ACCA or CIMA?

[mickle]

My boyfriend has been a member on this site for years and suggested it as a good place to air my dilemma.

Basically, I have just completed my AAT and dont know where to go from here. The difficulty is, I have no accounts experience. I work for a bank in management and have studied as a distance learner for 3 years. The job market hasn't been kind to me and I have been unable to get so much as an interview for a relevant accounts position. I therefore don't know which route i want to go down and where my strengths shall lie. I want to continue studying before I get used the time off and become lazy with it.

Relevant advice is greatly appreciated!

Regards,

Michal.

[cailean]

ACCA is more aimed at financial accounting and CIMA at management accounting. They are both very good but, as an FCCA myself, I would say that ACCA would give you better longer term career prospects. However, it does depend on your strengths and aims for your career. Have you tried applying to small or medium sized accounting firms? They are most likely to hire you to study ACCA and work/train with them. CIMAs normally study while working at companies, especially manufacturers. Of course you can do both studying full time but then you will be at a disadvantage when you finish either as you will have no relevant experience.

Studying and working is hard but you will get the best mix of experience and will get a better grasp of what you are studying by, hopefully, seeing it in the real world and being able to learn from more experienced staff.

If you join an accounting firm you should be exposed to a number of clients, who all will have different systems, businesses, personalities etc, so it should not be boring or repetative (which it can be if you are in a company doing the same thing every month).

CW

[Eric Mc]

An FCCA here as well and would echo everything that has been said in the previous post.

[Countdown]

Hi

Another FCCA here. The only thing I would add perhaps is that ACCA is much more wide ranging than CIMA. I covered more Audit and Personal Tax than my CIMA colleagues. I would definitely recommend ACCA over CIMA and CIPFA.

[cailean]

True, also as an ACCA after qualification you will probably have more scope for varying specialities e.g. you could move into tax, stay in audit, industry, corporate finance, insolvencies etc etc

[pugwash4x4]

CIMA qualified here- ACCA wouldn't have worked for me- i had no interest in being an "accountant" per se, don't want to do tax, audit or anything else. For me accountancy was a route to enhance managerial potential within industry and manufacturing. That's not to take anything away from ACCA- its a brilliant qualification, but it wasn't for me.

You really would do well to get some experience either within industry or within an accountancy firm to see what you like.

[vxsmithers]

CIMA qualified here too - the thought of doing audit would have sent me into a coma. Post enron it is harder to use CIMA to get to FD positions, but not impossible as ACCA focuses more on controls than CIMA does.

Both are pretty inter changeable really as you can always bolster knowledge with more courses etc. I know plenty of people who have either qualification who sit side by side doing the same jobs (multi nationals rather than small business)

[Eric Mc]

I hate audit too - always have.

For most small practicioners, like me, audit is not really someting we ever have to do.

[Countdown]

I dislike audit too However as an FD in a medium-sized company it's good to have an understanding of internal controls to make sure that nothing dodgy is going on and to have some kind of internal audit expertise on-site if you don't have a specialist team. Its also useful to know how external audit works so that you can plan and prepare for it.

I think of ACCA as a "jack of all trades" whereas the others (CIMA, CIPFA, ACA) tend to specialise a bit more.

[Eric Mc]

Just because I don't like it doesn't mean I haven't had to study the subject and use it practically in my career.

It is very useful to know and understand what auditing means and what it can and can't do. It also alerts one to the various "schemes" people can set up in order to hide, mask or camouflage their activities in a business.

[cailean]

I am still in audit and have an interesting client base that has sent me to some interesting countries. I am an audit partner in a medium sized firm so, as no one else still does audit, if you are looking to change your auditors, please let me know...

[Eric Mc]

None of my clients need or want audits. I would reckon that 90% of limited companies that do not need a statutory audit make use of the exemption from audit.

[mickle]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Do you think I could study towards the ACCA whilst i work full time, in a non accounts role? As i said, things aren't looking promising but I move to Nottingham, from Leicester, next week and am hoping there are more opportunities there for me.

Regards.

[Countdown]

mickle said:

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Do you think I could study towards the ACCA whilst i work full time, in a non accounts role?

Yes and no

You could do the studying and pass the exams without necessarily working in a finance role. However the two aspects (working in finance / studying finance) do tend to support each other.

One other thing (and it may have changed since I qualified) is that you need to be signed off as "competent" in practice in a number of finance areas by a qualified accountant. I think when I qualified I had to have

All 5 management "competencies" signed off
10 out of 15 "key competencies" signed off

You won't be able to get these signed off unless you;re working in a finance environment. Once you have passed all your exams you will be classed as a "passed finalist". You will then have a limited number of years to get all your competencies ticked off before you are accepted for full membership.

That's how I remember it, things may have changed since 2001. You might find the following link useful.

http://uk.accaglobal.com/

[uuf361]

FCCA here too, and never done any accounting in my life nor do I want to......audit is my game, well now fraud instead (not committing sadly).....think it gave me a rounded education.

Brother is CIMA and it works him being an analyst, so depends on where you want to go ultimately.

I studied whilst holding down a full time job, but I was young and had fewer responsibilities than now.

[cailean]

As countdown said, you can but you need the training experience signed off in order to become a member of ACCA and use its letters after your name. You could always start off in a non-accounting/audit job and start studying ACCA but I would recommend you continue looking for a more suitable job and change ASAP. The exams are tough and will be even harder if you are not working in an accounting environment.

[cailean]

Eric Mc said:

None of my clients need or want audits. I would reckon that 90% of limited companies that do not need a statutory audit make use of the exemption from audit.

Agreed, having the audit exemption limit makes great sense for the vast majority of owner managed businesses. It also helps auditors concentrate more on medium/large/quoted companies that do need or want an audit. Most of my clients are medium sized companies or groups of companies or AIM quoted companies and their shareholders value an audit (well not all of them...), especially if the shareholders are not directly involved in the business.

[northandy]

I'm MAAT and an ACMA

I did cima as i didn't want to get into audit or full on number crunching, it's worked for me as I've worked in manufacturing and cima gave me what I needed to do the job justice, I have mates who did acca and have also done well.

I would think you would be better trying to get a job in finance while you study, you may struggle as a qualified accountant without experience.

[hornet boy]

mickle said:

I move to Nottingham, from Leicester, next week

Not quite answering your question, but I highly recommend Kaplan in Nottingham.

[vxsmithers]

northandy said:

I would think you would be better trying to get a job in finance while you study, you may struggle as a qualified accountant without experience.

This ^^ - no-one will touch you if you are qualified with no experience. Unless as a junior, and even then I'd question hiring someone qualified with no experience.

didn't realise my flippant comment about audit would cause so much debate

I'd concentrate on getting a job before starting to study, the two go hand in hand, especially when you go to get signed off (as others have said). Plus the company will pay for your study which can cost a suprising amount every year.