Be proud of ACCA

Why would you want to do ICAEW (aca) after ACCA?
you can do the same jobs irrespective of which qualifications.
there is very minor difference between them.
the main differences are that aca you do not have option to focus in working in Industries or practice, therefore you have to do all 15 Papers (including the case study exam). all three final papers have a bit of management, tax, corporate reporting, auditing and financial management.
Besides the final stage exam cannot be done if you are not doing the work related experience.

With Acca you do 14 out of 16 papers (no case study exams), the final 4 papers you have the option to specialize two areas. these area are:
e.g Option 1 -Paper P4 and p5 which are for those who work in
– Financial management
– Financial accountant
– Management accountancy
– financial/business analyst.
– Risk management
etc
this option is usually chosen by those who work in industries (business/companies) or want to be management consultants in future or specialist working in such area in practices.

Option 2 – Paper P6 and P7 are for those who work in:
– Audit and assurance
-internal Auditors
-Tax accountant /advisers
-Financial accountant
-Risk management
-professional engagement
-etc
this options is usually chosen by those working Practice like auditors, tax advisers etc.
a mixed of the four option papers can give you more option depending the area you are working/specialize.

E.g another option could be P4 and P6 when working in multinational/ big company with a big treasury function or banks that have departments that provide Tax and financial management advice to clients.

The Acca program is design for student to have a very flexible approach to there career, with the help of experts in businesses, shareholder, students and mostly importantly partners/seniors in big accountancy (including the big 4) who most of them are ICAEW members.
The Acca project is to make both an all – rounder and and specialization in the final level of your professional studies. this is because as a professional accountant, you do not have to be a specialist in all accountancy fields.
well i do not know any accountant who is a management accountant, a tax accountant,an Auditor and financial manager at the same time or in all their career. some focus in one other two. so acca lets you focus in two at a time with the option to change field/career in accountancy
also to remove bottleneck and frustrations faces by students in getting qualified. e.g Cima and Icaew student are so frustrated by unnecessary requirements,
say aca you cannot do the final stage without complementary working experience. not all student have the opportunity to have work related experience that easily, especially during their studies.
cima students ( I do not know whether they change) but it was even difficult to have a certificate after passing all exams (unless you achieved the required experience), so student were frustrated by such thing because when then go for an interview with acca student ,the acca student provide certificate of what the have done while the cima qualified have to pill up loads of loose papers and try to explain what they achieved.
Remember guys that what am saying is not a criticism of icaew or cima because no one in their right mind can be little cima or aca (and acca for that matter) as they are all an excellent qualifications i have high respect for those who hold the memberships/affiliate. the difference am saying is effect of the red tape.

My point here is just to help student clarify this issue of crossing carpet from one professional body to another. belief me no one of them is better than the other.
this absolutely waste of time especially Acca student asking for exemption for aca. this is a waste of time.
-Cima and Acca makes the best Management Accountant in my opinion (as you can specialize in this area) Icaew have too much tax not need for management accountant so do not waste your time.
-Icaew and Acca are the only option if you want to be tax accountant and/or auditor because Cima member are not allow to do external Auditing and Taxation
-if you live outside The UK Cima or Acca is for you because Aca focus on UK tax (as far as i know) but acca is global, you choose the tax Paper that applied in your country if available, other wise you can choose another option paper.
-In UK the Icaew and acca do the same job and cima does what it does all over the world.
-so if you are unsure of what u want to do Acca is for you, because when you reach the final stage you chose the area you want, less papers to qualified and have the same post qualifications options open to you just as for Cima or Icaew members

But once you do Acca you do not need to cross membership to cima or Icaew by Acca have covers same topic required for the professional accountant. say doing 6-8 cima papers to be a management accountant or doing Icaew to be what???. with acca if you want to be management accountant of financial manager(CFO) all you need to do is p4 and p5 and if you want to be and Auditor and tax accountant is do Pb and P7.event after qualifying you can do it. just one paper with Acca not moving to another professional body. stop wasting your time. if you want to move to management Role (e.g CEO) Acca have got a very prestigious global MBA for it’s member recognize worldwide.

if you work in finance, financial institution, MNC’s treasure departments or becoming CFO, Acca have agreements for it ‘s member to have direct memberships without sitting any exam or with few exams. e.g the Association of corporate treasurers.

