Accountancy Qualifications

uncommonadvice

What is the "easiest" Accountancy Qualification to get in the UK?

jessicamb

None of the worthwhile ones are particularly easy - ACA/ICAEW is probably the hardest to achieve, CIMA/ACCA then the next. AAT is the precursor to these qualifications if you dont have a direct entry route or want a none chartered role. I dont think I would consider anything else except maybe CIPFA if you were working in public services.

If you want something easy then I strongly suggest trying something else - its a minimum of three years hard slog to get qualified and you can pretty much say goodbye to any chance of a 35 hour week if you want a career.

All those qualifications will require work experience too so if you are not already in a finance role you will need to get into one, sooner rather than later.

TEDDYRUKSPIN

None of them are easy! It is crazy to say easy. ACA / ACCA / CIMA all require you to work for an accountancy firm for 1 year or gain experience to finally qualify.

CIMA is hard! Much harder than ACA / ACCA due to the management part. I have heard that many fail it as much as 3 times. The average pass rate is only 53% for most students and that the pass mark is 50%.

ACA is probably the best, if you want to be a chartered accountant and want to work abroad. Otherwise ACCA.

None of them are easy.

CIPFA is another ball game. Neither easy.

Any

TEDDYRUKSPIN wrote: »

CIMA is hard! Much harder than ACA / ACCA due to the management part.

That is the first time I've ever heard anything like that! My boss is CIMA qualified and he says that it was much easier than ACCA.

Also with CIMA you can ever only be management accountant, where with ACCA you can be either management or financial accountant...

Also ACCA is recognised qualification worldwide. You can work abroad with no problems.

ACCA also have management papers - and those are extremely difficult.

I don't know about any "accounting" qualification that is easy... you can be a bookkeeper and take bookkeeping course, but that is not an accountant.

OP What do you want to do??? to be an accountant you have to take proper exams. But if you want to just keep your own books you don't need to be chartered accountant.

Any

This is from PwC official...
Everything really depends on what do you want to do:


CIMA:
This is a quite a large international accountancy body.
CIMA is a qualification focussed on management accountancy and therefore industry based careers. It is excellent in this respect. However, CIMA is restrictive. It does not offer the chance to work in practice and do audits. It is only fit for management accountancy in industry and does not give much emphasis at all to audit and tax in its syllabus.
ACCA:
Firstly, it is the largest international accountancy body.
ACCA has a comprehensive syllabus and allows you to become anything you want in the accountancy profession (from Finance Director to Audit Partner).
It is also the only accountancy body which allows specialisation in its exam structure. Allowing you to take options focussing on management accountancy (as in CIMA), or more tax and audit papers, or both! This is an excellent and recent innovation.
You can also argue that Financial Directors in Industry should be aware of tax and auditing issues (which ACCA covers comprehensively), as well as management accountancy. It is highly respected internationally and represented well in all the sectors (public, practice and industry).

TEDDYRUKSPIN

Any wrote: »

That is the first time I've ever heard anything like that! My boss is CIMA qualified and he says that it was much easier than ACCA.

Also with CIMA you can ever only be management accountant, where with ACCA you can be either management or financial accountant...

Also ACCA is recognised qualification worldwide. You can work abroad with no problems.

ACCA also have management papers - and those are extremely difficult.

I don't know about any "accounting" qualification that is easy... you can be a bookkeeper and take bookkeeping course, but that is not an accountant.

OP What do you want to do??? to be an accountant you have to take proper exams. But if you want to just keep your own books you don't need to be chartered accountant.

Correct. CIMA, you can only work for institutions and ACA/ACCA, you can go self employed.

Just to rephrase from the above, none of them are easy.

CIMA has got more difficult now. Due to the previous years easy pass rates, they made it much more harder to obtain.

From the above, before you even start any of the above, you must know what area of work you want to go into! Also, I would always suggest working for a firm first! Benefits include - they will pay the tuition fees!

keigcf

Not all will pay fees, some will not even pay you for the time off!

Any

TEDDYRUKSPIN wrote: »

Correct. CIMA, you can only work for institutions and ACA/ACCA, you can go unemployed.!

??? Sorry, don't get you.

TEDDYRUKSPIN wrote: »

Just to rephrase from the above, none of them are easy.!

No, they are certainly not for not academicaly talented people.

TEDDYRUKSPIN wrote: »

From the above, before you even start any of the above, you must know what area of work you want to go into! Also, I would always suggest working for a firm first! Benefits include - they will pay the tuition fees!

Completely agree that you have to decide what you actually want to do. Otherwise you will never collect enough strenght to pull yourself through the exams and practice modules.

Some companies won't pay, some will pay... depends how good you are as a character really! No qualification gives you instant job, but good qualification combined with good personal character is 90% of success!

BTW-I did my first level myself before I got a job and then got a company to support me. Nowadays it's very difficult to get a job without ANY qualification OR knowledge in finance..

456789

Yeah getting a job is the difficult part these days

So I am likely to have do some exams by myself - do you guys think this is a good idea? Will it give me a big advantage over other candidates? (I guess some companies might prefer their candidates to start afresh and do things their way?)

Also even if I pass the exams I will still need to get the 3 years experience signed off - things are so not good atm jobwise

Also distance learning or going to classes(more expensive)?

How do firms feel about taking people on who have passed the exams but don't have much work experience? (Do they see it as a benefit that they don't have to give them time off to go to college and sit exams?)

Any

456789 wrote: »

Yeah getting a job is the difficult part these days

So I am likely to have do some exams by myself - do you guys think this is a good idea? Will it give me a big advantage over other candidates? (I guess some companies might prefer their candidates to start afresh and do things their way?)

Also even if I pass the exams I will still need to get the 3 years experience signed off - things are so not good atm jobwise

Also distance learning or going to classes(more expensive)?

How do firms feel about taking people on who have passed the exams but don't have much work experience? (Do they see it as a benefit that they don't have to give them time off to go to college and sit exams?)

From my own experience, if you do few exams yourself (I mean pay yourself) that shows extreme amount of dedication and it does qive you big advantage. I was told the only reason I got given my job was that I gave that impression due to the fact that I paid for the exams myself and did them in my own time.

For me it was only one choice really - I am going to the classes. I know it is much more expensive, but my audio memory is much better then my visual memory and I can fall asleep within an hour looking into an accounting book.. :rotfl:What I hear I remember much better and also if you don't understand anything you can ask straight away rather then get confused and then loose a track. I need the interaction with the tutor to keep me focused.

Some people don't need that - they are better with books. It depends... but it is lot of material to cover and for me, 1 day at college means the same as 5-7 evenings with the book... So I pick 1 day at college any day.

donglemouse

456789 wrote: »

Yeah getting a job is the difficult part these days

So I am likely to have do some exams by myself - do you guys think this is a good idea? Will it give me a big advantage over other candidates? (I guess some companies might prefer their candidates to start afresh and do things their way?)

Also even if I pass the exams I will still need to get the 3 years experience signed off - things are so not good atm jobwise

Also distance learning or going to classes(more expensive)?

How do firms feel about taking people on who have passed the exams but don't have much work experience? (Do they see it as a benefit that they don't have to give them time off to go to college and sit exams?)

speaking as a chartered accountant.........

plenty of sensible comments already but something else you might want to consider is (depending on background/experience) i would think trying to do all the exams without any practical experience to back it up will be tough, not impossible but without the practical experience to help reinforce your learning it will be a tricky task

perhaps someone who did the exams without actually working practical exeperience could comment further