Industry to Practice?

Powerfairy

Hi There,

Just wondering has anyone on here made the strange move from Industry to practice?

I started off as a trainee accountant in a finance department of a software company, fast-forward 4 years later, I have completed all my exams (CPA) One pending results in October. (fingers crossed not feeling wonderful about it)

With CPA you need a practice cert in order to work for the public, (probably the case for ACCA too I assume?) and to obtain that you need 2 years post qualified experience in a practice field under a supervised auditor / accountant. (3 years experience for Audit cert to sign off on audits and be an auditor)

I would very much like to get a practice cert to have options basically in the future, to work for myself, become a better accountant, and gain more knowledge in all aspects of business. I feel like there is only so far I can go in what I am doing now.

Everyone I speak to thinks I am pure mad, to want to do this. All the ACA's / ACCA's that work with me in industry tell me the horror stories of practice, working until 11 at night, and the dip in pay I will take, the deadlines,

I think I still want to do it though. Has anyone been in this situation before?

sunnyclare

Powerfairy wrote: »

Hi There,

Just wondering has anyone on here made the strange move from Industry to practice?

I started off as a trainee accountant in a finance department of a software company, fast-forward 4 years later, I have completed all my exams (CPA) One pending results in October. (fingers crossed not feeling wonderful about it)

With CPA you need a practice cert in order to work for the public, (probably the case for ACCA too I assume?) and to obtain that you need 2 years post qualified experience in a practice field under a supervised auditor / accountant. (3 years experience for Audit cert to sign off on audits and be an auditor)

I would very much like to get a practice cert to have options basically in the future, to work for myself, become a better accountant, and gain more knowledge in all aspects of business. I feel like there is only so far I can go in what I am doing now.

Everyone I speak to thinks I am pure mad, to want to do this. All the ACA's / ACCA's that work with me in industry tell me the horror stories of practice, working until 11 at night, and the dip in pay I will take, the deadlines,

I think I still want to do it though. Has anyone been in this situation before?

I am in practice and trying to find out what is the best way to get in to the industry I am in my 40's by the time you setup the office and get good clientele base... Will it be time to retire? ðŸ˜. Powerfairy.. The pay won't be as good as you get in Industry( I don't
Know how much you are getting paid)

I am waiting for the P1 Auditing results , if successful move to P2.
Is the pay good in Industry? What is the future prospects...

Powerfairy

sunnyclare wrote: »

I am in practice and trying to find out what is the best way to get in to the industry I am in my 40's by the time you setup the office and get good clientele base... Will it be time to retire? ðŸ˜. Powerfairy.. The pay won't be as good as you get in Industry( I don't
Know how much you are getting paid)

I am waiting for the P1 Auditing results , if successful move to P2.
Is the pay good in Industry? What is the future prospects...

Hi there, the Pay is good in industry especially if your based in Dublin even at p1 level, u can expect to get paid well, future prospects is what I worry about that's why I wanted to get a practice cert to work for myself on the side, even just for a second source of income some day it might be needed, if you have kids etc and need extra income


I spoke to CPA last week to clarify everything and they said I should be able to do this in industry (get the experience for a practice cert) but only if I shadow just say for example a tax accountant, if I wanted to offer tax advice to the public, so two years post qualified experience working in the field you want to practice in, but obviously has to be well documented.
But if you want an audit cert you must work in practice with an auditor and doing that job for 3 years.

Future prospects in industry are moving on to be a finance manager or Financial controller or CFO depending on what you want or how far u want to go, sometimes it's hard to grow if the finance manager isn't going to leave your kind of stuck, at the same level, so you either move jobs to another company or stay where you are at a certain level and just accept that,

hope this helps, best of luck with exams I'm hope you get great results