source of information for current and future accountants, opinions are given by accountants from all bodies.

And to be honest i think someone getting advice from a specialist accountancy recruiter who has years of experience in the sector and knows what employers want is a no brainer.

So chill out people.

endabob1

I'm CIMA so a bit biased but having worked in the UK, Oz & Africa what I will say is that CIMA is much more recognised outside of the UK than any other qualification. It's very rare yo usee job adverts with ACCA and almost never with CPA.
In Oz there is a CPA qualification which is quite highly regarded and I'm pretty sure it's associated with CPA Ireland, but to be honest CIMA have the same association with CPA
http://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/cps/rde/xchg/cpa-site/hs.xsl/become-started-affliations-pathways-faq-cima.html
So I'm not sure of the extra benefit.