otherwise an acca can specialize in any form of Profession accountant. you can always do any of the option papers during your career, say if you qualified as management accountant or financial manager, when ever you want to do auditing or tax advice you can always sit the exams to qualify.
A good example is acca member who do not do P6 option. if you want to cross to Aca because you want to do tax, aca will ask you to do 5- 6 papers. to much!!! just call acca and do one Paper p6, bang you are qualified to be a tax advise, this is not because acca is offering lesser knowledge, no. that’s not the case.
As an acca you have studied all the rest you need to know in the skills paper F6, so P6 is advance topics and to fills in the gap to comply to requirement to be tax accountant. but with Icaew you will have do re-do corporate reporting, business analysis, audit and assurance which you have done with Acca to the same standard already, so you do not need that. this is the political bit between the professional bodies.
-if you are Icaew or cima and want to do acca you must do all the professional level ( 5 papers with 3 years working experience) to be acca member. what?????
if you are acca and want to be icaew member, if you did p7 and p6 you need to do 3 papers only. if you do not do p6 and p7 then you have to do 5 papers.(with working experience along side doing advance papers)
Dose that mean that acca is is superior to aca, no way. this is because two things i said earlier.
1. politics,
2. Acca is more focus than aca who try to all at once. that’s why you do lesser papers with acca and during you choice of career you can do anything else you wish. say if you are not working in tax, acca allows you to opt out of advance tax paper as it is just a waste of time to qualify from acca perspective. whenever you need to do it, it’s always open for you. just one paper extra to sit.
Fellow student stop wasting you time and confusing yourself.
A student just told me on the chat forum that she has finished all acca papers and now think of doing CFA. what a waste of time. CFA have lots of paper and no exemptions are given at all and even you will have to do papers like financial reporting/analysis etc. for god same you a qualified professional accountant an Acca for that matter. all you need To do is to concentrate on your practical experience requirement(PER) to be acca member. if she want to be Cfa, she had really wasted her time.
Although i will have to admit that some student that work in small Icaew register firms are being frustrated by their partners/seniors.( if what they said is true) according to some students these partners tells them they have to leave acca and do icaew to be able to be partners in those practice. that is politics and unacceptable and unprofessional from my point of view.
ICAEW allows ACCA members to be their ICAEW member after five year of practical experience (as far as i know) i do not know of the allowance by ACCA for ICAEW members. so why those people doing that.
The Big four accountancy firm will recommend both acca and aca to their trainees and the choice is left to you the trainee. so in all of them you have both acca and aca student or members working side by side.
sorry for this long note and poor English grammar. all i wanted is to share ideas and help each in this process.
conclusion:
just choose 1 professional body and concentrate on passing papers and getting experience to be become members. but moving from 1 profession body to another is not wise and is a waste of time.
Icaew- superb qualification and excellence especially for tax accountants,financial management and assurance professionals
Cima- superb qualification and excellence especially for management accountant and financial management
Acca- superb qualification and excellence has the combination of both above, as you have option to specialist any area of you interest -Assurance,tax,management accountant,financial management.
just chose the one you want and you cannot and should not criticize any of them.
although i have my favorite but i did not mention because i think that is unprofessional. besides this note is writing specially in responds to acca student who are confusing them self of moving from one place to another. Acca Is as good as Icaew or cima.

if you not sure of anything you can ask, i will be happy to answer but equally i could be wrong. rectify me if am wrong.

JUST TO SO YOU WHAT RECRUITERS THINK ABOUT THE DIFFERENT ACCOUNTANCY BODIES SO LOOK AT THESE TWO JOB ADVERBS FOR MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTANT AND AUDITOR

INTERNAL AUDITOR:

A market leading media business is currently recruiting an Internal Auditor to join their highly regarded Internal Audit team based in London.

The position reports to the Senior Audit Manager who is based in the UK. The role is highly autonomous and you will get lots of exposure to senior managers across the business. The Internal Audit role sits at Group level, although you will be responsible for audits across the entire business, including all subsidiaries.

Key responsibilities include:
– Planning and completing detailed audit reviews across the business. This includes both financial and operational reviews, with an emphasis on operational audits
– An element of SOX compliance work across the group
– Involvement in special projects and investigations

The ideal candidate will have strong technical ability and must be a qualified accountant (ACA/ACCA or equivalent). My client is looking for candidates who have a solid understanding of accounting principles and internal controls. You will have excellent interpersonal skills, as well as the ability to build and develop relationships with key stakeholders across the business.

The business is truly international meaning there will be travel involved in the role. You can expect to travel in the region of 50% of your time – this includes Europe and Asia, as well as the UK. Projects vary in length; however you can expect to travel for up to 2 weeks at a time to long haul destinations, whilst reviews in Europe tend to be completed in 1 week.

MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTANT

Job Role
Accountant, Financial Accountant, Management Accountant, Part/Newly Qualified
Sector
Manufacturing/Engineering

Further information

We are currently looking to recruit a Management Accountant to join our team. Our company sources a wide range of innovative household products and also manufactures high value, blown film, extruded products which are predominantly supplied to the major retailers.

The position reports directly to the Financial Director and is responsible for the preparation of monthly management accounts, annual accounts and audit schedules, to reconcile VAT and other statutory reporting requirements, contribution towards the budgetary and other financial planning processes, management of the monthly stock take and other financial duties.

The successful individual is required to be Professionally Part qualified (CIMA, ACCA etc) or QBE, as well as having completed the above duties within a similar role. You must be comfortable managing a small team and working closely with departmental heads across the business.