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Afternoon All
I have been thinking about becoming a sole trader after I finish my ACCA qualification, however, the more reading I have been doing about it on ACCA website the more I start to think that I will have very little use of ACCA membership…
To put things into perspective, I have been working in Finance for around 5 years. I have worked in Accountancy Practice and the last 2 years have been working as a Finance Manager. After I qualify and become ACCA member, I will need to achieve the following;
1) three years of supervised experience with an ACCA approved employer – practising certificate development (general) stream – or an employer that would be eligible to register. You can contact ACCA Connect for details of Approved Employers or alternatively access the ACCA Approved Employer Directory
2) two years of post-membership experience. Only experience gained after admission to membership can count towards a practising certificate
3) Experience must be supervised by an appropriately qualified individual. The definition of this is set out in Appendix 1 of the PCEF Part 1.
4) the competences contained in the Approved Employer PCER confirmation form or PCEF. A member training towards the practising certificate must complete the PCEF part 1 and part 2.
My question is, what benefits do I actually gain from being ACCA member? Can I simply not become a member after I finish my studies and then start up my self-employed business? I am aware that I wouldn’t be able to sign off the accounts, or use ACCA anywhere within the paperwork.
HMRC provide an excellent AML service therefore I wouldn’t even need ACCA for that…
Also, can I still call myself Chartered Accountant if I do not have a membership? i.e. if I am applying for jobs can I say I have completed ACCA studies?
Many thanks
Norvydas
Hello again!
You will need a practicing certificate to be “in public practice” – e.g. preparing accounts/tax returns – not only to sign auditor’s reports.
To call yourself “Chartered” and use the designation “ACCA” you have to me a member – CPD is a requirement of membership and therefore it is in the public interest that those who use the services of someone held out to be Chartered/ACCA meets current professional, ethical and technical requirements.
You can call yourself an affiliate until you are admitted as a member. For membership you need to complete 3 years PER and EPSM https://www.accaglobal.com/gb/en/affiliates.html
Do see this webpage – you can be completing PER now (you may have already achieved some – you just have to write it up! See here in the FAQs https://www.accaglobal.com/pk/en/help/student-faqs-practical-experience-requirements.html, relevant work experience can count even before starting the ACCA qualification.You don’t need a practicing certificate to be employed in a firm of accountants/auditors – you should appreciate that of the huge number of ACCA members worldwide (more than 230k), only 25% are in practice and of those, only a small proportion are “Statutory auditors/Responsible individuals” who sign reports on behalf of their firms/practices.
Hi Kim
Thank you for getting back to me so quickly, it is much appreciated.
I have already completed & had my PER signed off, as well as the experience and the EPSM.
I am awaiting results for my last exam, if I pass then I should qualify as a member as all other requirements have been completed and appropriately signed off.
Does this mean that Step 1 and 3 of PC is completed? So I would only need to wait 2 years and complete PCEF Part 1 and 2?
My apologies for all these questions, I have contacted ACCA helpdesk but their answers are very vague..
Many thanks
Norvy
It isn’t a process that I have been through, so all I “know” is publicly available information from ACCA’s website.
Changes have been introduced from 2022:
https://www.accaglobal.com/an/en/member/sectors/smp/practising-certificates-and-licences/apply-for-an-acca-practising-certificate.htmlAll the guidance I can possibly give can be found on the above web page, for example, you will only have completed 1 if your PER has been obtained through training with an approved employer https://www.accaglobal.com/uk/en/technical-activities/uk-tech/in-practice/2021/December/changes-practising-certificate-requirements.html
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