can anyone tell me whis one is the best qualification for account because as far as i have seen there to many different of the such as acca,cima,aca,icew...............................................................
there's a pecking order but there's a lot of factors to consider before deciding which body is best for you.
Top of the tree are chartered accountants (ACA's). Those being ICAEW / ICAS / ICAI (being the equivelent bodies for England & Wales, Scotland and Ireland respectively).
CTA can be thought of as a similar level to an ACA for those going down the tax speciality route.
Next level down is ACCA (Chartered Certified) and CIMA. ACCA covers both financial and management accountancy in depth where CIMA is very strongly biased towards management accountancy but still covers a lot of the financial accountancy syllabus.
My personal opinion is that ACCA has the edge over CIMA espechially now that CIMA has left CCAB.
Next level down is IFA and AIA. IFA seem to have filled CIMA's shoes and it looks as though that one is a seriously improving qualification.
For people specialising in tax I would say that ATT is also at this level.
Next level down would be AAT and CAT. CAT I would say is more accounting theory preparing students to go on to ACCA where AAT is a technical qualification preparing students ffor the workplace.
And coming in as the foundations upon which everything else is built are ICB and IAB which are predominantly bookkeeping qualifications but at higher levels cover the same sort of material as AAT.
Often there is crossover between qualifications such as ACCA people converting directly to ICAEW, or CIMA to ACCA, etc.
I haven't covered all of the qualifications / bodies but think that I've hit most of the basics.
Sure that others will put me right if I've led you astray with any of the above.
kind regards,
Shaun.
P.S. Once you decide the level that you are interested in don't forget to check the restrictions that being a student with that body will place on you.
P.S.2 both of the crossover routes that I mention above have now been stopped.
-- Edited by Shamus on Thursday 5th of January 2012 07:30:54 PM
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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.
in status, chartered (ACA) is definitely top of the food chain.
To become an ACA you need to be on a training contract with a firm of chartered accountants.
To become Chartered Certified (ACCA) you can do all of the exams before finding a suitable position (which is often the only option).
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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.
Sorry, really don't know. I do my papers by distance learning rather than attending courses.
I do know that the London School of Business and Finance (LSBF) are really well thought of as training providers for ACCA.
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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.
thank u very much i have looked at lsbf they run classrom studies however not as many hours as i expected.westminister university is cheaper and they offer more hours classroom studies.i dont really wish to do any online study or distance learning due i am not used it.... could you recommend me any book for acca studies? many thanks
