ACCA work experience?

lightspeed

Hi Ive been working in a customer service & administration type roll. Although i dont work in the finance department from looking at the PER requirements I think i have done a number tasks and encountered a number of situations where I could meet the 9 mandatory challenging questions.

I deal with customers with outstanding debts and advise how much is outstanding, options available and payments received. I have to escalate and investigate many queries with our enforcement and finance departments as well as other managers in the company. I deal with cash and cheque payments received. I have experience organising meetings and gathering minutes.

On my contract im a customer service agent even though i feel I fulfill a number of tasks outside of the area of a normal customer service agent. I dont take any inbound calls but make quite a lot as their is a lot of account management involved.

I feel like my role is more akin to an accounts receivable analyst. Doe anybody know how strict it is regarding the job title entered for work experience?

Ive spoken to our chief financial officer who has agreed to take a look at the answers to the challenging questions and sign off where deemed appropriate.

Avatar MIA

lightspeed wrote: »

Hi Ive been working in a customer service & administration type roll. Although i dont work in the finance department from looking at the PER requirements I think i have done a number tasks and encountered a number of situations where I could meet the 9 mandatory challenging questions.

I deal with customers with outstanding debts and advise how much is outstanding, options available and payments received. I have to escalate and investigate many queries with our enforcement and finance departments as well as other managers in the company. I deal with cash and cheque payments received. I have experience organising meetings and gathering minutes.

On my contract im a customer service agent even though i feel I fulfill a number of tasks outside of the area of a normal customer service agent. I dont take any inbound calls but make quite a lot as their is a lot of account management involved.

I feel like my role is more akin to an accounts receivable analyst. Doe anybody know how strict it is regarding the job title entered for work experience?

Ive spoken to our chief financial officer who has agreed to take a look at the answers to the challenging questions and sign off where deemed appropriate.

Do you feel like you've completed enough experience to call yourself a chartered certified accountant?

Unless the criteria has significantly changed I can't imagine you'd have enough relevant experience - possibly enough for an accounting technician qualification at a push.

lightspeed

Avatar MIA wrote: »

Do you feel like you've completed enough experience to call yourself a chartered certified accountant?

Unless the criteria has significantly changed I can't imagine you'd have enough relevant experience - possibly enough for an accounting technician qualification at a push.

No as the optional areas to sign off on for such things as preparing financial statements I still need to learn. I have exemptions for F1-F9 so my plan would be to do the remain P papers and then get experience as part qualified and learn the more fundamentals of experience working as an accountant.

Avatar MIA

lightspeed wrote: »

No as the optional areas to sign off on for such things as preparing financial statements I still need to learn. I have exemptions for F1-F9 so my plan would be to do the remain P papers and then get experience as part qualified and learn the more fundamentals of experience working as an accountant.

Hopefully from talking with the CFO they will be able to give you more experience in the finance section.

They obviously know that's what you want.

Good luck with it.

lightspeed

Avatar MIA wrote: »

Hopefully from talking with the CFO they will be able to give you more experience in the finance section.

They obviously know that's what you want.

Good luck with it.

Unfortunately, that probably not that likely but I may look towards getting experience elsewhere and working part time where I am.

I had a bit of a disaster for an e exam in financial management where the bulk of questions I hadn't prepared for or expect. This was a module in a postgraduate diploma in accounting and finace. I only achieved 43% so enough for exemptions for ACCA but im worried it will look quite poor to prospective employers. How difficult would it be do you think to secure a trainee position as an accountant in spite of this?

Im thinking I may give the P4 advanced financial management paper a go in attempt to compensate for poor result in postgrad exam in financial management.

I did much better in business finace and corporate finace modules in the final year of my business degree last year.

Avatar MIA

lightspeed wrote: »

Unfortunately, that probably not that likely but I may look towards getting experience elsewhere and working part time where I am.

I had a bit of a disaster for an e exam in financial management where the bulk of questions I hadn't prepared for or expect. This was a module in a postgraduate diploma in accounting and finace. I only achieved 43% so enough for exemptions for ACCA but im worried it will look quite poor to prospective employers. How difficult would it be do you think to secure a trainee position as an accountant in spite of this?

Im thinking I may give the P4 advanced financial management paper a go in attempt to compensate for poor result in postgrad exam in financial management.

I did much better in business finace and corporate finace modules in the final year of my business degree last year.

How many ACCA exams have you got, once you progress in those the Diploma wont matter, you'll not be highlighting that you got 43%, but that you achieved the diploma. Nobody will ask for the diploma percentage.

lightspeed

Well the postgrad diploma in accounting and finance gives me exemptions from F1-F9 so I just have the 5 remaining Professional exams to get done. I had reduced my hours to 30 hours a week in my job whilst going to college to do the postgrad as it was a full time course.

I finish my degree last year which I studied in the evenings and continued working full time. Im still working part time at the moment so right now the plan is to continue as I am and use the spare time I have to sit some of the Professional exam papers maye in December if can be prepared by then. Im a certified payroll technician with IPASS also.

Without hands on accounting experience it might be difficult to get a trainee job even on a part time basis but I might look and see if can get intern experience as a part time trainee accounting. Id like to get some of the professional exams out of the way before moving to a trainee positon just in cause id have to repeat one of the exam and new employer might not like that. I figure it would be less risk in getting at lease some exams and as much experience where I can at the moment.

TiGeR KiNgS

Doesn't your line manager need to be a qualified accountant ?

lightspeed

http://www.accaglobal.com/ie/en/employer/supporting-trainees/workplace-mentor.html

According to the pdf document at above link art bottom of the page it seems your line manager does not have to be a qualified accountant but still needs to signed off by a qualified accountant.

I asked them in the support chat on acca website and they said it does not need to be an acca qualified accountant just someone recognised as qualified under IFAC .

"Qualified for the job
You should be someone who the trainee works closely with and are familiar with the quality of their work – you could be their line manager or supervisor. As a workplace mentor you should be a qualified accountant – if not ACCA qualified, then a member of a professional accountancy or audit body recognised by law in the country in which the trainee works. If you are not a qualified accountant you can still be a workplace mentor, but the trainee will also need a ‘training supervisor’, who is qualified, and can act as a counter signatory".