I am seriously thinking about studying accountacy. I looked at options and i can,t really decide which route to take. AAT or shall I get The Certificate in Finance, Accounting and Business (CFAB) awarded by the ICAEW. Which would be more useful?
Attila
-- Edited by attilabenko on Thursday 13th of May 2010 12:07:37 PM
My plan is chartered accountancy and if i complete CFAB with ICAEW(what is possible to do in 1 year) it is an entry route and exemption to some modules to ACA(ICAEW). To complete CFAB no practical experience is needed. If I take the AAT route starting with intermediate it would be a couple of years and practical experience to fully qualify and then claim exemption with one of the accountancy bodies so the first one would be quicker and would give entry to one of the more prestigious bodies. What I don,t really know is as I would still need practical experience for the actual chartered accountancy studies with which route (AAT or CFAB) would I have more chances to get an employment qualifying as experience. Any advice would be greatly appreciated...
This isn't a route that I've looked at but I'm thinking that perhaps I should.
Even so, to move from CFAB to ACA you still need those elusive three years on a training contract!
I can't help but think that CFAB is a mid point rather than an end in itself.
Perhaps what you should do is take AAT then use the qualification to gain exemptions from almost all of the CFAB papers then you can have both qualifications.
Looking at the ICAEW site it seems that the AAT exemptions are :
Accounting
Technician Level Incuding:
Unit 5 Maintening Financial Records and Preparing Accounts
Unit 11 Drafting Financial Statements (APIC)
Assurance
Technician Level Including:
Unit 17 Implementing Audit Procedures
Business and Finance
Completion of Technician Award
Completion of Technician Award
Management Information
Technician Level Including:
Unit 6 Recording and Evaluating Costs and Revenues
Unit 8 Contributing to the Management of Performance and the Enhancement of Value
Unit 9 Contributing to the Planning and Control of Resources
Principles of Taxation
Technician Level Including:
Unit 18 Preparing Business Taxation Computations
Unit 19 Preparing Personal Taxation Computations
Which I think means that you would only need to take the Law paper to go from AAT to CFAB if you wanted the two.
It also it might be worth looking at which one places more restrictions on you as if I knew when I started ACCA what I know now I may not have taken that route... But then again I might have anyway as the ACCA qualification is about the top one that you can get without working in practice.
Like yourself I fully intend to get to chartered accountant although my route will be ACCA, two years in practice, convert to ACA via the reciprical agreement and have duel memberships.
I think that we should get membership of something just by working our way fthrough the minefield of qualifications!
Talk later,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Actually, an interesting thing about those exemptions is that for ACCA one has to pass paper P6 advanced taxation to be the equivalent of AAT units 18 and 19 to get exemption from the principles of taxation paper.
I would have thought that units 18 and 19 were the equivalent of ACCA paper F6 (one of the intermediate papers) which is now making me think that the AAT tax papers are probably a lot more difficult than I've been giving them credit for.
I might join you on the AAT technician leg as one can never be too skilled at tax.
Of course, that's also going to give you a route into ATT and from there CTA and CTA's are as sought after if not more so than ACA's.
Only downside to all this is that by the time we've got all of the qualifications it will be time to retire before ever making any actual money out of this!
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
You got the point there. By the time i get all qualifications i could retire....and yes we should be able to get some sort of membership just for working out the best option... I had this feeling I would be better off studying fot AAT but there is the time it takes and the costs. My main problem is the job i got would not qualify for training contract not even for aat so I would have to get a new job for this. If i take the cfab route i can get the certificate (cheaper than aat) in a year and start aca so i would save a couple of years of study and training. I still would need 3 years training for aca for what i would need a new job again and i am not sure with just a cfab i could get one. With AAT I need a training provider as well (hopefully with their new system not anymore) what i don,t really want to pay for, the wife already having problems with me spending lots on studies. My way of thinking is I will need a job qualifying for ACA/ACCA as this is the long term plan. To get this job i will need more qualifications. I know AAT is in favour with employers but I will very likely need a job within an accountancy practice and I thought if I would get a certificate from ICAEW it would be different to hundreds of AAT students around. Different but maybe not better? As Kraft Foods is closing its european head office (based here in cheltenham) and moving to Bournville there is going to be another 100 people looking for jobs in accounts related roles around here...annoying as they can,t dismiss 450 people from cadburys because everybody is watching them so they do job cuts on this way, nobody cares, they are not great british cadburys workers they work for the enemy Kraft.. :( sorry that,s just me moaning... Back to the subject, looking in to this CFAB thing I believe it is not really a qualification as such just a stepping stone to aca (no designatory letters,no icaew membership, no restrictions). It is just a certificate in finance, accounting and business. AAT is a qualification itself with all the well known advantages if you want to practice and being a well marketed qualification the employment potentials are very good. But still I am worried how many AAT students must be looking for jobs/training. And well I could start ACA/ACCA straight away but I did my studies in a foreign country so they don,t really count as A levels,etc. so this is not a real entry route for me.
fully appreciate your frustrations. I hadn't realised the one about Kraft Cheltenham.
Thinking back to a conversation that I had with Rob a couple of months back we touched on this subject of rarity value of qualifications.
Take a serious look at CTA. Its as well regarded as ACA and has a rarity premium. Probably from the perspective of how difficult it is to be accepted to take it.
However, if you pass ATT (not AAT although a lot of employers will read ATT as AAT on job applications!!!!) you can get onto CTA with exemptions.
Even ATT sets you apart from the crowd when it comes to getting a job in practice and in our business one can never know too much about tax!
Maybe once you've got a position in practice on the back of a tax qualification think about doing ACCA or ACA as your CPD?
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I did not decide what to do yet but I orderd the study books for CFAB's accounting modul which are the same books as for ACA professional stage knowledge level accounting ( in fact they say that on the cover,not CFAB). CFAB is in fact the 6 moduls of ACAs knowledge level. £25 for accounting study manual and an other book accounting question bank. I flicked them thru and they seem to be very useful if anyone is looking for level 2 or 3 ICB and they are not expensive at all. I think even if i decide to go for AAT they will be more than useful. I will wait for more info on AAT new syllabus. I do not want to pay for a training provider...There is still this thing of 1 or 3 years experience and as it has been said before lots of jobs for AAT even part qualified but not for anything else... I did not look for ACA part qualified adverts as yet but probably it is not easy either and to get a training contract for this, well with completed AAT maybe but without and no recognised degree that must be hard. I started to dream about getting one with PriceWaterhouse, they are just down the road in Gloucester but this most definietly will stay as a dream :(( Anyway I would recommend those books above for studies with ICB, that,s sure.
