Has anyone regretted starting ACCA?

I have not been happy with ACCA as a professional body, because I couldn’t get access to the contents I need for the job (e.g. model accounts under FRS 101, 102 and 105 frameworks) as a student member. The student members of ICAEW seem to get more support on these. The advice I got from ACCA was, get a manager who is a full ACCA member. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find one who was willing to help out, because the ones who were ever going to help me out were either with Chartered Accountants Ireland or ICAEW!

Also, no matter how much I look into the BPP books on FA and FR, I don’t seem to fully grasp the double entry, dealing with fixed asset disposals (for the preparation of the financial statements under FRS 102, I often need to separate the cost and depreciation element, but a lot of TBs exported from the ERPs ‘clump’ the two, which gives me a headache when trying to reconcile the Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Account in respective disclosure notes).

The irony is, I have passed FR on my first attempt.

Part of me wish that I had started with AAT (Association of Accounting Technician)’s Bookkeeping levels, because I seen to be the kind of person who has to start from the very beginning to understand something. Having started in the middle (financial accounting) seems to have messed up my head completely.

And then self-fund exams for ICAEW, Chartered Accountants Ireland or ICAS exams if I couldn’t secure the training contract with employers initially, and get the practical experience requirements sorted thereafter if needed.

If I had passed all the exams with ICAEW, ICAS or CAI, I would have qualified for the exemptions any way apart from Strategic Professional as long as I pay for them, and get the PER sorted if I could not get a training contract that is suitable for ICAEW, ICAS or CAI thereafter (but sufficient for ACCA). Then request to switch membership back to ICAEW, ICAS or CAI if required.

I regret having registered with ACCA, because I was lured by the exemptions it offered that I could not get with the three other bodies.

Do anyone else think of something similar? I am kicking at myself on the sunk costs.

Seriously, careers advisors should tell 16 – 18 year olds that you will need to pay for annual subscriptions even after passing all your exams, and what kind of exemptions are available in each accounting bodies, and whether it is wise to take them up or not depending on your circumstance.

This is all assuming that I was bound to become an accountant. Another part of me wish that I should have done computer science which does not require annual subscriptions to waste on.