Every year, practicing Chartered Accountants (CAs) have an enormous task of managing their clients various compliance deadlines. Apart from regular compliances, CAs are greatly concerned about preparing for a hectic audit season and handling the rush. They are usually beleaguered with a host of operational problems such as, task prioritization, resource allocation, finalisation processes, last minute audit rush by clients, and use of multiple tools to conduct and manage audits.
Apart from these, a decreasing ratio of practicing CAs and inadequacy of CA articles to carry out audit activities are creating a huge resource crunch for practicing CAs, in the wake of ever-increasing compliance requirements & its stringent demands.
As per the recent statistics, over the past decade, 90% of qualified Chartered Accountants have opted for jobs and just 10% opted for practice. This is a complete reverse trend compared to 1980s, where 80% of qualified CAs opted for practice and the rest 20% opted for employment. Experts suggest that by the year 2020, the situation would have stabilized with practicing CAs being 20% and the rest 80% being employed. (Source The Economic Times)
Also, if we look at CA member statistics from the past three years, the average ratio of New Practicing CAs to New CA Members stands at 30%. (Please see the Chart below)
(Source ICAI)
Also, CA article students are at the peak of examination preparation that leaves CAs with an impossible task of looking for a stop-gap arrangement.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) iterated the need for stringent monitoring, fair practices, and quality checks & control in the advent of national and international accounting scams; the major example in India being the fraud at Satyam Computer Services in 2009.
Also, a bill was proposed stating the formation of National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA), which if implemented will super cede ICAI in terms of setting accounting standards and taking disciplinary action against auditors.
With such ongoing and upcoming challenges in practice, it becomes completely necessary to adopt a relevant technology that leads to competent practice standards and better compliance.
Understanding these set of challenges that CAs face in their practice, Tally Solutions introduced an audit& compliance tool, Tally.ERP 9 Auditors Edition (AE). The aim is to bring technology in the hands of CAs to enhance their practice substantially and empower their audit staff thereby reducing time, and cost.
Over 28000 CAs across India have acquired our audit tool as on date, providing them a rich and enhanced audit experience. CAs who have used the audit & compliance tool felt an increase in effectiveness and efficiency of their practice and concluded their audits with a thorough audit conviction. They saw a considerable reduction in audit lifecycle, less time in finding exceptions, increased audit quality, organized classification & distribution of audit tasks to audit resources, and optimized utilisation of audit resources.
Various training initiatives viz. ICAI Chapter events, CA Article camps, and CA students training are in operation by Tally for practicing CAs, CA article students and budding CAs respectively. Training to CA article students and budding CAs creates awareness of more technology-driven options to choose from, in their initial career-phase. Also, practicing CAs benefit from ready-availability of skilled audit resources with minimal training requirement thus saving time and cost.
Overall, Chartered Accountants are able to manage their audits in a much streamlined manner, enabling them to conduct efficient audits and broadening the scope of their practice. With ever-changing compliance needs, Tally consistently strives to upgrade and deliver necessary audit & compliance tools for CAs, and walk an extra mile to see them happier!
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