Acca vs ca

Aditya,

Let me thank u for putting forth this question:

I myself am an ACCA with 2 final level papers left and am presently into the first year of audit experince. I do admire the way the Indian CA system for qualification, is structured. The three years, I believe, would give u a firm ground over the basic concepts befor u tak on ur final level papers. But the fact is Indian CA concentrates aptly in two specific areas- Audit and Taxation,, complemented by 3 rigorous years of experiance. But sadly it isnt good enough for a candidate intending to pursue a career in Finance or Consulting as soon as u r right off the CA prod line, as the course doesnt tests decision making skills of its pursuants and not close enough to test the practical aspects. Please do appreciate the time I have put in to come up with a reply, as I feel that someone might think I am blindly promoting a specific qualification.

ACCA, on the other hand, being an International course has structured its course for both full time students and working professionals, its flexible to the point, where a candidate is assumed to be mature enough to chose the area of his/her career and gain work experiance accordingly.

Such candidates may further choose the final papers to their choice too. Thus a candidate in favour of Auditing and tax consultancy career, may choose final papers- p6 AND p7 and opt out P4 and P5... besides the candidate gets to choose from a lot of variants for tax-.... etc etc, i.e the course provides u a lot of options for a global career and is purely student friendly and is apt for a career in Finance and consulting and also because its Internationally recognised, you get to become ur firm's global asset.

The above mentioned are general differances but i would lik to make my own observations.

1: Just compare the approach of an ACCA paper w.r.t indian CA final paper. Judge the quality by urself. Quantify on things that are asked- like ur own evaluations, the approach needed to be taken and proofs for such comments etc,, rather than stopping urself with just an numerical answer.Such an approach to testing a candidate would evovle them to think about a problem w.r.t various angles and improve their decision making skills.

www2.accaglobal.com/students/acca/exams/p4/past_papers

2: The course is regourously updated and even has Islamic Banking included along with its papers. Thus enables a candidate to be more aware of stuffs happening not just locally but beyond.

3: In Indian job market their exists a blind mentality favouring towards Indian qualifications like CA/ICWA, both are quite a good qualifications but i hope a day would come when qualifications are judjed purely by its standard rather than an artificially hyped one....

But it doesnt mean that ACCA hasnt its drawbacks.... an acca affiliate without experiance is as good as a blunt sword, but situations changing, thanks to a much liberal HR departments who tends to take the trouble to look out for quality.

But for u aditya, I would advice u to consider giving ACCA a shot once u r done with ur Final papers and ask around for opinions to recently qualified Indian CAs who have pursued ACCA thereaftr,,, listen to wat they have to say....

gud luck

thnx jose for giving such a detailed and well informative reply....can you please also tell as to what is the salary drawn by an ACCA in the indian job market???

thank u for the response,,,,

Adithya, to begin with, let me just point out that i am just 23yr old nw and am yet to see a fully qualified ACCA in person, just because a lot of them once clearing their final papers either move abroad in search of better prospects or move to Mumbai Pune or Delhi, as thats wer consulting and real hardcore finance related jobs are....

w.r.t Pay, they ought to be paid high....

hw I knw this, is from my networkin experiance via Linkedin,,,, The guys who move into consulting wud hav taken P4 and eithr P7/P5 as their advance ACCA papers and wud have coupled it with CFA L-1/2 and wud have a legal background too like Indian CS/ICSI's CS(UK)... so generally they r the sought of people u might bump into while in an Investment Banking firm or a boutique firm,,and mind u, Corporate Finance junkies whoo happens to be highly ambitious and relies on quality qualifications that helps them professionally than social status-wise....

So wat am trying to say is that, I cannot give a specific band under which u might look forward to choose this course in future,,,, mainly because there arent a lott of ACCAs around in India, Even if it is,,, they probably might be Affiliates(who hav compltd their paprs but yet to gain 3yr xperiance). The people I knw who hav done ACCA aftr their CA are in either Auditin at middle east/Singapore/U.K.....or in Finance dept at Middle east drawing somwer mor thn a crore p.a... in Indian currency,, but thats wat u get in Arab run enterprises,,,,,and tax free too....

So i will just answer how it wud benefit u, once u r done with ur CA and CS,,,,,these qualifications shall giv u a legal and accountin background,,,, then once shifftin over to ACCA and ICSI's CS, u just get internationally recognition nd mobility...... So this is considered prtty well in the consulting circles, but if u do other specific core Finance qualifctns like FRM or CFA( doin ACCA helps u prepar for CFA), wud make u undeniably attractive and i don think i need to put any salry band ovr here.. u mit even end up with director board offers.... so thats hw it is....... 

so i guess i responded in a way, more as hw u shud consider approachin ACCA as a choice for further  qual from the point of makin a good career than a mere salary band, which wud'n say everythin.....

regards

jose

.

sorry its not ICSI's CS its ICSA's CS---- the much acclaimed U.K version of India's CS.....

thnx again,jose...it's great to have someone knowledegable enough to give such great insight into the acca qualification.

all thanks to you bro for an oppertunity.....t.c

if someone is fresh b.com graduate..ca he or she go for ACCA.

is there any international chartered accountancy courses provided for students completed ca from icai (ie.,ca course which is accepted in every countries throughout the world).if any pls mention.

Titles of British accountancy qualifications[edit]

In the UK, there is no licence requirement for individuals to describe themselves or practise as an accountant (except for audit or insolvency work). However, to use certain titles and designatory letters requires membership of the appropriate professional body, thus:

• Bodies with royal charter
  • Chartered Accountants must be members of one of the following:
    • the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW) (designatory letters ACA or FCA)
    • the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) (designatory letters CA)
    • Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI) (designatory letters ACA or FCA)
    • a recognised equivalent body in another Commonwealth country (designatory letters being CA (name of country) e.g. CA(Canada))
  • Chartered Certified Accountants must be members of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) (designatory letters ACCA or FCCA)
  • Chartered Management Accountants must be members of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) (designatory letters ACMA or FCMA)
  • Chartered Public Finance Accountants must be members of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) (designatory letters CPFA)